“Common home” that is the name called by children being cared for at the Charity Centre under the Da Nang Association of Charities and Children's Rights Protection. Here, the children are cared for, educated, and taught with love by the staff whom they consider as their own fathers and mothers.

The centre is currently caring for 80 children and students in difficult circumstances, most of whom are in Da Nang and neighbouring provinces.

Over the past 12 years, hundreds of children in especially difficult circumstances in Da Nang and other neighbouring localities have been brought up at the centre. Many of them have stable jobs, well integrated into the community, and become useful citizen in society.

The centre is currently raising 80 children and students in difficult circumstances, mainly in Da Nang and neighbouring provinces.

The centre’s Director Dang Huu Bao informed that the centre was established in 2008 with the support of an organisation from Italy. Since 2012, the Giving it Back to Kids, a US non-profit organisation, has provided the centre about VND 7 billion per year to implement the project "Caring for and educating orphans and poor children in especially difficult circumstances in Da Nang".

Under the project, the centre will receive and care for children aged between 4 and 18. All the children will be facilitated to pursue the path of learning until university and will be ensured to have the best life in terms of material, spiritual and moral aspects.

Aside from being cared for and raised, children can go to public schools outside. In addition to school hours, they receive tutoring right at the centre with teachers invited by the Board of Directors of the centre.

Thai Khang Huy, 12, hailing from Que Trung Commune, Nong Son District, Quang Nam Province, confided that he made his great efforts to study well to later have a stable job and become a useful person for society.

“My mother left when I was young. I lived with my paternal grandparents and studied until grade 4. Because of my family’s poverty, I was admitted to the centre. The centre’s staff have taken good care of me and taught me everything in life. When I first came here, I was very shy, now I feel more confident. My academic performance has improved a lot” the boy added.

The situation of Tran Chi Hao is even more pitiful. He was abandoned by his parents when he was just 4 years old. Hao was adopted and cared for by the centre after local officials learned of his situation. From a skinny, somewhat shy boy, this year he is in 8^th grade, with a tall, strong body, he always greets adults politely.

The first days Hao came to the centre, he cried a lot from homesickness. Day by day that homesickness has receded thanks to the whole-hearted care he is receiving. At the centre, he studies and plays with other children here. “I always feel grateful to everyone for creating a good life for us to fulfill our dreams and ambitions” he added.

These are 2 of the 80 unfortunate circumstances that have been cared for by the centre. The centre’s staff always consider the children as their own children and grandchildren. Not only providing material care or spiritual encouragement, they learn about the children's thoughts and aspirations, as well as help them form positive thoughts, and build a healthy and beneficial lifestyle, every day to lay the foundation for the future.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Oanh, a nanny who has spent many years directly caring for the children, said that each child has a different situation, but she and other nannies at the centre believe that the timely care and spiritual encouragement by the staff, generous donors and volunteers has given the children more motivation, helping them overcome the difficulties in their own circumstances.

"I always think of the centre’s children as my own children at home. With what they have been through, I want to do something to help them and make up for their difficulties and deprivation” Ms. Kim Oanh shared.

According to Mr. Dang Huu Bao, when they first came to the center, each child had a different personality, so the nanny had to teach and instruct them every little thing from daily activities to studying. Thanks to that guidance and instruction, many children have now grown up.

“Most of the children at the center go to school and have stable jobs after graduation. Some of them are good students, have good jobs with relatively high incomes, and have their own families and children”, Mr. Dang Huu Bao added.

Since its establishment, the centre has taken care of and helped hundreds of children in special and difficult circumstances. It has provided them a loving family and nurtured their dreams.

Reporting by BAO NGUYEN - Translating by M.DUNG, P.TRA