Tam Nhan Dao Que Huong

After getting lost many times and making numerous phone calls for directions, the driver finally took us to Trung Tam Nhan Dao Que Huong Hoi Cuu Tro Tre Em Tan Tat VietnamĐường ĐT 743, Ấp Tân Long, Xã Tân Đông Hiệp, Huyện Dĩ An Bình Dương. When we arrived, we were informed that the founder, Ms. Huỳnh Tiểu Hương, was at a hospital receiving cancer treatment. She left a letter asking for help raising the 323 orphans in her orphanage. They have 74 babies under the age of 1, 43 blind children from 8 to 18 years old, 13 mute and deaf children from 7 to 14 years old, 19 mentally challenged children from 3 to 16 years old, 73 developmental delayed children from 3 to 16 years old, and 101 children with other challenges.

Mr. Pham Van Bay, who volunteered to help Ms. Huỳnh Tiểu Hương while she was in treatment, told us that Ms. Huỳnh grew up on the streets. After being beaten, starved, and raped for most of her childhood, she was given a large sum of money by a Vietnamese man. With the money, she bought a house and started her own orphanage because she could not forget the suffering that she had gone through as an orphan.

When Mr. Bay opened a curtain of the first room, we were shocked to see at least 20 babies sleeping on a vinyl floor without any cribs or beds. There was only one caretaker, called “Bảo mẫu”, or “devout mother”, in this room. In the other rooms, we met many “Bảo mẫu”, some as young as ten. Mr. Bay explained to us that they rely on older children caring for younger children and babies because of the absence of funding from foreign agencies or the government. There are a few homeless women who had sent to this orphanage by the government.

When we entered the playground, we saw clothes spread out over any surface available, from the ground to play structures. They had been given to the orphanage by good-hearted citizens, but had been soaked by rain; therefore, they had to dry them in the sun before children could pick out clothes that fit them. He wanted people to know that they are looking for donation of clothes in any condition. He also asked for blankets, books, toys, rice, noodles, milk and diapers for babies, etc.

Since the orphanage cannot rely on donations to cover their necessities, they set up a small coffee shop and a hair salon at the front of the orphanage to make enough money to purchase milk and rice. There is also a small doctor’s room with limited equipment for volunteer doctors, who take turns coming a couple hours a day to care for the children.

They also set up a classroom with a few tables and books. Older children teach younger ones how to read and write. Mr. Bay showed us Braille workbooks donated by benefactors to teach the blind. He expressed his wish to have college students to come to Trung Tam Nhan Dao Que Huong to teach and play with their children.

See our previous blogs:

• Trung tâm Nuôi dưỡng Bảo trợ trẻ em Gò Vấp
• Chùa Kỳ Quang

Chua Ky Quang - Center for Disabled Orphans

We learned, after visiting many different temples, that disabled or special needs orphans are sent either back to the government or to certain temples such as Chùa Kỳ Quang at 154/4a Lê Hoàng Phái, P.17, Q.Gò Vấp. It was raining when we arrived at the temple, and we hurried inside, where we met the Thượng tọa (Venerable) Thích Thiện Binh. He told us that there are at least 250 orphans living in the temple. Thượng tọa Thích Thiện Chiếu founded the temple’s orphanage, when he found some blind children begging for food on the street. As time went by, more orphans came asking for shelter. In 1994, the government permitted the temple to accept and care for disabled children at its base. As the temple’s reputation grew, parents began to leave their babies at its gates, which is why so many children are in this one orphanage. Although they did not expect any donations from visitors, we donated money to them and any non-government/foreign-run charities that we visited, to show respect for leaders who have honorably dedicated their patience and time to these unfortunate children.

We had to walk through puddles of water before getting to the rooms of the disabled children. We did not expect to witness the wide range of disabilities that these children have: cerebral palsy, mental retardation, deformity, blindness, muteness, deafness, HIV, AIDS. There are 40 who are affected by Agent Orange, 110 blind, mute and deaf children, and the rest have cerebral palsy and/or deformities. There are about 20 children who are unaffected by these diseases and are put in a classroom and who sang welcoming songs to us when we stopped by.

When we entered the first room, we were immediately approached by a mentally-challenged boy who pulled us around to show us other younger sleeping disabled children, while laughing and stuttering words that we could not understand and pulling us in for hugs. A volunteer in the room told us that he was a boy who had been placed there at birth. A mute girl on a wheelchair kept calling us and showing us around the temple. There were rooms full of babies who were being taken care of by older girls and women. Despite its poor conditions, many local Vietnamese volunteers have come to stay in the temple and take care of many disabled children. They told us that they volunteered to take care of these children because they lost their own children or offered their lives to Buddha instead. It was a pleasant surprise to meet foreign students who came to play, teach, and help feed these children at the temple. Our study tour students will definitely be able to provide a helping hand to these disabled children when they come next year.

Go Vap Center for Cultivation and Sponsorship of Children, Saigon

We took a 3-week trip in June 2010 to the country of Vietnam, where we visited orphanages in Hanoi, Danang, and Ho Chi Minh City. There, we found four different types of orphanages: those organized by government sponsored by foreigners, run by temples, or established by private citizens. We also visited orphanages that had different orphans in them: those with severe birth defects, mentally and physically disabled children, ones separated by gender, and those that accepted any children that had been left at the gates.

The most devastating center that we visited was Trung tâm Nuôi dưỡng Bảo trợ trẻ em Gò Vấp - 45 Nguyễn Văn Bảo, P.4, Q.Gò Vấp. We were shocked when we saw how children with severe birth defects lived, and how many of them there were. In each of the three rooms that we visited (though there were others), we witnessed children, with heads bigger than their bodies, lying in cribs with their arms and legs twisted. We picked up children who responded to our touch. They were so happy to be picked up, because, except for feeding and bathing times, they are left alone in their cribs for most of the day. There were so many children with hydrocephalus, a disorder that pushes the baby’s skull to abnormally massive levels. Unfortunately, this orphanage has neither the money nor the ability to cure them. We did not know how to pick them up for fear of breaking their necks. It was heart wrenching to watch these children move their eyes or smile and attempt to wiggle their arms and legs like any other child. The staff in the room tried to soothe the crying babies by playing a recording of Vietnamese lullabies at full volume right next to their ear, but they only had one music player.

There are about 240 children whose age ranged from birth to 17 years old. In each room, there are about 20 to 30 children. They are separated by room by age. We asked if these children were victims of Agent Orange, like the people here, but did not get a clear answer. These children were left at and sent directly from hospitals to the center, so they had no birth records for any of the children. However, the staff suggested contacting hospitals for further information. The director, Ms. Ho Thanh Loan, of this center expressed her wish to have experts, such as Dr. Mary Connor and Dr Lisa Battaglino who are professors in Special Education department at BSC, train their staff and volunteers on how to care for these children. She also asked for equipment for physical therapy and to provide the children with the help and mobility they need. We left the center feeling hopeless and devastated.

View the slideshow at

http://s921.photobucket.com/albums/ad55/nguyenforvietnam/Go%20Vap%20Center/?action=view&current=e04176e7.pbw&t=1277022752