FAQ

How do you decide whom to help? Instead of just passing out money to poor kids on the streets, we focus on well-run orphanages and public projects that will benefit children at large. We provide funds to selected orphanages quarterly. We have also paid for laying water pipelines to bring fresh water to villages where children are at serious health risks from contaminated water. Our other public services have included dispensing medicine, wheelchairs, and baby formulas, as well as supplying food for a soup kitchen at a children’s hospital. In some cases we also fund education for disadvantaged children.

How do you raise funds? We send out letters once a year asking for donations. We also sell fashion jewelry and other items at local flea markets. Claire’s Accessories stores have been very generous in helping our cause, and three nail boutiques have let us sell jewelry in their stores. A local church, Bethesda United Methodist Church, has also generously helped.

What is needed most by the places you support? They need money the most.

What are the ages of the children that your foundation supports? Our official upper cut-off age is 18.

How do you get the funds to the places you support? We send money with volunteers when they happen to visit Vietnam for other purposes. They are happy to deliver the money and to check in on the orphanages for us. We never wire money because it may fall into the wrong hands.

How many children has your foundation helped over the years? It’s hard to say, perhaps a thousand.

Can you describe an example of a success story? This past year, one of our volunteers visited an orphanage and saw a sad six-year-old boy sitting by himself while other children were playing. He asked the boy why he was not playing with the other children. The boy didn’t answer. After much persuasion, he confided to the volunteer that he misses his family. His parents placed him in the orphanage because they could not afford to care for him. Our volunteer spent much time and effort to locate the boy’s family. He then asked the orphanage’s permission to take the boy back to his home. After traveling for two days, partly by car and partly by walking on a footpath across a mountain, they located his family. Many tears of joy fell as the family reunited. A mere $100 made the difference between his family being able to keep the boy and giving him up to an orphanage.