In January 2025 we celebrated the Lunar New Year at the Song Lo Orphanage. Tet is the biggest holiday of the year in Vietnam and we coordinated with the caretakers on having a fun party when we made our regular visit. In addition to bringing food and general supplies for the month, we also brought lots of traditional Tet gifts.
For general supplies, we brought tofu sheets, vegan meat pies, vegan beef balls, vegan fish sauce, vegan oyster sauce, sugar, seaweed, sriracha, mung beans, peanuts, seasonings, noodles, breadcrumbs, cooking oil, tiger balm, fresh vegetables, dish soap, laundry detergent, cleaning products, and toiletries.
For Tet, there were lots of traditional sweets, soft drinks, snacks, and red envelopes of lucky money. It was a lovely day!
This charity trip was made possible through the kind donations from Dan, Van, and Devin Haynes. Thank you!!!
ABOUT THE SONG LO ORPHANAGE
The history of the Song Lo Orphanage’s beginnings is heartwarming. As the story goes, a Buddhist monk was traveling in the countryside when he encountered a woman who said she could not care for her 2 children. She left the babies with the monk and fled. Not expecting to have 2 babies to care for, the monk made his way to the Song Lo pagoda, and the head nun at the pagoda, Sister Cat, agreed to care for the children. From that point on, orphans have been either brought to the pagoda, or abandoned at their gates. Formed in 2012, the Song Lo Orphanage cares for a small group of young children. Located adjacent the Son Lo pagoda, it’s a small facility deep in the countryside west of Nha Trang.
