Relief Stories

LOONG HANG CLINIC (Lao)

In the opening ceremony of Loong Hang school in 2006, some people in the hamlets about 20-30 kilometers away from Loong Hang also came to join. Before leaving, they told us that their hamlets earnestly desired to be given a school and a water supply system like those of Loong Hang hamlet, because their hamlets were also extremely poor but had never been helped by anyone. People of Loong Hang hamlet dream of a health clinic to station health professional sent from the district to cure them.
During the construction of the school, we came to understand the aspirations of the villagers, and felt the urge to forward their earnest request to Ms. Dieu Lien.
There were only 8 of us (Vietnamese workers), therefore when necessary, we had to hire some Laotians to do such things as digging, leveling the ground, cutting timber, and roofing, in order to have things done faster. I did not know why those Laotian workers hammered the nails into the toile planks very softly. They were strong, but they stroke the nails softly as if they were exhausted. I kept asking them to hit the nails hard, but they still did very softly.
When I could no longer be patient, I asked why they did not strike hard, why they kept striking so lightly. Then, Thong Xa Vat, the head of Na hamlet, softly replied: “we are afraid of ghosts”.
I thought I misheard him, and asked:
- Why afraid of ghosts?
Thong Xa Vat explained:
- If we strike the nails hard on the tole, ghosts will come!
The Vietnamese workers burst into big laughters! The Laotian explained: “no problem if we strike softly, but if we strike hard, ghosts in the forest will hear the noise and come. And when they come, they will cause many mishaps. They will cause illness to villagers, and people will have to buy oxen, cows, pigs and chicken to offer the ghosts.”
No wonder whenever I hit the nails, all the Laotians there would stop working and look at me with such embarrassment and fear!
-Are there many ghosts? I asked
-So many ghosts! Thong Xa Vat said
-Have you ever seen a ghost?
-Not yet! He replied with a child-like naive smile.
Later, we knew that Loong Hang is not the name of a hamlet, but of an area; Loong Hang can be regarded as a big village. Loong Hang school is built in Na Buoc hamlet, which is adjacent to Hoi Phun and Na hamlets. Children from these 3 hamlets will go to Loong Hang school. Hamlets in Laos are administrative units, just like wards or communes in Vietnam. However a hamlet’s population is much smaller and sparser than in Vietnam.
Further down in Loong Hang are Vang Mu, Khon Than, Xuc Xam, Lang Chong, Phon Kham, and Pac Hang hamlets. They are about 5-7 kilometers away from each other.
One day, when passing by the house of the head of Hoi Phun hamlet, I saw him making something like a chicken cage. I inquired what he was doing, he said:
-Making the house for the ghosts
-You make the house for the ghosts, and where will you place it?
-Bring to the forest for them. At times we have to bring sticky rice and meat for them. Otherwise they will cause illness to the people.
The whole area has 9 hamlets, each of which has at least 30 houses and at most 52 houses. Totally there are around over 2,000 people. And yet the whole area does not have any health clinic at all. When getting ill, they have to invite the worshiping master to make offerings to the ghosts.
In case of serious illness and the worshiping master fails to help, the villagers have to bring the patient on a stretcher over 30 kilometers plus, through forests and streams, to the hospital of Phu Cut district. The villagers said, if they had a “Hong mo noi” (hong mo = hospital, noi= small in Laotian), they would be cured by nurses when getting ill, and they would not have to invite the worshiping master to make offerings to ghosts. In case the patient is too seriously ill and the nurses could not help, they would bring a horse out and ride in the doctor from the district hospital to save the patient.
Offering the ghosts (or “lieng phi” in Laotian language) is the custom and also the last resort of ill villagers. When I inquire about this, villagers explained that, when a person gets illness, minor or major alike, it is believed that the person must have done something wrong that displeases the ghost! The ghost therefore gets angry and makes them ill. If the illness is minor, actually the patient will recover after a while, but it is still believed that they get over thanks to their remorse and thus, the ghost forgives them. If their illness is serious and if all possible ways that have been tried do not work, they believe that the last hope may be to ask a worshiping master to make offerings to ghosts. Villagers said, whether the patient will get over or not, it is very costly to invite a worshiping master. For minor illnesses, the offerings must be pigs and chicken; for major illnesses, the offerings must be oxen and cows. After the offerings, if the patient does not get better, it means that the ghost is not yet pleased. If a patient does not get over after using some herbs or roots, he or she has to think of inviting the worshiping master. The offerings requested by the master are such a big burden, which is sometimes unaffordable to a family that is living only on wild plants and roots, self-sufficient in a place without trade or markets. The family sometimes has to borrow to buy a cow to offer ghosts, as instructed by the worshiping master. In “lieng phi”, villagers come together to drive the ghost away, and pray for the recovery of the patient. After that, the villagers eat; and the worshiping master himself can bring home a cow’s upper leg and 3 ribs, besides being full with food! Sometimes, the family even pays the worshiping master about 200,000-300,000 kip (around 20-30 US dollars). The master receives all those things and payment, whether the patient recovers or not. If the illness is not better, the master will rule as “this ghost does not eat beef; if you want a complete recovery, you have to offer ox meat”. A cow costs 3-5 million kips (about 300-500 US dollars). If the offerings continue without effect, the master will rule “this ghost is very superior; it refuses to eat beef, nor ox meat! So stop feeding it!” Then, the patient is totally up to his/her fate to decide.
Some families, only after trying the offering without success, brought the patient to hospital. Some people do think that it could have been better to use the money spent on oxen and cows for the offerings – “lieng phi” - for hospitalizing the patient instead. However, “lieng phi” has become a deep-rooted custom to the villagers, therefore it is hard to change their mindset. Moreover, since the district hospital is so far away and traveling is so difficult, they do not think of hospitalization at all.
In a rainy night, when we were sitting around a fire, a woman came in with a very young baby on her back and a torch in her hand. She was only 22 years old. She got married since 15, and by then she had got 4 children. She said she did not want to have any more baby, because life was so hard and that they could barely have enough food; but since “the husband was too good at sleeping with wife”, she kept having babies. She had asked an acquaintance to buy her anti-pregnancy medicines; and the acquaintance bought a bottle of medicine containing Progestin, an injection of which would work for 3 months.  She complaint that even using condoms did not work - her husband, seeing there was a redundant part at the tip of the condom, cut it away, and she was still pregnant!!!
If there is a “Hong mo noi”, the villagers plan to ask for medicines from the Government, so that their nurses can cure them. The whole Loong Hang has 6 nurses trained in Vientiane, but they do not have any health clinic to work in when returning to the area. Pregnant women must have their birth-delivery at home, because there is no health clinic at all. If possible, they will invite a nurse in, but if not, they will manage on their own. The woman would give birth to the baby at home, and then would use the vegetable-cutting knife to cut the umbilical cord! After the delivery, she may wash herself down in the stream immediately without any restriction, unlike in Vietnam.
It is already hard for a normal person to walk to the district over 30 kilometers through forests, over slopes and bypasses, and many streams; let alone for people to carry a patient on a stretcher. The motorbike I rode from Vietnam could only used by me to travel to Loong Hang; no other Vietnamese worker would dare to ride through that route. There are vertical slopes that I had to ride from afar to gain enough momentum to pass it, and sometimes I could only succeed after 6 attempts. I can manage to make my way to the area in dry season, but it is totally impossible to ride in rainy season, when rains come down and streams swell up. The villagers then live in total isolation from the outside world. Once, the stream water was so high that the water came to the exhaust pipe and the engine could not start, I had to use a plastic pipe and connected with the exhaust to ride through the stream.
After Loong Hang School was finished, 6 out of 8 Vietnamese workers stayed back in Xieng Khoang province to build houses for Laotians, only 2 planned to return to Vietnam. Knowing this, at times when some villager went downtown, people ask him/her to come to the Vietnamese workers and ask them to forward their wish to Ms. Dieu Lien and Ms. Diep Yen Binh for a “Hong mo noi” and a “Hong hien” (school).
We are now sending to Ms. Dieu Lien and Ms. Diep Yen Binh the earnest wish of these nice and miserable people.
The people here live in absolute poverty. In any hamlet, there are so many children without clothes, and dirty bodies like wild people! Adults also do not have enough clothes. When crossing a stream, they put off their clothes and tie them around their head, hide their sex organs with their hands and wade to the other bank; then they get dressed again. When they wash themselves in streams, even in the presence of both males and females, they will come behind bushes and put off their clothes, then they will hide which parts of their body that need to be hidden, and come down to the stream. After the wash, they come back to the bush to get redressed.
We once hired a driver to transport construction material from the town to the hamlet. The truck had to cross over 10 streams, thus it could only run in dry seasons, and certainly gave up in rainy ones. But the driver did not make any haste at all. He drove leisurely, even stopped by a stream, got undressed and came down for a wash; and he only departed after swimming indulgingly. No matter how hard we pushed, they kept their own pace. They promised to come and load cement at 8 am, but they still had not turned up in the afternoon, and sometimes, they turned up after 2 days! There is no use to get angry with Laotian people; no matter how we react – with scolding, shouting or blaming – they simply keep silent, and smile, and never argue back! Being with them for a long time, we become patient people!
They do not have different clothes to change, and those that have only one set of clothes do not dare to wash. Looking at the rags on adults and the bare children, even saints and gods would not be able to hold back their tears. I have met La, 45 years old only, but his back is hunched and his hair is dirty and messy as if he were in his seventies. La refuses to wash himself for 15 years now! Kham Thi, whom we call “Father”, thinking that he must be in his seventies since almost all his teeth have gone, turns out to be only 48!
In this area, people do not know of many things to do except chopping trees and digging soil to make fields for rice and corn. Their staple food is vegetable, moss in streams, and bamboo shoots in the forest. They even eat such insects as ants, termites, crickets, cicadas, cockroaches, mice, and snails. Sometimes, they come across a cricket and immediately eat it raw. Their ketch-up is made from the waste of cows or oxen. When they kill a cow or an ox, they take the sei-solid waste in the animal’s intestine, and then mix it with water into a liquid which will be boiled and filtered through a patch of cloth. The remaining grayish green liquid will be the ketch-up to go with their sticky rice or other daily food! If there is no sei-solid waste from cows or oxen, they use fish intestines instead. When Vietnamese workers first came here and ate this kind of food, all had diarrhea.
The villagers’ favourite food is a kind of broth made with moss and a few finger-sized fishes caught in streams, or ant eggs and wild vegetable. Their food is so simple. But they cannot do without chilies; all types of food have so many chilies. Even 2-3 year old children eat such hot food with adults; the chili is so hot that the children tear out, but they keep eating with no complaint at all!
The Laotian people are very hospitable. They usually invited us over to drink alcohol. They invited very solicitously, and everybody thought that the meal must be very gorgeous, because the owner had been preparing continuously from late morning, and only until complete darkness was the food served. But when the tray was brought up, there were only one dish – that was sliced green papaya mixed with cow-waste ketch-up and chili! Even patients are still fed them with sticky rice and chili salt; there is no other food. They do not know how to cook porridge, and feel surprised to see ill Vietnamese people eat porridge. They say that on average, every Laotian, including children, eats about 10 kilograms of dry chili a year.
Seeing us build schools and health clinics, the villagers expressed much affection to us. They usually visited us in groups and talked to the Vietnamese workers. Whenever they come, they always gave us some small gifts, for instance, some chilies, eggs; and sometimes, 2 small, round eggplants! Once, they came with one pack of instant noodle when we were eating; they poured so much boiling water in the noodle. Each of them just had a small sip, and the rest was given to the Vietnamese workers.
People here almost know nothing else to do except working in the fields. They are almost totally unfamiliar to the civilized world. Seeing anything strange, they all stop their present work and watch. Vietnamese workers are working and chatting at the same time, but the Laotians would stop working to hear whenever they want to listen to something. If they hear the sound of a flying plane, all Laotians would stop working, stand still with their face up to the sky until the sound is no longer heard.
When we mixed the mortar, the villagers gathered in big crowd to watch. They have never mixed mortar! We hired them to do the job, and all of them stood around to watch for a long time. Then, one of them came, tapped me on the shoulder and said:
-We do not know how to mix the mortar, please do it for us!
I told these stories to my sister. She smiled “Poor them! I must build them a school”. This time, besides the health clinic funded by BD Foundation, two schools will be built, each funded by Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu and my sister. A water supply system is given by Le Ba.
When the rainy season comes, there is enough water for planting. But there are countless mosquitoes and terrestrial leeches! Terrestrial leeches are similar to leeches. When hungry, it is as small as a toothpick, sometimes just as a needle. But a terrestrial leech can become as long as a chopstick and as big as a finger when it sucks blood to its maximum. Once, a Laotian washed his face in a stream and afterwards, his nose bled for the whole week; he at time felt sudden pain in his nostril. When he came to hospital, the doctor used an endoscopic equipment and brought out a terrestrial leech as big as a chopstick, 10 centimeter long! Life of terrestrial leeches counts in years. And they can have rebirths. A mature terrestrial leech can suck as many as 50 milliliters of blood per day. It creeps into an animal’s nostril, its anterior sucker sticks closely to the mucous membrane, and it lives on the blood and quickly becomes bigger. The terrestrial leech produces an anti-clotting enzyme that causes uncontrollable bleeding. More dangerously, it can creep from a person’s nostril down to his/her throat, choking the respiratory chord and consequently, the host person cannot breath.
My friend Thin once was caught wet when he went to the forest to check the wood. Returning home, when he got off his wet blouse, there was a thrilling sight to all people present there: a whole area on his back was black with sticking full terrestrial leeches! His armpits and other parts were also stuck with slimy full terrestrial leeches! We had to use a knife to get rid of those leeches.
Terrestrial leeches live mainly in forest streams and springs. In rainy season, they multiply and become intensively active. They remain motionless on tree branches and on the ground. When there are sounds of people’s steps, they erect to define the direction of the sounds. When the person comes closer, they flip themselves up slightly and stick to the person’s body and suck his/her blood unnoticeably.
Forest trekkers usually tie up their trousers and blouse sleeves, and wear tight socks. Still, the terrestrial leech can creep beneath all the clothes to suck their blood. During the time we built a school for Khon Than hamlet, we saw how a dog suffered from a terrestrial leech sucking blood from inside its nostril. It ran home with a terribly bleeding nose! Thao Xi made it lie on its back and used his wife’s eyebrow-trimming tweezers to take out a long terrestrial leech almost as big as a chopstick.
Upon such sight, in the evening, we workers usually checked each other’s nostrils with a torch lamp to see whether any terrestrial leech was dwelling inside!
Another pain in the neck in rainy seasons is mosquitoes. In remote hamlets like Loong Hang, usually there is no toilet at all. The villagers urinate and defecate in the forest. In such a passage, people encounter mosquitoes as crowded as bee. Most thrilling are anopheles. Many people get so serious malaria that their skin turns yellow and their body withers terribly.
By this year we have built a health clinic, 2 schools and 2 water supply systems.
The BD Foundation-funded health clinic was built in Na Buoc village. It has 5 rooms for out-patient (1), birth-delivery (1), medicines storage and medical staff (1), and in-patients (2). Each room has a chair, a desk and a single bed; each of the in-patient rooms has six beds. There are enough mats and blankets. This heath station is intended for 3 hamlets, namely Na Buoc, Hoi Phu va Na. However patients in other adjacent hamlets such as Vang Mu, Khon Than, Xuc Xam, Lang Chong, Phon Kham, Pac Hang, can also come here to be treated. Hamlet chiefs say that besides the 6 trained nurses, the district later will send one doctor here to help the people. But in the immediate, with the health clinic, at least the villagers are cared for and treated when they get common illnesses without having to buy cows for offerings by worshiping masters. From now on, pregnant women will give birth to their babies here instead of in their kitchen corners.
After completing the health clinic, we go on with Nguyen Huu Tan school in Khon Than hamlet and Duong Thi Hue school in Xuc Xam hamlet. The school-building program in Laos started with Na Khoi hamlet in 2005 (please see Phonsavan Say program). Then, villagers at other school-less hamlets came to forward their aspirations to EOCVN and BD Foundation for a school in each of the hamlets. By now, their aspirations have been realized.
Each school has three classrooms, which are built from wood, with tole roofs, wooden walls and cement floor. Each classroom has 10 pairs of desks and chairs for pupils, 1 blackboard and 1 pair of desk and chair for teacher.
Finally, there are two water supply systems donated by benefactors Ton Nu Le Ba and BD Foundation.
Goodbye and wish you the best of health,
Respectfully,
Phan Dang Hoe.

