Phuoc Minh Pagoda, Ham Thuan Nam, Binh Thuan 2024: First Stop in Central Vietnam

On March 8, 2024, the Compassionate Hands Foundation visited Phuoc Minh Pagoda in Ham Thuan Nam district, Binh Thuan, giving rice, emergency gifts and bicycles to students in a hilly area.

On March 8, 2024, the Compassionate Hands Foundation (Hội Từ Thiện Bàn Tay Nhân Ái) came to Phuoc Minh Pagoda in Ham Kiem commune, Ham Thuan Nam district, Binh Thuan province. It was the team's first stop in central Vietnam on its 2024 charity trip. After Kien Giang, the group rested a night in Saigon, then rode about three hours to the pagoda.

The road and the pagoda

Binh Thuan is the southernmost coastal province of the South Central Coast. Along the highway the team saw many dragon fruit trees in bloom, the province's specialty. When they arrived, villagers were already waiting.

Phuoc Minh is a pagoda where the Foundation has worked for nearly 14 years, in an area where many ethnic minority families live. People from remote and mountain communes came to the pagoda on distribution day. The abbess, Sư cô Thích Nữ Nguyên Minh, and the Foundation were described as a bridge between donors and people in hardship, hardworking students, monthly rice books and houses of love.

The spiritual gift before the material one

Before the handout, the lecturing monk spoke about the two things Buddhism offers, compassion and wisdom:

Gọi cái ngôn ngữ dễ hiểu nhất, đó là hiểu và thương.

The lecturing monk

(Put in the simplest words: understanding and love.) He reminded the crowd that receiving gifts that day brings only a moment of joy. Material help eases hardship for a month or two before people may run short again. So he called the Dharma a spiritual gift: if one listens, absorbs and practices it, peace follows and the roots of suffering lessen.

On the gifts themselves, he said many families in need could not be helped monthly, so the team gave emergency packages. The area is hilly and the sun is harsh, and many students have no bicycle to ride to school, so the team gave bicycles. Whatever the amount, he said, it would not be enough for everyone, and the team simply gives as much as it can.

Stories from the distribution

Team members visited a few homes to hand over monthly rice books. To one elderly woman, a member explained that rice would arrive every month for her to eat. A man living in a makeshift house also received a rice book, and a local helper, Chú Ba, would take care of getting the rice to him.

The abbess thanked the donors and members present. She recalled an old saying:

Quê hương nếu ai không nhớ sẽ không lớn nổi thành người.

The abbess

(Anyone who does not remember their homeland cannot grow into a whole person.) A team member said they were very happy to be there sharing care with fellow countrymen, and thanked Thầy Minh Nhựt and the people receiving gifts for giving the team the chance.

During the day the team chatted with recipients. One elder said it is rare to meet the group and that they were so happy they had not eaten since morning without feeling hungry. A man receiving a gift for the first time said he lives in someone else's house:

Ngày nào tôi cũng đi xin ăn mỗi ngày, ngày nắng ngày mưa.

A man who received a gift

(Every day I go out to beg for food, in sun or rain.)

What stays with us

The Foundation said it thinks not only of lonely elders but also of hardworking students. Watching the children wheel away the bicycles it gave, smiling, the team hoped the bikes would shorten the road to school. The distribution ended with thanks going both ways between the team and the villagers, and the group went on with its trip in central Vietnam.