Thien Huong Pagoda - Home For Big Dreams

In the last 5 years, Thien Huong Pagoda has raised more than 60 children, most when they were still newborn.

Chi, Cải, Bảo, Điệu are the children that have lived at the Pagoda since they were babies (Photo: LET NEWZ COOK)

In the quiet temple yard, kids run, shout, and play on a rusty swing. This ancient place of peace is also a home. It is a safe harbor for people who has nowhere else to go - single mothers or children left at its gate, often as tiny babies.

Each kids have their own kind of entertainment (Photo: LET NEWZ COOK)

THIEN HUONG PAGODA

More than twenty children live here, from babies to teenagers. They have different stories, but they share one home. Life here is not easy. Money is tight, and there are always more needs than hands to help. But the monk and volunteers make sure of one thing: these children will have a normal day, filled with the simple routines of care.

The kids enjoy their simple meals (Photo: LET NEWZ COOK)

They start their morning like most children: waking up, putting on their uniforms, and eating a quick breakfast before heading to school. On weekends, when they don't have to go to school, they find joy in small things: sharing a swing or sweeping around the pagoda.

After that, the children wash their hands at an outdoor sink, line up without pushing, and find their seats at long wooden tables, waiting for their lunches.

It is a daily ritual of care, and a feat of community help. “I prepare over 60, sometimes 70 meals here every single day,” Auntie Mai - a volunteer at the Pagoda says. The food itself is a patchwork of compassion. It comes from the surrounding village - whoever has more, gives more; whoever has less, gives less. When donations run thin, the pagoda’s own funds are used. And the children? They are all well-behaved, she notes with a tired but proud smile. They always finish what they are given. The kids would also help to take care of the baby and the Pagoda.

Baby "Kem" listening to the children singing the lullaby (Photo: LET NEWZ COOK)

"There have been tight times. Then everyone just pools what they have. Everyone helps in."

After lunch and a short nap, the energy shifts to quiet concentration. In the pagoda’s hall, now a study room, children open their backpacks and study as hard as they can. When asked, they all said that they loved to go to school everyday, because the school has teachers, friends and where they could learn a lot of things.

Just before evening, the children's own ritual begins. Without any adult guidance, the older kids lead the younger ones in a quiet procession. They carry the offering of "cháo chúng sinh" themselves, gather at the the main House, and recite the prayers together. It’s a moment of solemn, self-led compassion, a daily practice that is entirely their own.

The children offering "Cúng cháo chúng sinh" (Photo: LET NEWZ COOK)

HOME FOR BIG DREAMS

The day ends as it began: together. They brush their teeth at a row of sinks, get ready for bed in shared dormitories, and settle under mosquito nets. Before we say goodbye, we ask them one last time to tell us their dreams.

Điệu shared that she wants to be a doctor in order to make her mom healthier (Photo: LET NEWZ COOK)

Cải shared that she wants to be a seller so she could make a lot of money for her mom (Photo: LET NEWZ COOK)

Gà shared that she wants to be a singer as she likes to sing songs about mother love (Photo: LET NEWZ COOK)

"I want to be a singer."

"I want to be a doctor."

"I want to be a seller."

"I want to be a person who stays in the Pagoda."

The answers are simple, yet for children who began life with no clear past, each one is an extraordinary act of imagination, a fragile but strong claim on a future. The light goes out. In the dark, the Pagoda falls still. Another ordinary day at Thien Huong has ended.

But in that quiet, the most essential work is already complete: the work of making sure these children can fall asleep knowing they are safe, fed, and allowed to dream. And for one child, that dream is not of leaving, but of returning. "

Because this is my home," she says.

Tomorrow, they will wake and begin again, building their futures one simple, shared day at a time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUG5_JruRpM

What do you think you can do to support these children?

• Support meal and daily living costs
• Participate in teaching and educational support
• Donate books and school supplies
• Unable to contribute now, but willing to share this story