In January 2024 we had a fun visit with the children at the Song Lo Orphanage and celebrated the Lunar New Year. Tet is the biggest holiday of the year in Vietnam, and we wanted to do something special for the children at Song Lo. We contacted the caretakers ahead of time, and arranged to bring monthly supplies of food, plus some special Tet gifts.
When our team arrived, the children helped carry everything inside. For monthly provisions, we brought varieties of mushrooms, tofu sheets, oyster sauce, marinade sauce, vegan meat pies, vegan chicken, peanuts, mung beans, white beans, sugar, condensed milk, and yogurt.
To celebrate Tet, we gave all the children new clothes to wear to welcome the new year. We also gave the orphanage traditional Tet sweets and cakes. Finally, we gave the children and the caretakers red envelopes of lucky money. It was a wonderful day!
This holiday charity trip was made possible through the kind donations from Elaine Nguyen, Lorella Amato, and Ronald Schierer. 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.
