The Foundation for the Children of Vietnam was founded by Diep Vuong in the summer of 1999. In the previous year, Diep was inspired during a visit to a Buddhist temple-orphanage in the city of Can-Tho. Despite impoverished conditions, the Buddhist nuns of the temple raised six children including;

• An abandoned newborn girl left in a straw basket at the temple’s doorstep,
• A child left at the temple for “a few days” by a mother who never returned,
• A 5-year-old child of a prostitute, who was taken to the temple after being sexually abused by her mother’s customers.

Diep created the Foundation solely to help these and thousands of other innocent children like them struggling to grow up disadvantaged in Vietnam.

Sadly, Diep Vuong passed away in September 2000, but her vision and inspiration live on in the Foundation she created. A dedicated group of unpaid volunteers has worked tirelessly to grow the charity to help thousands of children. Today, the Foundation supports;

• The Buu-Tri Temple in Can Tho, described above,
• Long Hoa orphanage, which houses over 110 boys in a boarding school-like environment,
• Ky Quang II orphanage, which I home to over 150 physically and mentally handicapped children including newborn babies abandoned at because of their birth defects,
• A Children’s Burn Unit at a Ho Chi Minh City hospital. Many children there have life-threatening burns and their families have little or no resources to pay for medical treatment.

We plan to continue to grow rapidly and to help more and more children.