S.O.S VILLAGE
The story I’m sharing with you is a reflection of the hidden side of every country in the world, the abandoned people. Living in a nursing home Ba Vi, Hanoi, about a hundred lives there are left alone, mostly elders, orphans, and the disabled. I had the chance to visit the S.O.S village along with a volunteer crew from a high school in Hanoi. We went there around new years eve to visit and give the people there food and charity.
I talked with a guide there who is also a nurse, the nurses are called “Mother” by the villagers. She told us about the village and some particular people there. All the mothers here are women with no child, they spent years taking care of the abandoned as a family of their own.
Not only ordinary kids and elders are sent here, but people with Down syndrome, autism, underdeveloped also take the major of the popularity here. Most people there don’t even acknowledge that they are left alone by their family and had to be taken care of by strangers.
There was a room with more than 20 kids below the age of 10. When we walked in with gift baskets on our hands, they got so excited but none of them came to us right away. They were scared. Only when a Mother gathered all the gifts and allowed them to come, they all ran to her side and, surprisingly, they were all very well-behaved. The big kids gave the presents to the younger ones and they all said “thank you” afterward.
One very energetic kid who suffered from Down syndrome ran alongside our crew and, at one point, he held my hand and dragged me towards a shelf. Inside were bracelets, handmade bracelets made by the kids themselves. Those were souvenirs they made to sell to visitors and it is amazing how autistic and Down kids managed to create such beautiful hand-crafts.
It was an emotional trip for everyone. It is truly a problematic issue that there are still vulnerable lives out there that haven’t been helped yet. Thankfully, organizations like Thuy An nursing home are becoming more popular and with their help, people in need could have the minimal support to live the life they deserve.
“All lives matter, even the little ones”