Costs for the program
1/BD Health Clinic in Na Buoc: 5 rooms for out-patients (1), birth-delivery (1), medicines storage and medical staff (1), and in-patients. (2)
Cost: US$ 7,200 (including labour costs, chairs, desks, beds and mats)
2/ Nguyen Huu Tan School in Khon Than hamlet: 3 classrooms built with wooden pillars and walls, tole roof and cement floor.
Cost (including labour cost, chairs, desks and blackboards): US$ 7,000.
3/ Duong Thi Hue school in Xuc Xam hamlet: 3 classrooms built with wooden pillars and walls, tole roof and cement floor.
Cost (including labour cost, chairs, desks and blackboards): US$ 7,000.
4/ Two water supply systems in Vang Mu hamlet: each system costs US$ 850, including one water tank of 6 cubic meters and a 1,600 meter long pipeline from forest stream to the hamlet.
The total cost for 2007 program in Laos: 22,000 US dollars and 1,000 Canada dollars.
 

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GRATEFUL SON,

The Sangxane has created good conditions for me, Dieu Lien, to come close to the poor people of Quang Nam province. This is the first time I have visited Que Long and Que Thuan communes of Que Son District. Mr. Le Van Dieu, the Head of the Buddhist Social Charity Board of Quang Tri province, and I came here to implement a programme for children with disabilities.
Mr. Dieu previously made contact and arranged our meeting schedule through some teachers who work on behalf of poor fellow-villagers. He also contacted the villagers’ local representatives earlier so that we could visit each of the families and give gifts to every child with a disability.
While waiting, teacher Tran Dinh Phuc told me about a student that he taught two years ago. He said poor students are countless, but there are faces and lives that he never forgets though they have left his classes for many years. Though we were now implementing a programme for children with disabilities, he said he still hoped that we could give some time to this student. Knowing that the student was so poor, sometimes he gave him some money. However, he could only help the student by giving him extra classes so that he could study better, which might give him an opportunity to earn a living later on. Following the introduction of teacher Phuc, and after visiting and giving gifts to 21 children with disabilities, we came to the appointment site to meet Nguyen Van Toan.
Our car headed for Que Thuan commune, Que Son district. Quang Nam province was pitch dark, though it was then just 7 p.m. It was raining incessantly and uncomfortably cold. Suddenly, about 3 or 4 people ran out and stopped our car. From them, we learned that the appointment site with teacher Phuc and Toan had been changed. Worrying that the opportunity for Toan could be missed if our car passed the new site, the female general supervisor of Toan’s present class, teacher Phuc, and fellow villagers had been waiting for us by the road to guide us to a coffee shop and meet Toan.

Among the people waiting in the coffee shop, I saw a single-eyelidded, dark-skinned boy, with his head lowered, his shoulders slouched, and his hands hidden between his knees. He wore a white shirt that had turned yellowish, with black cloth-mould dots, and a thin, short-sleeved yellowish-green pullover. This pullover was a gymnastic uniform, but he was using it as a “sweater” for winter.  I was compelled by my feelings and experiences to come and sit right by his side. I asked him: “Where’s your sweater?” He replied, “I don’t feel cold."  He was Toan, 15 years old, the 10th-grade student of Que Son High School that people wanted me to meet. Later on, the image of this slim, weak boy hidding himself in a thin gym pullover against the prolonged cold of the Central area returned to my mind many times. Upon returning to Hue , I phoned and asked teacher Phuc and Toan’s class general supervisor to buy sweaters and blankets for Toan and his mother.
The fellow villagers, both sitting and standing around two big tables, were so anxious to help him that they shouted noisily: “Tell her, tell her and she will help! You fool! Why are you closed as a clam!” They scolded him, seeing that an opportunity had come but he did not utter a word! People felt so bad for him but they had no way to help him.  Meanwhile, he remained still with lowered head, tears sliding down from the corners of his eyes. He buried his face in his arms and could not say a word. I tried to console him to ease his feelings.  However, understanding that he could not speak, I suggested: “If you don’t want to tell me, then when I have arrived at Hue , you will write me a letter, won’t you?” He replied timidly: “Yes."
Toan’s father had left his mom, his older sister and him. Working so hard to bring up the two small children, his mother became exhausted and developed a serious disease. Her epilepsy and serious asthenia has kept her bedridden for many years now. Poverty also drove his sister to marriage at an early age.  She reasoned that her leaving home would save food for the family. She gave birth to twins, bringing more wants and difficulties to the farming couple.
Every day, Toan gets up at 4 a.m . He cleans his mother’s whole body, then cooks porridge for her, and feeds her, which takes him a long time to finish, because she can hardly swallow. After that, he goes to school. At noon , he returns home and again, cleans his mom, cooks porridge, and feeds her. In the afternoon, he does the house chores, looks for food so that he can prepare porridge for his mother again the next day. After dinner, he reviews his school lessons for the next day’s class. I asked him, “Why don’t you cook all the porridge once a day to save time?” Toan said, “Mom can only eat warm porridge." Later I realised that this is true: there is much love in his porridge.  Actually, he hardly has anything to prepare porridge for his mother – with the monthly allowance of only 63,000 VND (or US$ 4) given by the commune authority to families of severely ill patient(s) and 40,000 VND (or US$ 2.5) by his sister. Having no money to buy anything, he has to spend much time and effort to make warm and liquid food so that his mother can eat. I looked at him and asked, “Why don’t you lose heart, living such a miserable life?” Still with his head lowered, he answered: “Because Mom gave birth to me, Mom has brought me up." Such a simple reason has given him extraordinary power to rise above every challenge and hardship that life casts upon his family.
The coffee shop owner and fellow villagers revealed that, earlier on when his maternal grandmother, who also suffered from paralysis, was alive, he had to care for both his grandmother and mother with a similar regime, i.e with two different bowls of porridge, one spoon for his grandmother, another for his mom, and again and again. The villagers told that when a Sangxane storm relief mission came to give rice for poor households, he silently came to receive the rice and cycled back home. He lives such a silent life, in which he strives to rise above himself. His silent act of paying gratitude to his mother touches the hearts of his neighbours. He never complains nor asks for anything from anybody. I hope that EOCVN benefactors will give compassion to Toan, who is in such a plight.
I suggested to teacher Phuc that one day, when Toan’s mother passes away, if he needs help to finish his university studies, he should let me know because I am able to afford his studies. Upon hearing this, everybody was amazed and happy, especially teacher Phuc. With a bright smile on his face, the old teacher said, “It is such luck for Toan. We can’t say anything else if you can do so." I proposed this without hesitation, because beside me there are thousands of “Understanding” and “Loving” eyes and hands that have been going along with me over many years now in our work of turning patches of arid land into fertile ones.
After this night gathering of villagers and teachers, Mr. Dieu handed Toan a scholarship of 600,000 VND (or US$ 40). We will continue to provide more financial support to Toan and his mother. Every three months, money will be forwarded to him. He will receive assistance from different benefactors so that he can take the loving milk from many mothers everywhere.
2006 Winter
Dieu Lien
 

