About Compassionate Hands Foundation

Our story

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Hội Từ Thiện Bàn Tay Nhân Ái) is based at 10510 Chapman Ave, Garden Grove, California, the heart of the Vietnamese community in Orange County.

The foundation is led by Venerable Thích Minh Nhựt, our president, a son of the Phan Thiết region. Together with Buddhist lay followers and donors overseas, we encourage those who are comfortable in life to turn toward the homeland and share with those still facing hardship, regardless of region, religion, or ethnicity.

The original goal was very simple: to seek out remote villages and give elderly people living alone and people with disabilities 10 kg of rice each month. Over time the foundation added scholarships for students in need, bicycles for getting to school, wheelchairs, and regular gift distributions. Some people have received the foundation's monthly rice for more than 10 years.

Surviving video records show that the foundation provided flood relief in central Vietnam in 2011, its 7th charity trip to Vietnam (2014) and 8th (2015, with more than 50 Buddhist followers from the United States and about 20 temples), relief for communities around Tonlé Sap Lake in Cambodia (2014), storm and flood relief in central Vietnam (2017), a cross-country trip in 2019, and steady trips every spring from 2024 through 2026.

Many temples have been partners of the foundation for nearly 20 years, such as Diệu Tịnh Temple (Phú Yên), one of the first places the foundation helped. Between trips, the abbots hand out monthly rice to local families on the foundation's behalf on the full-moon day. Diệu Viên Temple (Huế), which cares for many children with disabilities, is visited by our team every year.