The Da Nang SOS Children's Village has been become ‘second home’ full of great love for many vulnerable, at-risk, abandoned, orphaned and very poor children from the city and other localities in the central region and Central Highlands.

Children at the Da Nang SOS Children's Village posing a group photo

This venue has indeed deeply inspired these disadvantaged children to pursue their academic dreams for their brighter future.

Reporter Nguyen Xuan Du, a native from Quang Nam Province, who now works for the Viet Nam News Agency, used to be taken cared of at the city’s SOS Children's Village. 

Du recalled his unforgettable hardship and misery during his childhood as his father left behind the family and her mother passed away when he was one year old. The little boy was then taken cared of by his relatives. Fortunately, Du was admitted to the Da Nang SOS Children's Village for being cared for.

With great help from the Village’s caregivers and his own ceaseless efforts, Du gained outstanding academic results from primary to secondary levels, and especially he studied at the city-based Nguyen Khuyen Junior High School and the Le Quy Don Senior High School, both exclusively for the gifted.

Reporter Nguyen Xuan Du used to be taken cared of at the city’s SOS Children's Village

Another talented man who was once raised at the city’s SOS Children's Village is Vo Nhu Tien, also from Quang Nam Province. 

Tien was taken to the Village at the age of only 6, along with his 4-year-old younger sister. The 2 siblings suffered a devastating blow with the unexpected passing of their parents. 

During their first days at the Village, the 2 kids were very afraid of communicating with others due to their inferiority complex about their unfortunate fates. One of the most unforgettable experiences is that Tien managed to leave the Village for his hometown, which stirred up a fear of his abduction by strangers amongst the venue’s staff.

Tien finished the 10^th grade at the city-based Hermann Gmeiner Senior High School, and he was granted a scholarship to study for 2 years at an international high school in Norway. Fortune smiled upon the poor studious pupil as he was enrolled into the Luther College, a private coeducational liberal arts college located in Decorah, Iowa, the USA, and he, then, earned a master’s degree.

The talented man is now studying at the US University of Minnesota for a Doctorate degree in statistics.

Despite living far way from the Village and his busy academic schedule, Tien has always stayed in touch with his ‘mothers’ and ‘siblings’ there via frequent phone calls.

Ms Vo Thi Loc, one of the ‘mothers’ at the Village expressed her happiness, and took great pride in her ‘son’ named Nguyen Ngoc Quang, who is studying a Master course at a large Japanese university.

Loc started taking care of Quang when he was at the age of only 4. Encouragingly, the boy showed his great fondness for learning and sentimental attachment to his ‘siblings’. Notably, Quang was always received scholarships during his tertiary course at the Hue University of Sciences.

Many school-aged children at the Village have always kept in their minds that they must study well as the only path leading to their brighter future, and also a good deed to reciprocate a great deal of favour and affection given by their ‘mothers’.

Since its official operation in March 1992, the Da Nang SOS Children’s Village has been home to a total of 426 vulnerable, at-risk, abandoned, orphaned and very poor children.

The venue consists of a total of 16 family houses for these misfortune children, who are brought up based on four principles of the SOS Children’s Villages International: the SOS mother, the sisters and brothers, the family house, and the SOS Children's village.

The foremost of these principles is the mother, or mother-centered care, according to the Children’s SOS Villages International.

This humanitarian facility is a special place where the disadvantaged children have sustainable and stable lives in a safe environment, and they are offered education.

In particular, each ‘mother’ has full rights and responsibilities to take care of her children in her family in her own way. The ‘mothers’ here do their utmost to make their ‘chidren’ feel they are growing up as normally as other children with parents. The encouragement is these children regularly return to visit their ‘mothers’ even when they work far away.

To date, more than 200 children have grown up and left the village for finding their suitable jobs, many of whom have graduated from universities, junior colleges, pro-intermediate and vocational training schools at home and aboard.

Most notably, 100% of the village’s children have been given help to access higher education programmes after their graduation from senior high schools.