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Beggars of Compassion

The destiny of someone is usually guided by a person's strong feelings about an event witnessed by that person or knew of the circumstances through other media. The foundation of the “Beggars of Compassion” fellowship taken place following the all-encompassing anguish felt by Mr. Nguyen Cong-Bang, when confronted with the devastating aftermath of a natural disaster in Viet Nam in 1992.

 

At that moment, Mr. Nguyen had a unique goal: he would serve as a bridge connecting the kind-hearted people oversea with the victims of calamities at home. With that in mind, the Social Assistance Program for Viet Nam (SAP-VN) was created with five dedicated young founding members. After four years of struggles and hard works, the SAP-VN was making great strikes and has started collecting encouraging results. These accomplishments brought joy to the team members and have alleviated the misery of handicapped children they helped. Confident that the association was on the right path and the missions were in capable hands, Mr. Nguyen decided to step back from the leadership position so that he could concentrate on realizing his long-time dream. This was a dream of a new Viet Nam with more freedom, more liberty for the Vietnamese at home, all in the name of democracy.
In a span of 20 years following the departure of Mr. Nguyen, hundreds of young volunteers and good Samaritans all over the world have kept the good works of the association flowing non-stop.
In 2003, separate circumstances brought Mr. Nguyen to Cambodia where he was again confronted with utter misery suffered by his countrymen, women, children, and elderlies. This time around, it was not a countable number such as the 43 victims of the 1992 natural disaster, but a number in the magnitude of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese people shouldering a hopeless faith that gets carried from generation to generation with no end in sight. They are the hapless Viet Kieu of Cambodia, born in Cambodia to Vietnamese parents themselves resided in that country for the countless time, but were denied the most basic right to live a decent life. They are called the “legal immigrants” of Cambodia but they are not allowed the benefits of refugees or regular immigrants. They do not have any legal documents that would provide them a means to find jobs or to send their children to schools. To make matters worst, these Vietnamese cannot go back to Viet Nam because of the same issues. They do not have any legal paper works to stay in Viet Nam even though they are Vietnamese… Facing this situation, Mr. Nguyen decided to do something…
Due to the complication with the political landscape in Cambodia, Mr. Nguyen started providing small assistance through the association “Cau Lac Bo Hoa Mai” in Viet Nam, a private charity focusing on helping the poor, sick, and disabled people or handicapped soldiers of VNCH. This endeavor has been going on since 2006.
The mission of Mr. Nguyen over the next ten years was littered with hard works and a fair amount of discrimination and sabotages. Even so, Mr. Nguyen never wavered in his efforts to provide relief to the poor Vietnamese over there. Combining his efforts with like-minded people, they achieved some significant feats such as a school teaching three languages to 45 children in Siem Reap in early June of 2013. The school was active for a short three months until a suspicious accident happened that almost cost Mr. Nguyen his life. Despite all those troubles, he marched on with another educational endeavor in Sieng Nam Borei for a period of one year plagued with more difficulties. In the end, Mr. Nguyen’s efforts have been paid off with more material and moral supports start pouring in from many benefactors in the USA.
In March of 2014, the ViDan Foundation Inc. was founded and was listed as a non-profit charity under article 501(c)3. The Foundation includes members of Cau Lac Bo Hoa Mai and several associates with the same goals as Mr. Nguyen. Without wasting time, the foundation has marched forth to open free classes teaching 300 children of extremely poor families the basics of reading and writing the Vietnamese language in two provinces Kampong Chhnang and Prey Veng. In the meantime, the Foundation also secured $20,000 via fundraising effort to provide emergency help to two former prisoners Nguyen Huu Cau and Dinh Dang Dinh.
The educational tasks have been moving along relatively smoothly after initial hurdles. Despite the progress, Mr. Nguyen was deeply concerned regarding the scoop of the enormous task: How would the Foundation be able to provide even the most rudimentary learning skills to hundreds and hundreds of poor children in Cambodia?... How would the Foundation make the hopeless situation here known to everyone out there in the whole wide world? The effort of one single foundation would not be enough. Mr. Nguyen could not find enough words to express his profound appreciation toward all the contributions dedicated to the poor stateless Vietnamese in Cambodia. Their situation is desperate but how many people in Viet Nam or abroad know of them? The nagging questions always follow Mr. Nguyen nights and days…
To maintain the free education of over 500 poor Vietnamese children, it would require a constant flow of cash to cover all necessary costs. The Vidan Foundation still has to rely heavily on begging for help from benefactors everywhere… And there you go, you have witnessed the beginning of a new association, the fellowship of the “Beggar of Compassion” with only one requirement for its members “No shame allowed when begging”. The fellows of this association beg anywhere and everywhere, via the internet, person to person, through fundraising effort, by mail, by foot dropping pamphlets…
Mr. Nguyen and his fellow associates of the ViDan Foundation feel embarrassed when asking for donations, especially when their requests were met with cold staring or indifference, but they keep on doing it again and again… You ask why? It is very simple, each time they get a contribution from someone, they imagine the bright eyes of the children, the emotions written all over the faces of the Vietnamese of Cambodia, yes, the stateless Vietnamese of Cambodia… With such a vision, the fellows of the ViDan Foundation get a boost of energy and a “shameless feeling” to continue begging. When Mr. Nguyen and his compassionate soldiers get donations, they not only provide education to the Tonle Sap children, but they also provide sustenance to the families of these children, they distribute rice, cooking oils, sugars, ramen noodles… to these downtrodden people.
When everything is said and done, would you like to join the fellowship of the Vagrants of Salvation?
I do and I also am shameless in begging for my stateless Vietnamese even though they have no idea who I am.

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by Que-Chi Truong-Bolduc

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