Dieu Vien Pagoda, Hue 2024: The Final Stop of the Trip Across Vietnam

On March 13, 2024, the Compassionate Hands team reached Diệu Viên Pagoda in Huế, the last stop of its trip across Vietnam, and gave wheelchairs, rice and gifts to people with disabilities, students and blind villagers.

On March 13, 2024, the Compassionate Hands Foundation (Hội Từ Thiện Bàn Tay Nhân Ái) reached Diệu Viên Pagoda in Huế, the last stop of its 2024 charity trip across Vietnam. The team had spent the night in Đà Nẵng and set out for Huế the next morning. The narrator says Central Vietnam is beautiful but also poor, and that each time the team comes here they cannot hold back tears.

A courtyard full of wheelchairs

The narrator recalls that as they stepped into the courtyard, someone asked why there were so many wheelchairs, and no one could answer. They saw mothers carrying children with pleading eyes, and grown children carrying their mothers to collect gifts. When a team member reached out to hold a baby, the child stopped crying, and the mother's eyes lit up at the box of milk the team had brought.

A monk in the group said hardship here is greater than in many other places and there are more disabled people, so the team gives out more wheelchairs. Even though many wheelchairs are given each year, there are never enough, so the team gives as many as it can.

Monthly rice and students

On monthly rice, the monk said the team is trying to restore the 10 kg level of earlier years, but because funds are not yet enough it is keeping the amount at 5 kg for now. He said 10 kg is often shared by a whole family, not a single person, so 5 kg is surely not enough, and he feels uneasy about it. The team will try to restore 10 kg as soon as it can.

Those without a sponsor receive unplanned gifts. He also said many students here come from poor families and are trying hard to study, but the team has no funds to sponsor scholarships. This time it gave unplanned gifts to the students, as much as it could.

A short message

The monk asked only to leave a brief message:

We already suffer in material things, so let us not suffer in spirit as well.

A senior monk in the group

He advised that those who can go to a pagoda should do so and learn from monks and nuns, and those who cannot should play Dharma talks at home, listen, study and practice, so that body and mind become calmer each day. Once at peace, he said, we suffer less even if life is unfortunate or material things are lacking.

Another monk then reminded people with disabilities who find it hard to travel to play recitations of the Buddha's name, so that body and mind can be at peace. He invited the monks and lay followers in the group to recite the name together with the villagers and dedicate the merit so the distribution would end well.

The order of giving

The team gave first to people in wheelchairs, then to students and people with disabilities, and finally to blind villagers. Each team member led one blind person by the hand. The narrator says some were born blind, some lost their sight to illness they could not afford to treat, and some to accidents, and that they greatly need our kindness. Seeing the children cry in pain, the narrator says, no one could resist the emotion.

What stays with us

The film closes with a song about the faraway countryside and a hope that members and supporters will keep contributing, pooling rice for poor households, so the foundation can remain a bridge for giving and receiving. The narrator says such acts of sharing show our love for everyone.