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NEW YEAR PRESENT

When I was in high school, aged 16, I once followed my cousin Lien Huong to the hospital to visit patients. Lien Huong was then a student of Hue Medical College. When she was on duty, she usually went to different departments to care for patients.  Once, at the end of the Lunar year, she brought me to see the patients in the Pediatrics Department. At the beginning of the Tet holiday, almost all children managed to return home, except those who needed professional care and monitoring because they were in a critical stage of illness or those whose families were too poor to afford to bring them home for Tet. Lien Huong prepared some confectionary and milk for the children as a small “Spring Present.”

Since then, when I did not have class, I often wandered alone along the hospital corridor and watched the patients in their daily activities. Looking at them, I felt close to them and their relatives. I also had feelings of happiness, sadness, or pain at different sights.

Once, when I was standing in a corridor of Hue Central Hospital, I saw a man in his forties standing right beside a bed with his mother holding his arm; her face showed as much pain as his. He was wearing only a shirt, without pants, and groaning with pain. Not knowing what his illness was, I asked one of his roommates, who told me that he had undergone an operation in his lower belly. His stitches were still fresh; therefore, it would be very painful for him to urinate or defecate. He was afraid that such a passage would break the stitches. I came to understand his situation through the simple explanation of the old woman. Urinating and defecating are so normal for each and every person every day, but it becomes such a big problem and painful experience for some patients.

During the Xangsane and Durian storm relief in 2006, I had a chance to stay at my hometown for Tet, and I did not forget to implement a “Spring Present” program similar to that from the old years. Though it was just a small act, it had much empathy and compassion.

On the 27th of December by the Lunar calendar, we were informed that many patients in the Hue Central Hospital had been “instructed” to return home for Tet; only those with severe or critical illnesses who needed professional care were allowed to stay back in the hospital because the number of professional staff would be reduced during Tet. Some patients could not afford both the trip home and the medicine to be taken during their time at home. We immediately set up a program. After preparing small packs of confectionary for children and envelopes of cash, we- including nun Phuoc Thien, doctor Thuy Hang, Minh Nguyen, and me- arrived at the hospital in time to give the presents to the patients.

There were far fewer people in the hospital by then because a large number of patients had been discharged earlier in the morning. Such departments as Cardiology, Pediatrics and Oncology only housed patients with severe illnesses, or those from distant places. We were guided by doctor Thuy Hang to every department, where we presented the patients with confectionary packs and envelopes of cash. Each patient had their own heart-breaking story.  Their stories reflected as much pain as the wounds on their bodies. There were babies under 2 years old who had to be hospitalized for cardiac surgery, and their skin was so pale because of a blood shortage. There were patients of ethnic minorities from Nam Dong Mountain, who, without any relatives nearby, had to live on other people’s generosity. Serious traffic accidents usually occur on the days before and during Tet in Vietnam; therefore, there were so many injured people in hospital this time of the year.

We came to the patients with an endless sense of empathy and sharing, and a modest sum of 100,000 VND (or US$ 6.50) per envelope as a small “Spring Present” for the first three days of the Lunar New Year. So we visited the patients and carried compassion for them. In special cases, we gave the patients several envelopes as a wish to share the difficulties of their plights. Though we could not help much, we felt happy upon seeing bright faces with grateful eyes and words.

After this “mass distribution” to the patients- giving equal gifts to each patient so that everybody had something to enjoy in the first three days of the Lunar New Year- we went home happily. We saw nun Phuoc Thien off, without forgetting to express our sincere thanks both to her and especially to Dr. Thuy Hang. We went home on a motorbike in the mild cold of the evening.

The day after, Ms Nguyen Thi Thu in Washington phoned me in Hue. Upon learning that we had implemented the “Spring Present” program, she asked her relative to bring us US$ 200. Therefore, Minh and I had another opportunity to return to the hospital; we gave the presents from Ms. Thu and other benefactors.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Minh and I returned to the hospital. Unlike the previous visits for “mass distribution,” we now went to the places we had not visited before, and the presents also varied in size, depending on specific situations. The hospital on the night of the first day of the New Year was a bit deserted. We did not meet any difficulty because almost all the staff were off-duty. At times, we met some nice guards who did not cause any inconvenience to our work.

While walking along a corridor, I heard some very loud conversation. I wondered why there were still people talking in this emergency ward in the middle of the night on the first day of the New Year. I looked in the direction of the voices and saw two old people deep in conservation. I felt there must have been something wrong. After a few inquiries, we were told by the old woman that she was in trouble. She led us through the corridor to the emergency room, where her son, who had just had an accident, was lying. His name was Tinh.  He was 15 years old, currently in the 8th grade. The school was closed on the 28th for Tet, so he took care of the buffalos during that time. By accident, he had stepped on a landmine, which exploded and caused serious wounds to his legs and body and severe bleeding. I gave Tinh 500,000 VND to cover his emergency expenses. We also took the opportunity to visit the patients nearby who were also in miserable circumstances.

We arrived at the Obstetrics Department. The plights of the young mothers were very pitiful. We inquired about every woman and gave them assistance accordingly. We then visited patients in the Otorhinolaryngology, Orthopedic Surgery, and Burns Departments and gave them the remaining money. Everybody was happy to receive the small present and thanked us sincerely.

In the two visits during Tet, I recognized two precious things. The first one was that the nurses were very eager to help. They were so nice and enthusiastic in introducing the most miserable cases to us. The second thing was that when we were not guided by the nurses, the patients themselves usually accompanied us to introduce the bad cases in need of help. These two things made us feel very warm, and we were aware that, besides us and other benefactors, there are always kind hearts who wish to help others.

Similar “Spring Presents” have also been sent to other hospitals in the North-Central part of the country by groups of local volunteers.

 

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DOES MOM KNOW?

Her name is Mui, or Na - little Na - as her mother would call her so at home. Na is 15 years old this year. Na has a round face like the moon, very lovely. She rarely smiles, her voice is low and sad. But whenever Dieu Lien raises a question, she answers very clearly.
Dieu Lien was told by Pham Van Ngoc (in OGCDC) that Na’s mother had a work accident. She works as tearer/collector of eucalyptus bark. One day, a eucalyptus tree fell down and hit her on the head. She had a brain injury and was sent to the Emergency Ward in Hue Central hospital. The ward is called “Room of the Death” – because once the patients were sent here, their relatives have to prepare these two things at the same time: one, money to keep on trying even with the faintest hope; and two, funeral ceremony.
 Dieu Lien previously thought that the Burn Department and the Tumourology Department were the two most thrilling; however Dieu Lien still can come close to the patients in these departments and hold their hands, fondle their hair and talk to them. But in the Emergency ward, no word can express the fear in my heart. All patients here are in a status of pending for the Death’s call. The sufferings that Dieu Lien witness here have helped me make mindful steps, in which I am aware that I am lucky enough to be alive, which is just a normal, but so miraculous, existence. If I do not subtly remind myself of this, the sense of happiness will fail me so easily.
When Ngoc and Dieu Lien were heading for the Emergency Ward, we saw Na going towards us. Na hurriedly ran to Ngoc and said: “This morning the doctor gave me a prescription, but I do not have money to buy the medicines”. Ngoc smiled to her nicely: “Is your Mom better today?” Dieu Lien put my hands on Na’s little shoulder and we walked and chatted on the way.
Na revealed that after a while’s running around to borrow money for Mom’s treatment, Dad became exhausted and had left for home. Dad still had to take care of the two paddy rice patches and her two small brothers (?). Na said “Dad did not come to see Mom for the last 7 days. Dad does not bring me money. Dad left Mom for me, telling me to “do whatever you want”. Her voice was choked when saying this, with her head lowered on one side. But she immediately pulled herself together to face up to reality. She could not let the despair knock her down. She returned to Ngoc: “today the doctor gave me the prescription but I do not have money to buy the medicines”. This is perhaps the “chorus” that every day she has to “sing” to people in a hope for help.
DIEU LIEN AND NA CAME TO SEE MAI IN THE EMERGENCY WARD
We went together to the Department of Emergency and Recovery, which is in a new, advanced-equipped and very clean building. As a result, patients here have to pay high hospital fee. One even has to pay 1,000 VND every time he/she uses the lift. Even using the W.C. costs 1,000 VND at a time. Na therefore uses the staircase (usually used in case of fire) instead to go up to 6th floor and down to 1st floor when running around to care her mother. As for the W.C., some knowing her would let her use it free of charge, but some others still charge her.
Everyday she needs nearly 100,000 VND to cover expenditures for both her mother and herself. As for herself, she would spend 2,000 VND on steamed corn for breakfast, another 3,000 VND also on steamed corn for lunch, and 4,000 VND on rice for dinner. Mom had to take 6 times a day the life-sustaining soup provided by the hospital, which would cost 36,000 VND. Mom also needed 10 sanitary napkins, which cost 50,000 VND. Besides, Na bought warm water to wash her mother’s body so that Mom’s flesh would not become rotten.
She told me an unexpected story. After she gave the last 5 sanitary napkins to the nurse, she worried so much, as she did not know how to get money to buy her mother napkins for the next day. That evening, she saw on Mom’s bed a big package of sanitary napkins that somebody had silently given. But besides the story of this anonymous gift, life in hospital was complicated. Somebody “borrowed” her thermos and her mat and never returned.
When knowing of her difficulties, Lien proposed that she came and stayed at Dieu Lien’s house to feel better. To my surprise, she refused, explaining that from 8pm to mid-night every day, she would ask for the nurses on duty for permission to come in the ward and massage Mom, so that Mom’s muscle would not stiffen by the time Mom could recover. Every morning, she would wake up at 4 am and look for warm water to clean Mom’s body before the doctor and nurse come. During the day, and days after days she ran for money and always stood ready to finish all the tasks that nurses require her to.
Back to the prescription that Na told Ngoc but could not afford. Na said that, Mom’s old prescription cost 500,000 VND per day (equivalent to US $35), but the present prescription was 70,000 (or US $5), which were normal medicines for palliative care, without enabling Mom to recover, because the doctor knows that she does not have money. Dieu Lien suggested that she returned and asked for the old prescription, so that her Mom could soon recover. Today, she was so happy to tell this good news: Mom has recovered remarkably. Mom was able to lift her eyelids a bit, open her mouth, nodded slightly, and lifted her bottom a bit so that Na could change her sanitary napkin. She asked her: “Do you know me? If you know, blink your eyes”, and she saw that her Mom blinked the eyes. Na was so much happy, because she knew that Mom was back to life, though Mom has not yet been able to say a word.
Though her fight for Mom’s life back from the seizure of the Death was so hard, her words about Mom were always soft and full of love and hope. Whenever mentioning her father, her voice was choked and she could not speak. There seems to be nothing left to say. She had been crying too much begging her father to try with her to save Mom’s life, but what she received from Dad was just a cold shoulder.
Perhaps because Mom had suffered a lot for Dad and sacrificed too much for her offspring, now her little Na, with many seeds Mom has sowed into, has developed her own energy and a sacrificing heart.
Upon learning of Na’s plight, though Dieu Lien had not sent the call for your kind-hearted assistance for her family, Dieu Lien promised help and has covered her Mom’s medicinal cost. With money now available, doctors give effective prescription. As a result, Mom’s health had been much better only within 10 days.
Besides Ms Mai (Na’s mother), so many others are in similarly sad plights. If only Dieu Lien had more time and capacity, Dieu Lien could have presented to you many other stories that happen every day in hospitals.
So, the story of little Na is for you, esteemed kind-hearted people today. Please forward your assistance to this following address:
Eyes of Compassion
18 Pergola Rd.
Etobicoke, ON
M9W 5K6
Canada
Note: Fund for Severe Illness
Email: eocvn@yahoo.com

