Joshua Zukas is a Hanoi-based writer covering travel, architecture, culture, and innovation. He has written travel guides for Lonely Planet, Fodor’s Travel, and Ink Global, which produces award-winning content for the world’s biggest airlines. His architecture and design pieces have appeared in Wallpaper, Interior Design Magazine, Icon, and Frame. He also contributes intermittently to The Economist, BBC News, The Independent, and various other publications.

Prioritizing depth over breadth, Joshua writes almost exclusively about Vietnam, a country he studied at university and has lived in for more than a decade. He’s particularly at home writing stories that subvert people’s expectations about a country awash with stereotypes. This has taken him deep into the countryside where environmental activists and sustainable tourism projects conspire to preserve landscapes. He has covered centuries-old villages where artisans are modernizing their crafts in order to survive and thrive. And he makes regular trips to Ho Chi Minh City to report on Vietnam’s blossoming modern architecture movement.

Hue, the setting for his Hidden Compass story, is where Joshua first lived in Vietnam. He worked for Hue Help, a charity that focuses on two areas: improving the standards at a center for underprivileged children, and a survival swimming training program. Hue floods most years, damaging heritage buildings (like the one in his story), but also killing scores of young people. Drowning remains the leading cause of death in children in Vietnam, killing more than malaria, TB, HIV/AIDS, dengue, and malnutrition combined.

Joshua will be donating his share of the fundraising campaign contributions to the charity. This means that when you contribute to this campaign, you are not only supporting the journalism of Hidden Compass, but also Hue Help’s programs.