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