NA’S LETTER CALLING FOR HELP

Hue 18 December 2006
I am Tran Thi Mui. I live in Trung Phuoc village, Loc Tri commune, Phu Loc district. I am 16 years old this year. My Mom is so poor that she cannot afford my schooling. Therefore after finishing the 6th grade, I dropped school for work to earn money to help my family. I went to Da Nang city and worked as a housemaid there. First, I worked for the family of Ms. Lien and Mr. Thanh and was paid 150,000 VND a month. I was then introduced to an old woman, 77, called Luyen, living on her own. She paid me 400,000 VND per month. At the end of the year, I returned home. After that, my cousin brought me to work for the family of Ms Nga and Mr. Duc, where I was paid 500,000 VND every month. Thanks to these jobs, I could earn to assist my parents in sending my brothers (?) to school.
My mother’s name is Le Thi Mai, 35 years old. My family has 5 members – my parents, my two little brothers (?) and me. My Mom is hired labor (tearing off and collecting the bark of eucalyptus trees). While working on 17 November 2006, my Mom had a head injury when a tree above fell down and hit her. Now my Mom is staying in the Emergency ward in Hue Central Hospital. My Mom’s brain is injured, and her left arm is broken. She has been hospitalised for one month now. Both her family and my father’s relatives have tried to assist; my father ran around to borrow and asked for charity money from churches and pagodas, but afterwards there was no longer any source to ask for. My father gave up and returned home, but then was introduced to the Health University. My father and I came there and presented our family’s situation, then we were introduced by sisters and brothers there to Ms. Dieu Lien, who helped us buy medicines for my Mom. For a week now - since the date we returned from the Health University, my father has not come to meet me again yet. I alone have to care for my Mom, and rely on the help of Ms. Dieu Lien. Every day in the hospital, I have to spend money on medicines, soup and napkins for my Mom; and my meals too. I spend 2,000 VND for my steamed corn breakfast, 3,000 VND for my lunch, and 4,000 for my rice dinner. A proportion of drinking water costs 1,000 VND, since I don’t have money, I don’t buy water but ask for it from people around instead. In the hospital, I have to go up and down many times to buy things for my Mom. If I use the lift, I have to pay 1,000 VND at a time, so I use the staircase instead. Using the toilet also costs 1,000 VND each time. Some aunts there know me and do not charge me, some others do. Some people in the hospital knowing of my plight give me money for food. The things I buy for my Mom was stolen, therefore every morning I do not have container to buy warm water for my Mom’s cleaning. Many times I ask for warm water from people around and can find some. But there are also many other times when I cannot, so I have to use cold water for my mother.
I love my mom so much. I want my mom to recover soon to come back to me, Dad and my brothers. In day-to-day care for my Mom, I observe the good developments in my mom. For instance, in these recent days I speak to my Mom and she understands. I told her to open her eyes to see me, then she would try to lift her eyelids to see me. Then I told her to bend her knee, and she followed. Seeing that my Mom has progressed a lot, I do wish the charity association to help me, so that I can afford my Mom’s medicines.
I desire that my Mom will soon recover, because staying in hospital is too difficult and costly. Every thing here costs, while I do not have money. Please help me to save my Mom out of this plight.
18 December 2006
Tran Thi Mui

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CAR ACCIDENT

I arrived in Sai Gon as scheduled. The city was warm, dry, hectic and energetic. City life was comfortable. I kept up well with the city pace and enjoyed myself a lot. SaiGon nights were colorful with lights and busy streets.

Leaving SaiGon for Hue by air, I found the weather there obviously milder. The playful days in SaiGon being over, I started our annual work schedule. First, I visited families of poor and severely ill patients. Funding for each patient was given in kind, as our gifts to the compatriots. Whenever giving a small sum to a poor friend, I have mixed feelings of bitterness, happiness and compassion. If only our arms were broader to embrace all our anguished friends, and all creatures.

I love animals, especially little dogs. On a windy afternoon, by the back gate of the hospital, I saw a curly, white dog that was industriously looking for food for his (her?) dinner on the dirty pavement. Her white hair in fact had turned to the colour of soil, since nobody washed her. Her image made me miss my little Lac miserably.  Lac is my little pet, and also my beloved little daughter. Little Lac gives me boundless, unconditional love. Whenever I am away and phone home to talk to Minh, my husband, I ask “Little Lac and Minh, who loves Dieu Lien more?” Minh replies without thinking: “Little Lac.”  Surely Little Lac does, because nobody dares to compare their love with hers for Dieu Lien!!!

I observed the curly dog while waiting for Mr. Tho to guide nun Phuoc Thien and me to the Department of Orthopedics, Burns and Plastic Surgery. Feeling so bad for the little curly dog, I bought her two boiled eggs. She ate them with such great pleasure that all passers-by burst into laughter.

We then visited Hoang Khanh Toan in the Burns Department. Khanh Toan’s father was killed in a car accident in February 2006. After his father’s death, Toan had to study and work at the same time as an iron window blacksmith to earn a living for his whole family and pay for schooling for his brother and sister. Unfortunately, 4 months later he himself had a car accident in which his right leg was broken. His mother brought him to hospital with an empty wallet. She asked for help from all of their acquaintances to pay for his initial treatment, which was to rearrange the broken pieces of bone. At the doctors’ request, he was brought home while waiting for re-hospitalization to have his broken bones screwed together.

At his second hospitalisation, Toan himself wrote twice to his doctor:   doctor Pham Dang Nhat, Director of The Department of Orthopedics, Burns and Plastic Surgery, to ask for his broken leg to be amputated. When I asked why he thought of having his leg amputated, he said “if cut off, my leg will be replaced by a fake one. With a fake leg I can still work; whereas a prolonged treatment would be very costly.  My family does not have money, so if my treatment continued, my mother would have to borrow more.” Both of his letters were turned down by doctor Pham Dang Nhat. The doctor was patiently waiting for a charity source.

Then the miracle came. Mr. Tho, who was told by the nurses about Toan’s miserable plight, frequently visited and encouraged him. When he learnt about Toan’s leg amputation applications, he asked to take them back and tear them up. He tore them up to completely remove Toan’s pessimism and hopelessness. Tho promised to find ways out for Toan.

Doctor Nhat was the same kind-hearted doctor who had rejected amputating the leg of Tran Thi Phuong, the patient we helped last year, when she was so desperate because of her broken legs from an accident (please see the article below).

Seeing Toan’s sense of responsibility for his family as well as his family’s dead-end, I came to his bed and guided him in writing a letter calling for help from kind-hearted people. I embraced him closely and warmly for a long time. I told him: “I love you very much. If you love me, make an effort! Don’t give up. Everybody will join you to heal your broken leg.”  Toan was moved by my words. He leant on me closely as his emerging hope, a way out for his broken leg.

EOCVN would like to send this story and Toan’s letter to you, hoping that you will give assistance to Toan as you did previously to Tran Thi Phuong. If so, we will not only help out a person in need, but also create conditions for a whole family to rebuild their life.

Perhaps because doctor Nhat does not want to disappoint the patient, he has not revealed to Toan’s family the cost of his future treatment. I have not yet met Doctor Nhat, who is away on business.

After sending this letter, I will offer relief in Phan Thiet, which was recently stricken by the Durian storm. I will go with nun Nhu Minh and some other Buddhists. Stories will be sent to you soon.

Wishing you endless happiness,
Ton Nu Dieu Lien


Good news of Hoang Khanh Toan

After sending a letter asking for help for Toan, I went to offer relief to victims of the Durian storm in the south. On the way to the storm-stricken areas, I was informed that Hoang Khanh Toan had been moved out of the emergency ward, and that the surgery had been very successful. I felt both happy for Toan, and surprised, because I did not know why Toan was given the surgery since Pham Van Ngoc, the representative of EOCVN for critical patients at Hue Central Hospital, had not asked me for his surgery fee. Ngoc contacted the Hospital immediately and was told that the donation from a charity source had been forwarded directly to the doctors at the Department of Orthopedics to cover Toan's surgery fee. It was such happy news, which was also understandable, because while Toan was in hospital, his family had been trying to knock on different doors for help. Whichever offer came first was taken immediately by the hospital so as to help the patient as soon as possible.

