Tax ID# 03-0432991

A non profit under Section 501 (c) (3)

Public Charity Status 170 (b) (A) (vi)

Combined Federal Campaign CFC # 12462 Code donor

Saigon, February 2008.

Dear Benefactors of the “Abandoned Little Angels” Association,

My name is Father Frédéric Rossignol (in Vietnamese, Trần Sỹ Hòa); I am from Belgium and have lived in Vietnam for several months now. Along with a number of other priests and Sisters, I was invited by Mr. and Mrs. Toan to join the team of “Abandoned Little Angels” to visit 60 orphanages throughout the length and breadth of Vietnam. It took us about three weeks to achieve this goal. This was an extraordinary experience that I would like to share some of it with you. The motto for this year is “Give a child a smile!” Smiling is a very natural attitude in Vietnam. Perhaps, it has to do with the fact that Vietnamese society is incredibly young. Very often, I see children or teenagers, two on the same bike, talking to each other and smiling! As a foreigner, I attract attention and as I am able to speak a little Vietnamese, (I have been studying it for ten months now), my way of speaking makes people smile and laugh! The people of Vietnam are well able to smile and laugh but actually the smile of many people and especially of the children is in danger, for many reasons that I would like to explain.

- “Dýng mắc cỡ!” “Don’t be ashamed!” Many times, we met children who didn’t smile immediately when we approached them, because of ‘mắc cỡ’. Vietnam is very diversified from a sociological point of view. Many regions are very isolated for several reasons. For example, if you go to the Mekong Delta (Miền Tây), you have to take a boat to reach some orphanages. There, every block of houses is surrounded by water. Or if you go in the center of Vietnam, in the mountains, access to the villages is also difficult. There are only a few dirt roads. You are surrounded by the forests and the minorities speak their native languages! Finally, when you go to the countryside, you meet people who are working in the rice fields. Some use buffalos to plough! In all these regions (Mien Tay, region of the mountains, countryside), people very rarely see foreigners. They can hardly imagine how the life of other people is in big cities like Hanoi or Saigon or the life of people from abroad. Usually, a child doesn’t smile at strangers but only at those whom he knows. It happened to me many times that when I met children, they were ‘mắc cỡ’ or even afraid of me, an ‘Ông Tây’.  For our group, to reach the several regions of Vietnam and to enter in contact with the isolated people is a way to tell them: “Don’t be afraid. We are different but we are friends and we can get to know one another”.  To give a smile to children is to help them to discover that people from other regions of Vietnam and people from outside Vietnam are willing and happy to meet and spend some time with them.

- “Con bị cảm lạnh không? Vâng, lạnh quá!” “Are you cold? Yes very cold!” When you feel cold, it is not easy to smile! During our trip, we didn’t need to look at the map. It was enough to feel the temperature outside and to see the dress of the people to realize that we were heading to the North. What a difference between Saigon (30 degrees) and Hanoi (15 degrees). In Western countries, most of the people don’t feel so uncomfortable with the cold weather. You just turn the heater on and the problem is solved! But in Vietnam, although the temperature is very low, we saw people working in the rice fields, in the cold water, and we thought that they would be more comfortable at home. But when we visited their home, the temperature was also very low. No heater! For the “Abandoned Little Angels” Association, to encourage children to smile is also to improve their lives by giving them food, warm clothes and blankets. This is why every year, “Abandoned Little Angels” brings food and money to every orphanage. We don’t solve all the problems. We just try to do our best to allow children to smile more frequently!

- “Con biết, cô giáo của con dễ thýõng!” “Do you know that you have a very nice looking teacher?” When the blind children heard my comment about their teacher, they were smiling! They believed me because although they are blind, in their heart, they knew it already. Their teacher, a young woman, was teaching them music so well that it was natural for them to think that she must be nice looking also! During our trip, we met many handicapped children. It is a beautiful and difficult experience at the same time. You wish every child would be healthy, able to do all the things that other children can do: to speak, to listen, to run, to learn. But there is something mysterious in the places we met handicapped children. They were smiling, they were happy! Why is it so? Because people take care of them and give them good reasons to be happy: they have class, they learn to work, and if they are seriously dependent due to their disability, still they know that somebody loves them and takes care of them. For sure, the future won’t be easy for most of those children when they will be adults. But as long as they are children, they have the right to a joyful childhood!

- Is there anything more beautiful than a father or a mother playing with their children? When love and security are present, smiles come naturally. On the contrary, how big is the suffering for adults and children when they are separated. During our trip we met many orphans, most of them handicapped children. In a country where the social system is limited, it can be very difficult for poor parents to raise a child, especially a handicapped child. How can parents take care of handicapped children when they have to go to work the whole day? But surprisingly the orphans we met were smiling, were happy! Why is it so? The thing is that they found adults who love them like mother and father: the religious sisters, the religious fathers, the religious brothers. They are adopted fathers and mothers for these children. Having decided themselves not to have children, their heart is ready to offer love to these abandoned children. And so we experienced an atmosphere of joy in the centers we visited.

The trip through the whole country was a long one. We travelled 5000 km. and visited thousands of children. Spontaneously, some children were smiling when they saw us and we smiled back. But as well as a smile, the association, “Abandoned Little Angels”, tries to give the children substantial help to help them to keep smiling during their whole life. We do our best. We won’t solve all the problems of poverty in Vietnam. Like in every country, in Vietnam some children are smiling when others are suffering. The love many benefactors of the association give to their own children incites them to help the abandoned children to smile also. There is no bigger reward for the heart of an adult than to see a child smiling. Thanks to all the benefactors, especially to Mr and Mrs Toan and the Sisters for this marvelous trip. Remembering it, I have good reasons to smile too!

Cha Hòa (F.Frédéric)