2020 PROGRAMS

With the help of good friends and generous donors, especially in collaborating with Christmas for Breakfast, this year Bridging Hope is able to take on three new programs, providing vital support to Vietnamese initiatives that directly improve the lives of Viet Nam’s most vulnerable recipients: the impoverished and disabled women and children. All of these projects are in collaboration with local Vietnamese and U.S. based organizations and individual donors.

1. PHÚ HOÀ ORPHANAGE

Located in Tịnh Ấn Tây Village in the city of Quảng Ngãi, Phú Hoà Orphanage is currently caring for 30 abandoned children. Existing for over 50 years, many of the children grew up and were able to move on with their lives, having jobs and families. Bridging Hope, in collaboration with the staff Sisters there, provides the most basic needs of the children which is nutrition and tuition.

2. MẰNG LĂNG ORPHANAGE

Located in Mằng Lăng Village, Phú Yên City, Mằng Lăng Orphanage houses thirty-three orphan children and eight disable adults. This year, collaborating with local staff, Bridging Hope provides nutrition for both adults and children, plus tuition for the children.

3. AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM

Located in Gò Thị Village, Bình Định City, this After School Program provides tutoring to approximately 50 underprivileged children who struggle with school. Since the families are too poor to support the children, Bridging Hope partners with a local group of Sisters to provide tuition and school supplies for the children.

4. THIÊN PHƯỚC ELDER CENTER

Located in Mũi Né, Phan Thiết City, Thiên Phước is another of Bridging Hope’s elder programs. Partnering with a local staff, Bridging Hope provides food and medication to improve physical and mental health to twenty -six homeless or underserved elderly women.

5. THÔNG XANH ORPHANAGE AND SCHOOL

Located on the outskirts of Đà Lạt, Thông Xanh Center and School provides daycare and education for thirty underserved children and thirty-two orphans. Over 90% of the children are of the ethnic minority from the highlands of Viet Nam. Collaborating with a group of the local Sisters, Bridging Hope provides medication, tuition, and nutrition for the children.

6. ELDER OUTREACH

Homeless elders are a growing population in Viet Nam. Younger generations are leaving their villages in search of better economic opportunities elsewhere. As a result, the elders are left vulnerable without the traditional family network.

Since 2012, Bridging Hope, together with a local Vincentian Volunteer Women’s Program, provides meals and healthcare for forty elderly women living in the Phan Thiết community.

7. CỒN ÉN DAYCARE AND SCHOOL

Pre-school aged children live on the island of Cồn Én in the Mekong Delta of Viet Nam. The children are often hungry, unsupervised, and unsafe, especially during monsoon season. Desperate for the safety of their children, parents asked the local Catholic church to open a daycare and school that would provide a safe environment, and childcare for the children while their parents are at work. From 2009, Bridging Hope has provided nutrition and education for approximately seventy children.

8. MAI TAM CHILDREN

Since 2007, along with supporting of the Mai Tam mothers, Bridging Hope started a breakfast program to support the Mai Tam children who are also victims of HIV/AIDs. Currently, Bridging Hope provides daily breakfasts for about two hundred and over eighty children.

9. DAILY BREAD PROJECT

Located in Saigon, Daily Bread is a program at Mai Tam that works directly with women who are HIV/AIDs positive. From 2007 collaborating with local staff and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange in California, Bridging Hope has provided daily nutritional meals to twenty mothers, and supports Mai Tam’s capacity to provide other programs such as housing, healthcare and vocational training.

10. THREADS WOMEN

Since 1991, sr. Sen has worked closely with the women of the THREADS co-op, most of whom have polio. Sr. Sen bought their embroidery, clothes, and other products sold in the U.S. Now, as they are getting older and experiencing problems that come with age, they are no longer able to produce the work they once did. Bridging Hope continues to support them with food, medicine, and emergency help.

Special Projects

11. THANH BACH

Thanh Bach

In 2013, Bridging Hope reached out to a 9 months old girl named Thanh Bạch who suffered from a blood vessel tumor on her left cheek. Since then, Bridging Hope has accompanied her and her family to provide medical assistance. In the spring of 2018, with the help of Father John Toai and his staff at Mai Tam, Thanh Bach received surgical treatment at one of the hospitals in Saigon. The well-planned procedure resulted in the successful surgery that was completed in June 2018! Though her blood vessel tumor has been removed, Bridging Hope has continued to follow up on her condition and to help her family.

Please check out this link for more Thanh Bach’s early story.

12. FLOOD VICTIM RELIEF PROGRAM

In October of 2016, severe flooding swept through the central part of Viet Nam and damaged thousands of homes leaving many people homeless, lacking in food and basic supplies. Responding to such loss, Bridging Hope formed a flood victim relief program. In November of the same year, Bridging Hope visited the flooded areas and provided financial assistance to the flood victims.

13. BRIDGE PROJECT

bridge project

Flood Victim Relief Program continue…To ensure the safety of the villagers from a future flood, Bridging Hope, in collaboration with the volunteers in Colorado and local workers, was able to build a bridge. This would help the people in the lowland areas to escape to the higher lands during the time of flooding. The bridge was completed in April 2019. The villagers were completely overjoyed!