As a result, our expenses for Toan have now become less. At present, we are providing Toan with milk, fruits, other nutritious food and medicines until he fully recovers. However, the total "severely ill" fund for Hoang Khanh Toan will not be used up.

To provide you with accurate information about Toan, Ngoc and I asked to meet doctor Pham Dang Nhat to inquire more about the unexpected donation and the remaining treatment for Toan. Doctor Nhat answered in great detail and informed us that Toan's case was now 80% completed; only a skin transplant was needed, which would not cost much. On learning that we had formed a fund for Toan, he earnestly hoped that we would share the funding with other very miserable cases who must undergo further intervention, but have hopelessly run out of resources.

If you agree with doctor Nhat's proposal, I would like to use the remaining money in Toan's fund to help these following five patients:

1. Le Thi Mai (Ms), 35, brain injury

Her brothers, sisters, and other maternal relatives have contributed a large sum of money to help Mai overcome the most critical phase. After the surgery, Mai needs special medicines and life-nourishing soup prescribed by the hospital. More importantly, she must be observed by doctors and cared for by nurses. These medical treatments are very costly. Therefore, Mai's brothers and sisters cannot afford anything further. At present, we assist Mai with about US $40/day.

2. Cong Trung (Mr), 22, burnt while repairing motobikes

He was very seriously burnt. Initially, thanks to Ms Luu Thanh Nhan's enormous fundraising efforts, Trung has passed the most dangerous moments. In addition, Trung has also relied on more than 40 million Vietnamese dong donated by the Hospital's fund for burn patients. According to doctor Pham Dang Nhat, Trung's health has become much more encouraging; his eyes show some consciousness, and his body signals for food. However, now the donation sources from Ms Nhan and the hospital are exhausted. Doctor Nhat therefore asks for our help so that Trung can receive nourishment intravenously and blood transfusions, which are the only ways to help him recover. These treatments should be done within the first 5 to 10 days, with a daily cost of US$ 50-100 ; after that the medical cost may be less.

3. Hoang Thi Xuan (Ms), 43, bladder and stomach diseases

Ms Xuan, a farmer, widowed (her husband died 6 months ago) with 4 small children. She had many diseases but did not have money for any medical intervention; she has collapsed as a result. Her eldest daughter, aged 20, brought her to hospital. Since she is categorized as "poor household", she did not have to pay a hospital fee. In this case, we only help with food for her and her daughter during her hospitalization, and her additional nutrients and the medicines that are not provided for free by the hospital. This case does not require much funding.

4. Le Viet Dũng, 20, disconnected cardiac valve

Dũng was a factory worker in Sai Gon, but he has had to return home for cardiac valvular disconnection treatment. Dung has a nephew whose two cardiac valves were disconnected.  Surgery for the nephew's 2 cardiac valves would cost as much as 60,000,000 VND ($2000 us). The OGCDC had promised 30,000,000 VND, and his family borrowed 15,000,000 VND, but since there was no other source to cover the remaining 15,000,000 VND, the small child died. Now Dũng has cardiac valvular disease, for which the surgery will cost 30,000,000 VND. His family has managed to borrow 15,000,000 VND but could not borrow any more to cover the remaining cost. When informed of his situation, I asked people to contact Dũng. If possible, we will help Dũng with the remaining cost for the surgery.

5. An ethnic minority person, around 25, married with a small child, lives in Nam Dong:  Hue's new economic zone and home of ethnic minorities. He had a bamboo stick stabbed in his leg, near his ankle. He did not bandage the wound, and he continued to work in the field as usual and ate cassava. A while later, his leg became infected and he could not walk, so he had to go to Hue Central Hospital. He had to have his lower leg amputated, as you can see in the photo. At present he is hospitalized again because his leg became swollen and painful. Doctors discovered that his flesh was again infected up to his thigh. The reason was that, after being discharged from the hospital, he continued to eat just cassavas, since he did not have any rice. As a result, he had to have his knee amputated to avoid further infection. Since he was categorized as “poor household,” and being such a special case, the hospital did not charge him at all. Besides, his daily food is now covered by a Catholic nun. I am interested in the type of food he will eat after being discharged. If there is no assistance, he will surely eat cassavas again. I will follow his health development and, upon his being discharged, will give him some money with which he can afford some nutritious food that can help him avoid infection completely.

I wish you the best of health and happiness.

Respectfully,
Ton Nu Dieu Lien

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FATHER’S LOVE

 "A father’s love is as warm as rays of sunshine

and as sweet as spring water at its source "

Dieu Loan and I walked through the corridors of the External Orthopedics section to find the room of Tran thi Phuong, 37-year-old woman from Phu Bai town, Hue city.  Phuong’s brothers and sisters had gone south to make a living.  Phuong had earned a living from making hats. She had taken care of her old parents.  Her mother has been confined to her bed.

Mr. Tran van An, her father, 72 years old, with many wrinkles on his tanned face.  He approached me and spoke very softly, as if he did not want anybody else to hear:  “Please help my daughter.  An old father has many problems taking care of a daughter.  Her mother is very sick and is confined to bed.  I have to take care of everything.  Unfortunately, I have to provide all of her needs such as bathing, urinating, excreting. It is extremely difficult for me when I need to keep her clean during her monthly periods. One day when I pass away, she will have no one, no husband and no children.  As a handicapped person, I don't know how she will survive." 

I listened to every word he said.  I was so moved that I wanted to hold him in my arms and to tell him that I understand his feelings and his difficulties.  The pain in a father's heart was as painful as the wounds on the hopeless legs of Phuong.  I vowed that I would do my best to save her legs.

I learned that Phuong was the victim of a hit and run traffic accident.  She was hit by a motorcycle at the beginning of 2005 and suffered from broken legs and a severe head injury.  In order to save their daughter, her parents had to sell their inherited piece of land and had to borrow money from family, friends and banks.  Altogether they were able to borrow $120,000,000 DNV (about $10,000 Cad).  Doctors had treated successfully her head injury and had started to treat her legs. Unfortunately, at this critical time, the family ran out of money.  The father had to bring her home with screws and stainless steel rods embedded in her legs to support them temporarily with the hope that one day he would find some money to have these screws and rods removed.

After a few months, she had to return to the hospital because her legs were badly infected, and the unhealed wounds were swollen to the point that one could see the red muscle with some yellow discharge.  Mr. An once again had to bring his daughter back to the hospital although he had no money at all.  Phuong knew that her condition was difficult and begged the doctors to amputate her legs.  Fortunately this time she met a very compassionate doctor who asked her to remain calm and offered his best to save her legs.  Meanwhile, the old father continued to help her meet her daily needs.  The nurses and the patients who shared the room with her really moved by the care of this old man.  The nurses asked for the help from many charitable organizations. 

That was how the story of the old father and the critically ill daughter got our attention and I would like to share with all of you on our web "Eyes of Compassion". 

If we act together with love and understanding, we will be able to help Phuong preserve her legs.  All "Eyes of Compassion" benefactors please help Phuong.  At this point, we do not know exactly how much this case will be but I hope to receive your donations.  I strongly believe that once we can make a few steps we will finish our journey with Phuong happily. Please send your donations to Severely Ill Patients Account.

 HEALTH  INSURANCE

A middle age man was knocking at my door, asking for “Mrs. Dieu Lien”.  He left his sandals outside and walked in with barefoot.  He said that Sister Tinh An from Tam An pagoda in Dalat recommended him to see me because his daughter was in the Emergency Ward in the Central Hospital of Hue.

Mr. Le Van Ai is from An Loi hamlet, Trieu Do village, Trieu Phong district, Quang Tri province.  His daughter, Le Thi Thuy Loan, 13 years old, is in Grade 8.  Three years ago, Loan swallowed an earring and it remained in her body near one of her lungs and causing a lot of pain.  Her lungs got infected and Mr. Ai brought his daughter to the hospital.  Pus and fluid in her lungs was removed.  Ultimately, she had to have a surgery to remove the earring.  But before the treatment could be completed with success, Mr. Ai’s family ran out of money and owed the hospital a fee for many days of hospitalization.  The hospital had to and was about to discharge her with the result that she would wait for death at home.

When Mr. Ai came to see me, he looked frightened out of his wits.  He told me: “Madam, if I take her home this time, she would die immediately.  The earring is rusted and causes a lot of pus many times already.  Each time, it has been a heavy financial burden for our family to pay for the removal of pus and fluids, and we are unable to afford the operation to remove the earring itself.  It has been three years already and I feel that this is the last chance for her to have the operation.  I am really asking you to give her that chance because if I bring her home, that would mean the end of her life.”

Faced with such a situation, I did not know what to decide, as I really did not know what the real facts could be.  If I told him that I could not help, Mr. Ai would have to take his daughter home that day, and I could not imagine how I would feel if I would hear later that she had passed away without us even trying to help in any way.

On the spur of the moment, I was quick-minded enough to advise him to return to the hospital to give them the message that on Monday, he would have the necessary funds for the operation that his daughter needed.  That would give me two days to work on the case and come up with an answer for Mr. Ai. Right after Mr. Ai left, I called Mr. Dieu, the head of the Charities Section of  Quang Tri province, to ask him to send somebody to Mr. Ai’s village to ask his neighbors and Loan’s teachers about the general living conditions of Mr. Ai’s family.  After an afternoon of investigation, Mr. Dieu reported back to me that Mr. Ai’s family was truly in difficulty, and the whole neighborhood was recommending that we help them through this difficult time.

As a representative of a charitable organization, I talked to the hospital and promised them that we would assist in the payment of hospital fees for Loan.  Meanwhile, I had asked a friend to contact Loan’s school board and he learned that Loan was covered by a school health insurance policy.  That key opened all doors and resolved all the financial difficulties.  It is really a pity that the poor peasants do not know the benefits that they are entitled to enjoy.  Every school year, they have to pay many kinds of charges for their children to go to school, and one of these charges is the premium for school health insurance. From then on, our friends worked with the hospital and the “Eyes of Compassion” organization only had to contribute VND1,500,000 for the post-operation charges, feeding-up and antibiotics.

When I came to the hospital to see Loan after her operation, I was greeted with a broad joyful smile.  She was a flower vibrant with life.  Our modest assistance had contributed a lot to her simple happiness.

A WISH

Hue, November 26, 2005
To whom it may concern,
My name is Nguyen thi Hong, 45 years old. Presently live at Cell 3, Thuong 4, Thuy Xuan, Hue                       

Followed is my family’s story.

My son, Luu Tam Chinh, Dharma name Nguyen Minh, born 1988.  He was a normal baby who grew up and went to school like any other boy.

