Our May Newsletter celebrates the Easter Season in Kontum and Pleiku. Once again I am reminded about how hard the Sisters and Caregivers work to make this all happen.
In just a few short months, thanks to your help, there has been significant progress made towards resuming normal life in Kontum and Pleiku. The end of the school year is approaching and although there are new social distance guidelines for students of all ages the Sisters and the kids have found ways to incorporate them into their daily life. We have also started new capital improvement projects that will have a huge, long-term impact on their lives. The repair of the girl’s bathroom and the new boys dining hall at VS1 are well under way. The chicken coop and pigpens at VS2 are also well under way. Building plans for the new activity hall at VS3 have been submitted for a building permit. These ambitious projects have only been approved because of your generosity. In the future, we hope to be able to fund a new dormitory at VS4 and a pigpen at VS6. These improvements are in addition to FVSO’s continued focus on basic needs, our top priority every year.
FVSO
Friends
of
Vinh Son
Fund Raising
This has been a difficult year for many. Our donations are well below previous years at this time and well below our planned budget. But there is a way you can help through Amazon Smile
AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support FVSO, at no cost to you. Shop at smile.amazon.com, and find the same convenient experience with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to FVSO. Just type in the Vinh Son Montagnard Orphanage to make your choice. The kids will be the beneficiaries !
All operating expenses paid by the Board of Directors so 100% of your donation goes
to the children.
Some Fun Videos
Sr. Vice President
My first visit to the Orphanage was in March of 2001. It was one of many scheduled stops on a two-week tour of Vietnam with a group of veterans. That visit was a profound and life changing event for me.
We arrived at the Orphanage in the morning and we given a brief guided tour of the Old Wooden Church and the grounds. It was when we visited the nursery that I vowed to be involved with the Orphanage for life.
We were looking around the nursery, taking pictures when a toddler about 3 years old walked up to me and took my little finger in his tiny fist. He looked up at me with the kindest, gentlest expression I have ever seen. At that moment I knew I had to do something to make life better for him and the other children there. I think of that moment often and have nothing but questions about what he was thinking and feeling. Was he being polite? Was it out of love? Was he trying to comfort me? I will never have the answer to these questions but they are always with me.
He will never know the impact of this simple act. He is a product of his environment and all he has ever known at the Orphanage is kindness and love, so he acted accordingly, and won my support and commitment forever.
I am a retired executive in telecommunications. I am not a veteran of Vietnam but was in and out of the Army by 1964. I am not a member of the Catholic Church, so my involvement in the Orphanage transcends any organizational ties and my interest is purely humanitarian.
I have visited the Orphanage in 2003 and again in 2005. I will continue to support the Orphanage through my involvement on the Board and future visits. This is one of the most worthwhile and rewarding projects I have ever undertaken.