Bridge Project

2019 PROGRAMS

This year along with the already existing programs, Bridging Hope has supporting two more programs: An orphanage in Phú Hoà, Quảng Ngãi, and St. Teresa of Calcutta Boarding House in Đức Trọng.

Phú Hoà Orphanage
Phú Hòa Orphanage, located in Tịnh Ấn Tây Village in the city of Quảng Ngãi, is currently cared for, mostly abandon, 30 children. Existing over 50 years, many of the children grew up and able to move on with their lives… have jobs and families.
Bridging Hope, in collaborating with the staff Sisters there, has been able to provide the most basic need to the children which is nutrition.

St. Teresa of Calcutta Boarding House
The program was established in order to help young minority girls to have a safe and encouragement environment to live. These young girls are usually underserved, live far away from the city, less expose to the traditional school, and lack of environmental encouragement in leadership. The project is planned to provide service such as nutrition, healthcare and wholistic/motivational education for 25 minority young girls from the age of 5-18.
Bridging Hope’s goal is not for establishing public building. This year, however, Bridging Hope is able to collaborate with the staff Sisters there to help providing some nutrition and tuition.

2018 PROGRAMS

Bridging Hope provides vital support to Vietnamese initiatives that directly improve the lives of Viet Nam’s most vulnerable people, its impoverished and disabled women and children. All of these projects are in collaboration with local Vietnamese and U.S. based organizations and individual donors.

1. DAILY BREAD PROJECT

Daily Bread Project provides all the meals for the 27 mothers of the Mai Tam in Saigon, Viet Nam who are impacted by or suffering from HIV/AIDS. Mai Tam is a network of services and shelters for women with HIV/AIDS and their children. These women are some of the poorest and most marginalized in Viet Nam. Bridging Hope partners with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange to directly serve these mothers, providing them daily nutrition to sustain their health in fighting such a serious disease and to restore their lives.

2. MAI TAM CHILDREN

Bridging Hope also helps to provide nutrition to the children who are suffering from HIV/AIDS in the Mai Tam program in Saigon. Currently, in collaborating with the Christmas for Breakfast program, Bridging Hope has provided a daily breakfast for some 300-plus children. Some of the children reside in one of Mai Tam shelters, but the vast majority live with foster parents either because their parents have died or because they are incapable of being the primary caretakers.

3. THREADS

Since 1991, Sen has worked with the women of the THREADS co-op, most of them suffering from polio. Sen bought their embroidery, clothes, and other products to sell in the U.S. Now, as they are getting older, due to the problems of poor vision and bone loss, they are no longer able to produce the work as they used to. Bridging Hope, however, continues to walk along with them and be their friend.

4. CỒN ÉN DAYCARE

Young, pre-school children on this small island in the Mekong Delta in southern Viet Nam were usually hungry, unsupervised, and often unsafe (especially during monsoon). Recognizing the need of safety for these youngsters, the parents asked the local Catholic Church to open a daycare in order to provide a safe environment and early childcare for their children. Since 2009, Bridging Hope has collaborated with the local church providing supervision, nutrition and education for approximately 70 impoverished children.

5. CỒN ÉN TEACHER SALARY

Begin in 2017, in addition to supporting the children, Cồn Én School has asked Bridging Hope to supplement the teachers’ salaries in order to keep trained staff members.

6. ELDER PHAN THIET

The elder homeless is a growing population in Viet Nam due to younger generations increasingly leaving their villages in search of economic opportunities. Consequently, Viet Nam’s elderly population is left vulnerable without their traditional family support network. In response to the high risks and needs of this population, Bridging Hope provides meals, healthcare and other support for 40 elderly women in the Phan Thiet community.

7. ROSE HOUSE OF LOVE FOR ABANDONED CHILDREN AND TEENS

Located in Củ Chi, Saigon, Rose House of Love is a home for abandoned children and teens. Bridging Hope collaborates with Christmas for Breakfast to provide health care, education and nutrition for about 40 children at the center.

8. THANH BẠCH’S VENOUS MALFORMATION TREATMENT

Since May 2013, Bridging Hope’s Board Member have helped Thanh Bạch with the ongoing treatment of a blood vessel tumor.

9. FLOOD VICTIM RELIEF PROGRAM – Bridge Buidling

Bridging Hope responded to an urgent need of people affected by severe flooding in central Viet Nam in Oct. 2016. Tens of thousands of homes were completely submerged in the flood waters leaving many homeless, lacking food and basic supplies. Bridging Hope visited the flooded areas to help with relief efforts. Fr. Nang, a former pastor of Tam Trang village, asked if Bridging Hope could help to build a bridge so people in the lowland areas could escape the higher lands during the flood incident. Collaborating with Vietnamese voice performer Đình Bảo, Bridging Hope is looking into the possibility of funding the bridging project. Pending approval, along with Đình Bảo, Bridging Hope has planning to raise $15,000.00 for this project. For more information please click here to read Sen’s article.

Up-date: With the help of friends and volunteers, Bridging Hope was able to raise enough money in 2017 for the project. At it is for today, March 5, the bridge building is process!!!!!