In 1997, my son fell sick and became very weak. We brought him to the CentralHospital in Hue where he stayed for a month and 12 days. The treatment was fruitless; he got worse. The medical report revealed that he got encephalitis.  Learning the news, I felt so desperate.  I was advised to take him to the Viet-GermanHospital in Hanoi for further treatment.

Our family is poor.  I need to support three children and a sick husband with my little income from selling lotto tickets. Though my husband has tried hard, he is unable to work due to his poor health.  My family life has become more difficult since my son got ill.  To pay for his medical expenses, I sold everything including our house.  In addition, I borrowed some money from friends and relatives.

We brought him to Viet-GermanHospital, hoping he would be cured.  Sadly, after the operation he had been in coma for three years, fed by a tube injected to his stomach and altogether has been confined in bed for nine years.                     

I desperately watched my son turning weaker and weaker.  His eyes shut closed, swollen and filled with pus.  His limbs contracted and he completely lost his sense of touch, did not feel hurt when bitten by ants. I was devastated.  

On top of this, I have been blamed by my mother in law as the source of his hardship, reasoning that I might do something cruel that led to the sufferings that my son has to endure.  I know I am innocent because I am always a meek and dutiful woman.  I have been blamed because my family has no home and we have to live with my mother in law.

I witness many separations and deaths that all of us have to endure.  I am a Buddhist, I learn Buddhist scripts. I understand well the teaching of causes and effects.  Based upon my experience of taking care of sick people, I realize that life is constantly changing and no doubt it is full of sufferings.  Thus I diligently pray Buddha, read scripts given by Medicine Buddha, recite Quan Yin mantra and scripts.

I vow to go to Kuan Yin Altar on Tu Tuong Mountain on the 19^th day of every month to pray and bring home divine water for my son to drink.  I patiently pray day after day with my limitless love for my son and a strong belief in Buddha, the savior.  

One morning a miracle happened while I was praying and reading the Buddhist scripts with all my heart, my son awoke and called me “ Mom! “, the first word after years in coma.  His voice was unclear but his eyes were bright.  He was able to open his mouth!  I was overjoyed.  
Dear friends,

One summer afternoon, Miss Dieu Lien, Brothers Thuan, Ngoc and Minh came to see us in HueCity without telling us ahead.  I did not know them, but seeing Miss Dieu Lien looking at my son and kissing his forehead with affection and gentleness, I got so moved and felt strongly connected to her.  On November 7, 2005, Miss Dieu Lien and Brother Ngoc took my son to the hospital and he was immediately registered for treatment.  All the tests and procedures were completed including X-ray of skull and lungs, ECG and other tests.  I was told by doctors that during the previous operation in Hanoi, a tube was inserted to help circulating some liquid.  The tube is now stuck and cannot function properly.  Therefore, it creates pressure in my son’s brain and causes him terrible headache.  

We all hope this time, after the operation, he would recuperate.  The treatment has two steps: after the primary surgery, doctors have to wait until he shows some signs of improvement.  Next they will go on to the second surgery with gamma ray.  I have seen many patients having gamma surgery, and they got much better.  We are very hopeful. 

A mother always has a lot of dreams for her children, but my only dream is to see my son to be normal again and to stop suffering. Every time I saw him screaming of pain begging me to save him from the death, lamenting that he had a lot of dreams he wanted to achieve, I was devastated.  I have nothing to give him any more.  Writing this letter, telling you about my case, I hope all of you, kind people, will open your heart to help us. I pray Buddha Kuan Yin once again to save my son so that we can live together a simple and happy life.

Your open arms and your sense of humanity have been and continue to soften our sufferings.  Please accept sincere thanks from my family and me.  May Buddha bless you all.

Yours truly;

Nguyen thi Hong

FILIAL PIETY

Having heard that a young man was selling Ballot (boiled duck eggs) to pay for medical treatment for his mother, Thuan, Minh, Dieu Loan and Dieu Liên came to the Đông Ba market to visit the young man.  In front of the market, among thousands of passers-by, a young man was carrying a nylon bag with searching eyes looking for the people who had made an appointment with him.  Dieu Lien had never met the man, but at first sight, she could guess it was him and she came to talk to him.

His name is Tran Quoc Tien.   He was born in 1986, and grew up in the town of Hoan Lao, Bo Trach district, Quang Binh province.  He had finished grade 12 and was admitted to the Facultry of Pedagogy at the University of Quang Binh, but had to leave school due to lack of financial means.

The burden of family weighed heavily on his shoulders, as both his mother and his younger brothers suffered from heart disease.  Tien decided to leave town to find a livelihood outside of agriculture., and he came to the city of Hue to sell boiled duck eggs.  He rented a room for VND 150,000 per month.  Every morning he would buy eggs, and by 1:00 pm in the afternoon he would already be at the DongBa market with boiled eggs.  If he could not sell all of his eggs, he would bring them to the An Cuu market.  He also sells unboiled eggs to several restaurants.  He would buy and boil another batch of eggs to sell in the Central Hue Hospital in the evening.  To insure a safe and quiet environment for patients, in principle, nobody could do business in the hospital.  However, during the evenings, the nurses would look the other way to let Tien sell his Ballot at the patients' bedside.  They all knew that he needed a lot of money to pay for his mother's heart operation.  To avoid being stopped by security guards, Tien had to camouflage the eggs by bringing them  in nylon bags, as if he was bringing food to relatives who were hospitalized patients.

Thanks to his sincere face and polite speech, many buyers would buy eggs from Tien to help him raise money for his mother's operation.  Every day, he could sell about 40 to 60 eggs, and he made a profit of about VND 20,000 ($1.3 Us or $1.5 Cad) to VND 30,000.  During the last two months, he was able to save about VND 1,000,000.  Some clients knew of his situation and they would give him VND 20,000 or VND 30,000.  Every time this happens, he would be so happy that it would almost bring him to tears.  When Dieu Lien talked to him, she felt that because he grew up in such extreme poverty, he had become a person who no longer thinks of the basic needs of life for himself.  His face was haggard and passive, as he only answered questions asked of him.  His filial piety moved many people, as they admired the young man who resigned himself to sell eggs for the sake of his mother and family.  From talking to him, Dieu Lien had the impression that he never thought of himself any more.  He had told her:  " I would like to continue selling eggs to help my mother recover from her heart disease.  Afterwards, I would like to continue working to buy medicine and to pay for sending my two younger brothers to school."  Dieu Lien asked him " So how long would you have to sell eggs to be able to take care of your mother?"  He smiled with an anxious smile and said " Probably a long time".   

His father, Mr. Tran Van Hau, retired because he was no longer healthy enough to work.  His mother and his two younger brothers all had severe heart diseases.  The whole family relied on a small parcel of rice land to live.  The rice that they could produce was only sufficient to pay for two meals a day for the family.  They were not in a position to fight illness.  Tien was the only healthy person in the family who could work to take care of everyone else.

One of his younger brothers, Tran quoc Chinh, suffered from a malfunctioning heart valve and received some assistance from the East Meet West Cooperation Association to partially finance a heart operation, and the family had to borrow VND 20,000,000 for that operation.  The youngest brother also suffers from heart disease and requires a long term treatment.  His mother also suffers from a defective heart valve  and needs urgent surgery costing about VND 30,000,000 (US$ 2,000 or C$ 2,300).  Due to his difficult situation, the hospital has agreed to charge him only half of the normal cost.

“Eyes of Compassion" is bringing this case to the attention of several charitable organizations as well as all our benefactors in the hope that we can all have a look at our own situation and capabilities in order to see what we can do to help Tran Quoc Tien.

Dieu Lien Ton Nu 2005

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From Right to Left: Dieu Lien, Tran Quoc Tien, brother Thuan and Minh

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A Simple Happiness

When the heavy rain stopped and the strong wind that tumbled down  big trees on some streets calmed down, Sister Huong and Brother Thuan took us to see Bac Hai. High and clean cement steps led to his house. A new extended roof covered the small but lovely yard. Due to the recent continuous rains, his garden turned to a fresh green color. The sight of the vast and artistic garden lying by the tiny house up on the hill gave a very peaceful feeling to the visitors. Although he is really sick, he always found something to work on. He loved gardening, planting fruit trees which not only beautified his home, but also helped him gain some food to the table.

Mr Nguyen Van Hai - 72 , is living at Group 6, Long Ho Hamlet, HuongHoVillage,Hue .

According to his story, he had gone through an operation for kidney stone before 1975. Twelve years ago, the stones reappeared and he was hospitalized, operated couple times. Since he had no money to pay for his treatment, he was put in the hands of unexperienced medical students. His abdomen was infected, his intestines were seriously rottened, and those doctors-to-be just covered him up and discharged him, letting him wait for his time to come. Desperate, he climbed up to a high hill, went to a cemetery, dug a hole near a thatched house he built himself, and lonely waited for Death to call.

He said he was sure death would come any time. He built an altar for Quan Yin, three times a day, he prayed for her, heartily asking her to give him a peaceful and quick death. During the beginning days, with the intention to die, he did not eat anything for days, just layed there motionless. Miraculously, his infected wound slowly started to heal by itself, the raw skin began drying up, and new skin layers grew covering the protruding part of his intestine. This  part near his navel used to drip yellowish liquid and he had to cover it with plastic bag so that the liquid could only drip inside it. Members of the Hue charitable groups many times brought him dry food, and he told them: “ I do not mind living in a ruin house. My only concern is to climb up about 500 meters from the hill foot to feed water. The metal wires are still inside my stomach, causing unbearable pain every time I tried carrying water up here “

Sympathetic to his pain, “Eyes Of Compassion” had asked your permission to use $100 USD from the contribution of Mr. Dang tan Hung Jr., equal 1,535,000 VND  to:

1.    Install 500 meters of pipes at 300,000 VND, and a pump, 650,000 VND  to bring water up from his neighbor’s well.

2.    Rebuild the extended roof and the wall so that he could work on the yard.

The Dat Viet Group with 500 USD could help:

1.    A surgical operation to put back the intestine part that protruded out, installing a uthera, and take out the metal wires inside his abdomen.

Since he lived near the cemetery, he saw people building tombs often. He gathered surplus sand, pebbles, cement, and he himself had built a water tank, a cement yard, and the steps leading to his house. All of this took him ten years, but his house is till a tattered thatched house, not higher than a man’s height.

He said: “ I fixed things little by little, not setting time for those things to be finished. I only live for the present time, and never expect anything. “

He really attracted everybody by his fearless attitude toward death. He showed all of us his lively energy. He loved to sit down under the extended roof, listening to the sound of falling rains. He loved to attend each and every tree in the garden around his house. And he could do all of that, thank to the pump that brought water to his residence.

