Over the past 4 years, 56-year-old Mark Smith from Australia has been actively involved in helping poor and disadvantaged children in Da Nang and Quang Nam Province.  He is well loved by local children because of his kind heart and sense of humour.

Despite his mature age and opposition from his family, Mr Smith often flies to Da Nang to do his volunteer work.  He attributes this mainly to the innocent smiles of the poor children, and their love for him.

Over the years, Mr Smith has given financial assistance to poor families to help them either pay for their subsistence expenses or repair their houses.

Mr Smith and his students

Nguyen Thi Hoai An’s family in Hoa Vang District’s Hoa Son Commune is a typical example.  Her father died and her mother is seriously ill.  Therefore, she has to shoulder the burden of caring for her 8 school-aged younger sisters and brothers.  Money donated by Mr Smith is used to help her pay tuition fees for her younger sisters and brothers and cover her family’s expenses.  During his recent visit to the city, in addition to giving financial assistance to An’s family, he himself became involved in repairing her downgraded house, including carrying bricks and mortar.  This helped to give her family a warm and happy Tet.

Apart from being a close friend of local disadvantaged children, Mr Smith also considers himself a part of the Da Nang Care Centre for Street Children and Quang Nam Province’s Orphan Care Centre.  He always spends his time playing with these unlucky children, despite the language barrier. 

Mr Smith has also become a devoted English teacher of some students from the city.  After Tet, he started to provide free 3-week English courses for local students to help them improve their English speaking and listening skills.  He is planning to do this work when he visits Da Nang each year.

Student Tran Hong Hanh from the Duy Tan University said that she and her friends felt very lucky to have studied with Mr Smith.  Thanks to this, their English pronunciation has greatly improved, and they have become more confident in their use of English, she added.