A report from Ron and Bev Hall, 12th January 2014
The Thien Phuc Charity Centre is located about 60 kilometres north of Hanoi in Bac Giang province. The charity centre serves as an orphanage for about 140 children but it also serves a small community as a training centre and shelter for women and children.
It was started by a mother of several adopted children, Ms Song, who also has two children of her own. Along with her husband, she founded the Thien Phuc Charity Centre and about four years ago the buildings were established with aid from the South African government. Since then there has been assistance from other governments, including the Italian and Germen governments.
Facilities at the centre include a two story building which has several rooms down stairsand a large area upstairs a large multi-purpose area. Nearby there is a dining area and and another building which serves as a workshop. It contains about 40 sewing machines that were apparently donated by a factory. These are used by some of the children and women from the community to acquire skill that will help them find employment in the community. A number of the children at the centre are disabled and a special effort is made so that they can become as independent as possible.
When we were shown the downstairs area of the main central building it was pointed out that the rooms had no doors. Possibly our small donation was large enough to held put doors on at least some of these rooms.
Attached to the centre is a garden and a fish pond, both of which provide food to the centre, some of which we had the privilege to sample. The fish pond below the garden is flooded by the local river during the wet season which as the effect of restocking with fish to last the rest of the year after the water has receded.
A project they are about to embark on involves the planting of jack fruit which is of special value as it has a particularly high content of beta carotene, even much more so than carrots.
Today the centre serves a community of four hundred or more people in need of support – disabled children, struggling families and women needing shelter. On behalf the Australia Vietnam Friendship Society we promised to continue our support for their work. With obvious pleasure, they recalled Kim Sampson’s visit last year which precipitated our visit this year. Our society has become part of some genuine friendship building. It was considered auspicious to have foreign visitors so early in the New Year – that is the Lunar New Year.