The most astonishing story he told us was about the time he asked his nephew, an experienced medic, to operate and take out the stones in this bladder. Both of them were sitting talking by the water tank, and the nephew were so caught by surprise he begged him not to do such a dangerous thing. But finally, the nephew helped him. Bac Hai had kept on cleaning his wound, using the water in the tank, until his wound clear of blood, and he then passed out. He kept on repeating that “ I wanted to die but I did not. It is not easy to die.”

Bac Hai asked Dieu Lien to pass his word to all the benefactors that “  I am so happy to have you come here, visiting, comforting me, helping me with the water tank and the roof. I am so happy. I do not want to die anymore. I want to live now because I am not alone, and there are people out there who care about me. I do not know how to thank you for the money you gave me. I only have a lot of trees, and you can have any of them , any.”

It was time to leave. We said warm good bye to Bac Hai and left. Even though we were sympathetic to his unfortunate life, we were really glad to see he was truly happy with his simple life.

Hue - flood season - 2005

Tôn Nu Dieu Liên 

Let Me Embraces Your Sorrow

(Education Program – Scholarships and School Desk Sets)

On a summer day when the temperature in the sun was a scorching 42 degrees Centigrade, a group of us including teacher Minh Phu, Allen, Hua, Hoe, Loc and myself (Dieu Lien), were riding Honda motorcycles on village roads where people had left a lot of freshly harvested rice stalks to dry in the sun. On the first day, teacher Minh Phu could not stand the extreme heat and after a short time, we had to stop to let teacher Minh Phu rest in the shade in a booth selling refreshing sugar cane extract drinks! Phu did not bring a hat with him when he came to Central Vietnam because the weather in Saigon was still cool.  The heat was so intense that we had the impression that while talking, we were breathing out steam and fire was coming out of our noses!  However we persevered on our journey through the remote villages and hamlets to reach the impoverished schools and the families of students in need of assistance.

We came to visit the family of Pham thi Bich, a child born in 1991, and a grade 6 student at the Xa Xuan Secondary School.  Bich’s family was living in Doi 2 hamlet, Hung Xuan village, Hung Nguyen district, Nghe-An province. We met Bich through Kim Oanh, her school principal. Bich was classified as one of the Outstanding Students of the Province.  For over a year now, Bich did not have the money to pay her school fees, but, because she was such an outstanding student, her teachers did not have the heart to keep her out of school.  That was why Bich was still attending school and was continuing to excel in her studies. But she was haunted by the thought that one day she may have to leave the classroom and work in a noodle soup restaurant in town.  Because she lived under difficult conditions, Bich was constantly aware of the fact that she relied on everyone else’s love to maintain her own normal existence. Teacher Oanh had informed us that Bich was a nice student who listened to her teachers, who did her homework well and on time, and who was always ready to help the teachers and her classmates with any class activities.  Teacher Oanh had told us that sometimes when Bich saw her teachers sweating after hours of teaching, she has used her notebooks as fans to give her teachers a fresh breeze. Bich is always helpful to her classmates in their studies and that is why everyone loves her.

On some days, Bich and her older sister Thao had to eat only boiled sweet potato leaves and salt because there was not any rice or anything else to eat in the house.  On those nights, their stomachs would be aching and they would have difficulty sleeping.  That is why Thao quit school and left the house to go to work to help her parents take care of her little sister and her grandmother. Even though she realized that her mother was not making enough money to take care of her with her fishing for crabs and shells, Bich still dreamed about going to school, as she has always had a thirst for a good education.

Our Honda motorcycles arrived in front of Bich’s house.  Teacher Minh Phu handed to Bich a scholarship of Vnd 500,000, divided into Vnd 300,000 for school fees, Vnd 100,000 for schoolbooks, and Vnd 100,000 for a new set of clothes, notebooks, pens and a briefcase.  We also donated to Bich a desk set consisting of a desk, a chair and a lamp, of a total value of Vnd 180,000. – US$ 13 or C$ 18. We had hired a skilled carpenter to make the desk and chair out of quality wood purchased at reduced prices. We had chosen not to purchase desks and chairs in the open market because they usually were of low quality and would quickly become unusable. Each custom made desk and chair set costs only the equivalent of two bowls of rice noodle soup, and it can be used by the entire family for 20 to 30 years.  The use of a desk set prevents backaches and also prevents eye diseases due to bad posture and incorrect heights of the desk and chair.

While we were at Bich’s house –a thatched roof house built by the neighbours for the family – Bich’s grandmother showed us Bich’s old desk: a three-legged support for a cooking pot with a cutting board on top for use as a table and a small log for use as a chair. Nothing in the house was worth more than US$5!

After the confidences of Bich’s family, her teacher and Bich’s neighbours, we learnt that Bich’s father, Pham van Hung, died in 2001 at the age of 40. Bich’s mother, Phan thi Thanh, 40, had many children: Xuan, Thao, a brother of Bich, and a pair of twins, one of whom was Bich.  At one point, the family was not able to make both ends meet with their work on the fields. Bich’s parents were obliged to send Thao to her grandmother to go to work the new economic zones.  After a few years, they had another son, but when this son was only a few years old, Hung fell gravely ill. As they did not have the means to both take care of the son and deal with Hung’s illness, they decided to give their son to foster parents who gave them Vnd 3,000,000 in return to buy medicine for Hung.  A few years later, Thanh gave birth to twin babies, and Bich was one of the twins. Once again, because of their poverty, Bich’s parents gave up her twin sister and kept Bich.  Life in the New Economic Zones was too harsh, and Hung fell ill again. They decided to come back to the village and Bich’s grandmother.  Shortly thereafter, due to a lack of medicine and a lack of resistance against illness, Hung passed away.

After listening to all the tragedies that have fallen on Bich’s family in the last few years, and understanding the resilience and the dreams reflected in Bich’s sad eyes, Hua could not hold back his tears and held Bich in his arms. The two of them cried together, and their warm tears mixed together in a show of compassion and loving between two generations.  It was a deeply moving sight for all of us, and we promised ourselves that we would make an all-out effort to find sponsors for Bich so that she will have an opportunity to go to school with friends her own age.

We still remember the confidences of An after he came back from Vietnam, right at the time of the historic floods of 1999. After he came back to the United States, one week end he took his children to MacDonald’s and the food was spread all over the table but his children were only playing with the food instead of eating.  When he was looking at his children running after one another, oblivious to the pleadings and exhortations of their parents, he remembered one evening while sitting in a beef noodle soup house in Saigon, he suddenly had the feeling that somebody was watching him from behind.  When he turned around, he saw the eyes of a child staring hungrily at his steaming bowl of noodle soup!  The child was about twelve and he stood outside the house carrying in his arms another child of three.  An called them inside and ordered two bowls of beef noodle soup for them, a gesture which made the child so thrilled that he was swallowing his saliva rapidly. The first thing he did was to stick the noodle strings into his little brother’s mouth.  After his brother was full, he ate what remained in the bowl, leaving the second bowl untouched. An was perplexed because he knew that the child was not yet full, yet why did he not eat from the second bowl? The child explained that he wanted to ask permission to bring the noodle soup bowl home to an ailing mother and another sister who were both lying in the street at the time. His father was killed during the floods. He was trying to re-tie their pig into his cage, as the pig was the only possession of the family and could not be lost. Unfortunately, in the darkness of the night, the waters took away his beloved father as well as the pig, and his father never had another chance to see his wife and children.

Looking deeply at the world of children in different economic circumstances, An was kept awake at night pondering about the fate of unfortunate children who roam the streets.  He had contributed a lot to the scholarship and school desk set program. When children receive scholarships from him, they write to him and befriend his own sons and daughters.  He looks at the scholarships as gifts that he would like to give to these children on their birthdays or during the big holidays.  He hoped to be able to help the children to complete their education, even though he realized that many difficulties still lie ahead! His view was that a peasant or a factory worker who has an education will be more careful in his actions, will have an opportunity to escape from poverty and will not suffer the shortcomings of a person with a poor education.

Sitting in the darkness of a small room in West Palm Beach, Florida, I could hear the song “He” of long gone years after the wars:

The child goes silently into a small alley,

Still in his childhood, he already has many worries

In the daytime, he leads the life of a vagabond,

Dazed like a bird flying far from the flock

Thinking of his own lot, he felt sorry for himself!

At night he sleeps

Curled up on a torn straw mat

A solitary and homeless soul

A body of grass and leaves…

Yes! Their bodies are as exposed as grass and leaves.  War and acts of God have taken away their loved ones; the Angel of Death was waiting by the sick beds and unforeseen accidents have befallen on them, leaving many of them orphans, alone to fend for themselves in a cruel world where good and bad are often found on the same street. What can we do to help these children? These moving circumstances, these unfortunate lives of misery have incited us to always go the extra mile so that the program of providing scholarships and school desk sets to needy students would survive with regular activities. This cannot be accomplished without the assistance of all of you in introducing the program to your friends who have a compassionate heart and who are concerned with the young generation now growing up in Vietnam.

Ton Nu Dieu Lien - the last days of warm sunshine on a Florida beach – 2003

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Sisterly Love

In Summer 2002, I met Mr. Dung taken by Mr. Hoe who told me the following story. Phan Dang Thang, one of Mr. Dung’s friends, was born in 1978 in a very poor family of 6 children. His father died when he was still very young. They lived on rice and vegetables from peasant farming and have no cash at all. All the children have had no opportunities to go to school except Thang as the youngest and the only son of his family.

Thang was a student of Machine Production Department, Viet-Han Technical School sponsored by Korea. Not like his classmates, he was so poor that he could not afford a ‘bui’ lunch (one sold on pavements and likely to be dusty) though it costs only 2000 VND (CND 0.20 or USD 0.13). Riding home was impossible, especially in such a tropical climate in Vietnam because his home is 15 km away. Moreover, his old bicycle was not so good enough and anytime it was out of order he had it repaired at Mr. Dung’s free of charge. Having no woolen jackets, Thang was always in a very thin shirt shivering all over with cold in winter. As a third year student, he was going to write an end of course thesis, go to distant cities for practice and pay various examination fees. These all required money and worried Thang a lot.

Having heard of about Thang’s life, I decided to give Thang CAN 100, part of a fund Ms Xuan Nhi set up at my disposal. Every month Mr. Hoe would help to send Thang money for lunch and expenses to complete his course.

On a trip of giving solace in a village near Thang’s house, I called around to see his family. I met Miss Thin, his elder sister. She is 30 years old and still single. Many came and asked her for her hand but she refused for fear of not being able to share the load of farming with her mother once she has got her own family when her mother was rather old and ill quite often and Thang had not finished his course. She got used to sacrifices and hardships, that makes her become timid and diffident as if she was living in a class society of India in Buddha’s times. Coming back I wrote a letter to advise her to get married when she could find a right man and not to worry much about Thang’s studies any longer since we covered all expenses related to his study. After that I was told that every time she read the letter, she wept. Having heard of this, Minh, my husband, promised to help her afford a small wedding reception and Ms Xuan Nhi would give her a wedding ring as a gift.

