Lunar New Year Gifts given to the homeless in Saigon on the mid-night of 10/02/2018

Delivery of 110 loving gifts has not been completed until over 02:00 am. Twenty young volunteers of TỪ HÒA-CICG said goodbye to one another, and returned home ready for a new day, whereas those without home and family have still been sleeping in temporary and rough shelters under the city bridges or beneath the eaves of houses along streets etc on the cold night of Sai Gon right before the Tet Holidays.

A loving gift given to a homeless man, who was forced to

sleep at the bus stop.

On the mid-night of 10/Feb, three groups of 20 TỪ HÒA-CICG volunteers gathered at an intended place from which a certain number of gift packages were assigned to each (group) and scattered many streets of Sai Gon, where many homeless people congregated, as investigated two weeks before. As planned, each package includes a square glutinous rice cake (called Bánh Chưng), 8 small boxes of Vina milk and a large biscuit box worth 120,000 VNDs (7 AUDs/each).

Square glutinous rice cakes (known as Bánh Chưng 1 kg heavy), traditional cake on the Lunar New Year Days in Viet Nam.

As the night was getting late (mid –night or early morning of the next day), the hustle and bustle of Sai Gon had closed in the opening of unhappy souls, who were homeless, or who had to work as scavengers, three-wheeled pedicab drivers, street hawkers and street walkers. While almost all people were happy enjoying their sleep in good bedding, these unlucky human-beings were lonely rouging it on park benches, sidewalks etc on the cold nights of the Tet Holidays.

Lunar New Year gift handed in to a scavenger

In spite of being exhausted from the mid-night journey, importantly, all the volunteers of TỪ HÒA-CICG felt very happy,as they were pleased, from the bottom of their hearts, to give 110 gift packages to the unfortunate people in person, warming their hearts, making them not feel lonesome and bringing a little happiness to them on the coming Lunar New Year. What a significant deed!

Thanks to the generosity from you (donors), both TỪ HÒA-CICG members and volunteers could have completed such a great job, reducing the homeless’ suffering in Sai Gon.

Once again, Thank you (donors, members and volunteers) very much indeed for your donations and your engagement respectively in delivering the loving gifts to the very disadvantaged people.

Peace, Happiness with kindest regards to you

Thu Phuong and Tien DANG

Below are some more photos on the Gifts-Night