Tu Phuoc Pagoda, Quang Ngai 2024: After Fifteen Years of Monthly Rice

On March 16, 2024, the Compassionate Hands team reached Từ Phước Pagoda in Quảng Ngãi, gave out essentials to villagers and orphaned children, and said it was temporarily withdrawing rice books of those who have passed away.

On March 16, 2024, the Compassionate Hands Foundation (Hội Từ Thiện Bàn Tay Nhân Ái) arrived at Từ Phước Pagoda in Quảng Ngãi province. From Phú Yên the team continued its charity journey across Vietnam, past green mountain ranges and beautiful beaches. According to the narration, the bus drove more than six hours along the coast before reaching the pagoda.

This year's gifts

This year's essentials included green oil (dầu xanh), toothpaste, toothbrushes, seasoning powder, boxed milk, sweets, towels, cooking oil, fermented tofu, soybean paste, blankets, conical hats, rice and instant noodles. These are the gifts the team usually gives at its stops.

The team leader on the rice books

Before the distribution, the team leader, a monk, spoke to villagers about the monthly rice books. In places where the foundation has given monthly rice for about 15 years, some of the elderly have grown frail and passed away. In the past the foundation could pass those shares to others in difficulty, but with funds short, it is temporarily withdrawing the rice books of those who have died. He said that when conditions allow, the foundation will add to the number at this pagoda.

He also said the team had once surveyed the area and knew many families suffer greatly, but the foundation's means are limited. It helps as much as it can, and he asked villagers for their understanding.

A message to orphaned children

He told the children who received gifts:

We are children without parents, not like other children with both mother and father, so we must work hard at our studies, because when we grow up we must rely on ourselves to live, not on anyone else.

The team leader

He urged the children to keep striving.

Thanks and a call to goodness

He thanked the senior monk who handed out the monthly rice on the team's behalf to the elderly here, and the organizers who arranged the day. Another monk thanked the delegation, especially Thượng tọa Thích Minh Nhựt, the team leader, who has returned to his homeland many times to do practical work for villagers. He urged those receiving gifts to keep their actions, words and thoughts directed toward goodness, so that life becomes lighter and suffering less.

Thanks from Từ Phước

The narrator says the charity in California has never hesitated to open its heart to others. Near the end of the film, an elderly woman who received gifts spoke her thanks:

Thank you to the kind donors who care for the old people here at Từ Phước Pagoda.

An elderly woman receiving gifts

She said she was speaking for everyone, thanking the team from America for coming to help poor people.

What stays with us

The narrator says the Central Vietnam heat was fierce and sweat ran down the faces of the team, but when they looked at the villagers still in hardship, the sweat seemed to become drops that heal themselves and others. Sometimes, they note, a warm glance, a friendly smile or a sincere word is enough to fulfill a heart.