As for Thang, he was so surprised and happy to receive the money. When Thang knew that I was in the village, he came to see me, standing outdoors uncertainly. That was a good looking youth, small built with refined manners. He felt inferior, kept silent most of the time, just answered my questions politely, saying ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ and making no eye contact at all. I advised him to study hard so as to get a good job after graduation and help people in aid of charity.

That evening I told him a lot about life from my experiences. There should be a love of life although it is filled up with hardships and difficulties; that needs self-confidence and hope. In terms of happiness and misery it is our view and perception about life that will count, not our possessions. For me to live happily is to learn how to live not only for oneself but also for other people all around, to give and receive love naturally and imponderously like sunrise and sunset. Also, I have told him how miserable I was on the days of crossing the sea. I would have died if Minh had not asked the boatman for a gulp of milk for me. The distressful days when we were refugees with no home, no money, and no family have strengthened our will, which resulted in our happy and meaningful life nowadays. My enormous asset now is the wonderful husband and a load of kind-hearted friends such as Ms Xuan Nhi, Ms Kim, Mr. Ngoc Danh, Ms Nhu Tuyen and all benefactors who have been bringing hope to miserable people.

Coming back to Vietnam this time, I am so glad to hear that Thang has graduated with high marks and was recommended for a post in a Steel Manufacturing factory, Lien Chieu Industrial Zone of Danang. With a salary of some 1,000,000 VND, Thang could buy medicine for his mother and help his sisters. On Tet holidays, his family cooked ‘banh chung’ (a Vietnamese traditional glutinous rice cake), which has not been done since his father died. Thang and his mother went to Mr. Hoe’s, gave him a pair of ‘banh chung’ and expressed their deep gratitude to all benefactors of Eyes of Compassion Programme, especially to those who helped him overcome difficulties and made his way in the world. The mother reminded Thang to visit my mother living in Hue City which is not so far from Danang where he is working now.

No coming – No going

No after - No before

I hold you, close to me

I release you, to be so fee

Because I am in you

And you are in me

Because I am in you

And you are in me

On Spring days, Hue City, 2003

Ton Nu Dieu Lien

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Relief Work For Vietnam

I am writing this letter to let you know the miracles that you have brought to many desperate people.

During my trip to Vietnam last year, I had many opportunities to work closely with nuns, monks and other lay people who have carried the great compassion of the Bodhisattvas.

In the last few years, with your compassion and continuous support, many projects have been going on in some villages in Vietnam. This time, we explored some very remote and isolated areas in central Vietnam where the people had never heard about charity. The people there live in primitive conditions. They only wishes are to have a little food everyday and a roof above. They don’t dare to ask for more.

After making some visits there, we learned that there were many people who have severe cataracts. They have been living in unnecessary miserable darkness and have become a burden for their families. They never heard about cataract operations that can bring back their sights.

With our humble budget, not many people would have operations if we had taken them to a provincial hospital. Fortunately, our friend Hoe, a social worker as well as a brave reporter, shared our concerns and our wish with doctors in the greater area. Shortly after his sharing, many doctors contacted us and offered their help. We were very happy to work with doctors Han and Tung who voluntarily offered their skills to carry out the operations in the local hospital. They also helped us to buy necessary items such as glasses, gauge, bandages and some eye medication. With a budget of $4000 Canadian for about 100 people would get their sight back ($40 per person)! They will see their children and grandchildren again, but more importantly they will be able to help their family and will no longer be a burden to anyone.

We tried to save every dollar we could. In the west, $40 could buy a blouse, a tie or a toy… but in another corner of the world it could bring miracles to a desperate family. We gave up our hotel rooms and our mini van. We stayed with Hoe’s family and borrowed two motorcycles instead. Although, our friends from Canada and Norway were very afraid of riding on a motorcycle, we did not feel right to have the van while at least five more people could have the operations.

After all the necessary arrangements, doctors Han and Tung would carry the operations for 100 people. We were in the waiting room with the patients and their family members. It was a hot and humid day. Everybody was overwhelmed by the miracle of having his or her name on the operation list that day. Some people were crying while waiting, the tears of joy and the tears of fear. I was deeply touched. I returned to my breathing. Breathe to be one with the rivers of joy, of care, of suffering, of despair and of hope… All the rivers of our human kind, I prayed that they would find their ways to reach our hearts and to become one with the great ocean. We wish one day we could travel with you to these areas.

This year we hope to carry out some projects to improve living conditions in some similar areas such as health care, education, and hygiene. If you have any old or new medical equipment or a small amount of money to bring miracles to other people, please contact us. Please indicate which project you would like to support:

* building elementary schools

* supporting continued education for student

* supporting lepper

* digging wells

* supporting blind

* health care such as cataract operations, buying basic medical supplies (bandages, syringes, basic medication) or simple renovation of some local nursing stations

Thank you for taking your time to read this message. And we hope to continue working with you side by side to extend the arms of Bodhisattva who vow to bring joy, justice and light to places that seem like hell on earth.
 

Right after arriving PhuBaiAirport , I was picked up by the driver of  Hoan , the director of a construction material company . On his own car , I was driven straight to VinhCity on the same day to be ready for distributing 55 packages including gifts and scholarship to 55 orphans  . Hoan quietly supported us by selling building materials we supposed to buy for our voluntary projects at a very special price . He also tried his best to provide us the most convenient ways to achieve our goals

On Sunday , some local school heads came to discuss the plan with us . On Monday , Hoe , Hiep and I started our journey . We first stopped at HungYenVillage , Hung Nguyen District , Nghe An province . The list of orphan names in this village is so long . This made us wonder : Why so ? It was the curiosity to have the answer to that question brought us to that pitiful area .

HungYenVillage laid along high forestry mountains . The road leading to the village curved along the mountainous foot slippery with mud . Local people lived on cutting mountain into granite for road building . Many were killed by huge rocks falling down while building roads , leaving their kids as fatherless orphans .

From the letter by Pham Si Thang , an orphan , we thought we should provide them the most essential practical gift useful for their daily life . Thang wrote : “ … Many days I went to school without food when my Mom was not home yet . In addition to be without food, I am also cold  . I prefer only Summer, and I dislike Spring and Winter , just because I have no warm clothes to wear . New clothes is something far from my mind

We visited totally five schools : Nam Yen , Bac Yen , Hung My ,  Hung Xuan , and kindergarten Hung Thong , gave  gifts straight to the kids . We took pictures of the kids with the gifts in their hands , and these pictures will be sent to the benefactors as a sign of appreciation .

All school boards , parents and students were moved by our deep sympathy and compassion and by our practical gifts . Entering their class , looking at their books , their notebooks , their writing utensils , their clothes , we clearly saw their hard struggle . Many of them came to school without pencils , nor notebooks because their bags were too torn to keep one . Their teachers had to lend them pencils and she would collect them back at the end of the school day . Certain students had no books and they had to borrow from their friends . However when we asked them which one of them had no book , no one dared to raise their hands because they were afraid that they might not be allowed to enter the class if they came to school without book . Of course , borrowing books to study like that really  limited their capability to learn . But they were patient ones . With a pale face , they lowered their head to avoid being stared at , and sat quietly at one corner so that they can be allowed to go to school , day by day , just like other kids of the same age

Looking at their skin so pale , their eyes so unconfident , their face so dirty , their only clothes wearing day in day out , at school as well as out in the fields tending buffaloes , wrinkled , shortened , mismatched , and  their shoes broken , unfit , we felt vastly sad . When we held them in our arms , their teachers were afraid that we would feel disgusted of their odor and their dirtiness . They just did not understand that we had just come from the other side of the world , just to be able to meet those unfortunate kids , to share with them love and hope .

Later , we were told by the school head that after our visit , the kid referred me as Miss Sun . Miss Sun promise you kids she will be back when she collects enough financial aid to buy you books , notebooks , old clothes from Saigon , and enough sweaters and blankets knitted from TayLinhVocational School . Each book set for Class 1 and 2 costs VND$ 80,000 ( USD$ 5 or CAD $7 ) , book set for Class 3 , 4 and 5 costs VN$45,000 (USD$3 or CaD$4 ) , blanket or sweater , VND$25,000 ( USD$1.5 or CaD$2) , not counting cost of labor .

From Understanding to Love : Probably I could feel the Cold , the Hunger, and the Misery through Thang’s words , a student of Class 5C , Hung Dao School , and a fatherless kid because I had gone through almost the same situation . I brought the letter to Mrs Oanh , a soft hearted person , who always cares about unfortunate kids . Reading Thang’s letter in a snowy Canadian night , I lay awake through the night , feeling like still hearing the sound of the waves twenty years ago tapping the coast of Hai NamIsland , where I was drifted during the escape from VN . I remembered vividly those wandering days with many nights I lay head down on the sand , dew as covering net , wind as blanket hovering my small body . Many nights flew so slow that I had the feeling I would not stand through to welcome the next morning dawn . Many years later , settled in Canada , the cold , the hunger , the fear , and the desperation still haunted me . Yes , many years later , I still cried quietly under my blankets , feeling sorry for the poor ones who passed the day longing for food and clothes . I dreamt that someday I would be able to place a blanket or a set of clothes on the hands of the needy , to put a warm blanket  over a  sick old and lonely person lying in their poor thatched house , to take care of a young kid who  innocently looked around at the strange faces , and many , many more dreams . Today , I am so happy to find that my dreams have come true

My dream could not have come true like this without the warm support of the benefactors , many of you I have never been met , of my friends who are always there for me, in happiness as well as in sorrowful time , and the understanding from my dear husband

Waste has been converted into flowers , miseries into blessings , unfortunate experiences become means , understanding and love have led me to a very real happiness

I am walking , peacefully

Lips maintain a smile , brightly

Clouds flowing by above , under the sky

Like water in a river running to the sea

Sadness and sorrows become so lightened

I am walking ,  so peacefully

With you my little , we will promenade

With you my little , we will reach the world

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Legend of The Starfish

A vacationing businessman was walking along a beach when he saw a young boy. Along the shore were many starfish that had been washed up by the tide and were sure to die before the tide returned. The boy was walking slowly along the shore and occasionally reached down and tossed a beached starfish back into the ocean. The businessman, hoping to teach the boy a little lesson in common sense, walked up to the boy and said, "I have been watching what you are doing, son. You have a good heart, and I know you mean well, but do you realize how many beaches there are around here and how many starfish are dying on every beach every day? Surely, such an industrious and kindhearted boy such as yourself could find something better to do with your time. Do you really think that what you are doing is going to make a difference?" The boy looked up at that man, and then he looked down at a starfish by his feet. He picked up the starfish, and as he gently tossed it back into the ocean, he said, "It makes a difference to that one."

 ~ Anonymous / Oral Traditional 

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