Plum Village's Charity Projects

Love and Understanding Programs

Vietnam belongs to one of the poorest countries in the world. The war has left a deep scar and even today the living conditions of the Vietnamese are precarious. Hunger and poverty are evident in large parts of the country and natural disasters add further to the current very difficult situation. Half the population of nearly 80 million is less than 20 years old. Many children and young people suffer from malnutrition and have no possibility of attending school or the opportunity to pursue some apprenticeship. Their future is compromised, as well as the future of their country.

The lack of social structures weighs heavily on the elderly and people with disabilities. Very often they end up alone, destitute and without protection.

Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Zen Master, one of the most respected and engaged personalities in Buddhism throughout the world. His life is a testimony to the Buddhist ideal of wisdom and compassion. During the Vietnamese war he created the School of Youth for Social Service in order to rebuild destroyed villages and founded the Buddhist University of Van Hanh, in Saigon. Forced into exile in 1966, he carried on with his activities for peace and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. He has brought help and comfort to numerous refugees of war and destitute children.

Thich Nhat Hanh lives in Plum Village, an intentional community in south-west France.

Program Understanding and Love is the new name of the School of Youth for Social Service under the new government. The head office is located in the ancestral temple of Thich Nhat Hanh in Hue, in Central Vietnam. The majority of the charity programs done by monastics and social workers are concentrated in Central Vietnam. The 8 provinces of South Vietnam are covered by a team of 37 workers and the 9 provinces of the north by another team of 12 people.

FOOD

Many children living in remote areas of the country are suffering from malnutrition.

Thanks to your help and your generosity, the social workers of our association can provide many hungry children with one meal at lunch time and a glass of soya milk in the afternoon.

EDUCATION

 In many regions of Vietnam social infrastructure is non existent. In mountain areas parents are forced to work long hours in order to cut and sell wood. Young parents working on tea and coffee plantations are not able to care for their children neither, often with extended family living far away. Children therefore at a very tender age are left alone for the whole day and risk drowning, snake bites, hurt themselves by falling and have to face many other potential dangers.

We need sponsors to support the schools and school teachers . We gather donations from several sponsors in order to provide some schools with regular support, so that we can offer a salary to the school teachers and a meal at lunch time to each child

AGED AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES 

A significant number of aged and people with disabilities are abandoned by themselves in deplorable conditions. Families have no way or means to take care of them or to provide them with food. 

10 Euros a month provide for an aged or person with disability to live in dignity.

WELL

To have access to water allows a family to cultivate vegetables, a garden and enables them to cover their needs. The construction of a well can grant the survival of a whole family on a long term basis.

The construction of wells for the schools allows to provide the children with the elementary hygienic care.

25 Euros allows a family to buy the material in order to build their own well.

100 Euros finances the material and labour force for the construction of the well for a family without the means to dig out a well.

NATURAL DISASTERS 

Vietnam is frequently subject to natural disasters as floods and typhoons. The consequences are dramatic, leading to loss of lives and countless families being left without shelter and the minimum to survive.

With a gift of your choice you can support our actions of urgency in order to provide help with food, medicine and materials.  

Your help is precious.

It will relieve the suffering caused by hunger. It will improve the living conditions of many people. It will provide them with support and hope. Your help will continue towards developing understanding and compassion in all of us.

THE ACTION OF COMPASSION  

Encouraged by Thich Nhat Hanh, four long standing students decided in 1998 to create a number of school-homes for the most deprived children of Vietnam. In remote mountain areas they already offer help with the support of Plum Village to 750 children in the provinces of Lam Dong and 650 children in the province of Binh Thuan and Dong Nai. Support is currently offered to 39 school-homes.

HELP PEOPLE TO HELP THEMSELVES  

The aim of all our programs is to bring support in order to allow the people in need to help themselves. For example in a family with many children, we will support one child, so the parents can continue to assume their responsibilities. We give food for free only to the parents that are very poor. The families that have the possibility to contribute to the food and school fees, will continue to do so. In the case of building a school, social workers will discuss with the village people and local authorities in order to motivate them and get them interested in the project. We then offer basic materials, like roofs of straw, walls of bamboo and the school will be built by village people.

We proceed in the same way for other projects including digging wells.

WE THANK YOU FROM OUR HEART !

Please send Plum Village

FOR EUROPE:

UBS bank

Aeschenvorstadt 1

CH 4002 Basel

Switzerland

SWIFT CODE: UBS WCH ZH 80 A

ACCOUNT of Sister Ngoc CAO P.

Chan Khong for the Unified Buddhist Church (Eglise Bouddhique Unifiée)

Account number 233-405 317 01V for Swiss francs

Account number 233-405 317 61 F for Euros

FOR THE USA:

IBAN in US dollars

Account number CH 12 0023 3233 4053 17 60 D for US dollars.