House of Love

Cam Ranh Orphanage,Vietnam

While visiting Vietnam in January 2005, Brittany's Hope Director Candace Abel discovered a tiny orphanage. It is a small three room house (not bedrooms, actual rooms) where eight nuns are trying to raise more than forty orphans who have been abandoned there.

Living on a tiny area of land, surrounded by rice fields and beautiful mountains, the nuns house and care for numerous abandoned and poor children, host a school and a facility for the handicapped, and support indigent elderly living alone. They give all they have and ask for nothing in return, choosing to live in a simple way, isolated from the world and radiating a happiness many of us will never know. They will tell you their work is not extraordinary, their challenges not different from those of their neighbors.

The nuns struggle to feed the children. Their primary source of food is a small garden. The nuns eat sparingly because they wish to save the food for the children. There is very little money to purchase food, clothing, medicine or other necessities. The orphanage is in an extremely poor village. When parents cannot care for their children, they abandon them at the orphanage with the hope that they will be fed and taken care of. We have implemented a nutrition program at the orphanage, ensuring that the children have adequate food daily. They look forward to a special treat of sandwiches and milk every Sunday.

IT COSTS $500 A MONTH TO SUPPORT THIS ORPHANAGE.

The Brittany's Hope Foundation, along with donors and a local church, is working to raise the quality of life for those at the House of Love. The children were sharing a few bedraggled toothbrushes; new toothbrushes, cups and toothpaste were donated, and the children were taught about dental care. When most of the orphanage's animals were lost or sickened in a flood, new water buffalo, chickens, and pigs were purchased. One elderly nun was doing all of the laundry by hand in bowls; Brittany's Hope purchased them a new washing machine. The nuns and children did not have adequate bathroom facilities, so Brittany's Hope built a new area with toilets, showers and sinks. To chill food, milk, and medicines, a new refrigerator was purchased.

In June 2007, Brittany's Hope Foundation and Elizabethtown College traveled to Vietnam to work on improvement projects. While at the orphanage, students, faculty, and foundation members painted, did repairs, constructed beds, and began building a playground. » Read more about the trip here.

So much is still needed for the orphanage: a well for fresh, uncontaminated water ($2,000 - $3,000), land for a new facility ($10,000 - $20,000) to move the children away from the current flood-prone area, animals ($5.00 - $500 each, depending on animal), and medicine. Sponsorships, which only cost $25 per month, are available for sponsoring individual children. Older children need tuition for further education; $40 a month (or $500) will cover a full year's tuition. If you or your group are interested in donating to our House of Love project or sponsoring a child, please contact us, visit our donations page, or mail a check with this form to Brittany's Hope Foundation, 1160 N. Market Street, Elizabethtown, PA 17022.

» Read an interview with Sister Marie, spokesperson for the House of Love.