RSSHUE, Vietnam (UCAN) – Little Maria Ho Thi Thien An, now four, was saved by her father from being buried alive with her dead mother when she was just seven days old.
Thien An (God’s grace) now lives happily at a center for orphans and poor children run by the Daughters of Our Lady Immaculate nuns in Hue.
Sister Magdalene Nguyen Thi Lien De, who is in charge of her congregation’s charitable work, says Thien An’s mother died in childbirth and her relatives planned to bury them together in the evening in accordance with tribal tradition.
But Thien An’s father secretly brought her to the nuns and asked them to bring up his daughter. The nuns based at A Luoi parish near his village rented a bus and carried the infant to their center based in Hue city, 70 kilometers away, for health care.
Thien An’s father secretly brought her to the nuns and asked them to save and bring up his daughter. The nuns based at A Luoi parish near his village rented a bus and carried the infant to their center based in Hue city, 70 kilometers away, for health care.
Thein An is among 17 ethnic children aged from one month to 16 years who are given free accommodation and food by four nuns at the center. Most of the children from ethnic Ca Tu, Pa Co and Van Kieu groups escaped from being buried together with their dead mothers. Others are from poor families who cannot afford to look after their children.
Sister De notes those ethnic groups traditionally bury infants with their mothers so that they could be breastfed.
“We have to bring up these children well as a way to encourage local ethnic people to abandon their unsound customs,” Sister De states. They are given a good education and vocational skills so that they will serve their people in the future, she added.
Saint Paul de Chartre Sister Chantal Vu Thi Tho’s convent orphanage also provides accommodation, food and education for 22 ethnic children among 65 orphans aged 1-16 years. Those ethnic children were saved from being buried together with their dead mothers, she adds.
Sister Tho, 75, says the eldest is Agnes Ho Thi Kim Oanh, 16, an ethnic Van Kieu student. Her father refused to bury her with her mother after her mother died, and asked the nuns to bring her up, she recalls.
Ho Long, 25, says she is deeply grateful to the Adorers of the Holy Cross nuns who donated blood to her mother who suffered a hemorrhage after giving birth to her. “If my mother died, I would have been buried too,” notes the ethnic Van Kieu woman.
Long, who suffers paralysis of both legs since birth, says the unsound custom still exists among some local ethnic groups living in the borderland between Vietnam and Laos.
She says she finished her studies at a college due to scholarships from the Adorers of the Holy Cross nuns. She teaches computer skills to visually impaired people at a Catholic-run center.
Sister De hopes many ethnic young people who convert to Catholicism will encourage their parents to stop their unsound custom.
The nuns have worked with ethnic villagers for decades. They provide money for ethnic people to raise cows and goats, give free health care and offer blankets, clothes, rice, salt and other items to poor people. They also offer bicycles and scholarships to students.
According to local Church’s 2009 records, Hue archdiocese had 107,790 ethnic people.
VT08661/1586 January 29, 2010 52 EM-lines (575 words)
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