Pháp Hoa Pagoda (Bình Thuận) and Long Phước Pagoda (Khánh Hòa): charity trip, March 19-21, 2025

From March 19 to 21, 2025, the Compassionate Hands Foundation visited Pháp Hoa Pagoda in Bắc Bình, Bình Thuận and Long Phước Pagoda in Ninh Hòa, Khánh Hòa, giving wheelchairs, monthly rice and gifts to poor families.

From March 19 to 21, 2025, the Compassionate Hands Foundation (Hội Từ Thiện Bàn Tay Nhân Ái) continued its spring trip through Vietnam. After Lâm Đồng and Bình Định, the team stopped at two pagodas: Pháp Hoa Pagoda in Bắc Bình district, Bình Thuận province, and Long Phước Pagoda in Ninh Hòa, Khánh Hòa province. More than 70 members had travelled from the United States.

Bắc Bình, Bình Thuận: dry land, hard living

According to the narration, many families in Bắc Bình live from pottery and farming. Many have no land and work for others, gleaning rice leftovers to feed their families. The soil is dry, illness is common, and there are many elderly people and members of ethnic minorities. That is why the team came.

A team representative said everyone who came received two gifts. The first was a Dharma talk by Venerable Thích Quảng Hiếu. The second was material help: goods and tịnh tài (cash offerings) from donors, both those present and those who asked the team to carry their gifts.

One member said the volunteers are not wealthy people in America. They once lived in Vietnam, know what hardship is, and feel for those worse off. Those who could not travel gave quietly, some their time, some their money, some their prayers.

At Pháp Hoa Pagoda the team gave 23 wheelchairs, monthly rice to 40 people, gifts to 20 students, and one-time gifts to 117 people.

A thank-you from the students

A student representative from Bắc Bình high school thanked the foundation on behalf of classmates and the local families:

On behalf of the students of Bắc Bình high school, I sincerely thank the Compassionate Hands charity and Venerable Thích Minh Nhựt for sponsoring these gifts for us.

Student representative, Bắc Bình high school

Long Phước Pagoda, Ninh Hòa, Khánh Hòa

After the distribution in Bình Định, the team drove about four more hours to Ninh Hòa. Families here are also poor, but the roads in the commune are rough, so no wheelchairs were given. The team gave gifts to 20 high-achieving students, monthly rice to 48 households, and 142 one-time gift packages.

Long Phước is one of about 80 pagodas where the foundation has given monthly rice to Buddhist followers in very difficult circumstances. It used to be 10 kg per person each month. After the pandemic, donors abroad had economic troubles of their own and gave less, so the foundation temporarily cut the amount to 5 kg. A representative said this was a stopgap, that they would restore 10 kg once funds recover, and asked families to be patient.

What the team left behind

Speaking to the families in Long Phước, one team member said poverty does not stop anyone from speaking kindly, thinking kindly, and doing small good things. The speaker asked them to remember the elderly Buddhist volunteers, aged 85 and 86, who flew nearly 20 hours from America and travelled non-stop from March 13, yet smiled warmly as they handed out gifts. Living well in spirit, the speaker said, is possible even with little material comfort.

In Hoài Ân district, Bình Định, a speaker recalled that for almost 20 years the foundation has sent monthly rice to local families, "not much, but enough", and invited everyone to applaud the donors.

The people who came for gifts

During the distribution, an 85-year-old woman from Phú Hiểu said she cycled about seven kilometres to receive her gift, fourteen kilometres there and back. She said she has chanted the Buddha's name since she was 17 and is still in good health. A team member said:

I see lonely people who are in hard situations just like me, so I had to come from America to help poor families here.

A member of the team

At another point the team met an elderly couple, one paralysed and one blind, who live with their unmarried daughter. She accepted the gifts for her parents and thanked the team more than once.

The journey continues

These two stops are only part of the 2025 trip across Vietnam. The foundation says monthly rice, wheelchairs and one-time gifts all depend on what it can raise, and the team will keep going to more pagodas along the way.