As part of Mondoro Charities' Bat Com project, the Mondoro Hanoi office and friends organized assistance for the Bo De Pagoda (an orphanage) outside Hanoi. Instead of providing rice and other food as we normally would, the orphanage asked if we would provide basic household items and tiles to help complete their dormitory building. The Bat Com project helped them buy fans, sleeping mats, tiles, and treats for the children. Several expatriate friends of Mondoro also gave baby formula, food, clothes, shoes, newborn baby kits, and baby clothes. Mondoro Charities is currently raising money to help finish their dormitory. We are in need of 400 USD to purchase the remaining tile to complete their building. Click here to donate some tile for their building.

The Bo De Pagoda is run by Sister Monk Thich Dan Lan. She is caring for fifty-three children, including fifteen children less than twenty-months old. When we visited there, we saw several babies who were just ten-days old. The babies were left at the gate of the Pagoda in the middle of the night. Thich Dan Lan takes these children in without question and raises them at the monastery. We found all the children and those living at the monastery well cared for and happy.

All of the children in her monastery go to school, and she has several former children who are now at the university studying. Some of the children are now married, and others have chosen to spend their life serving as monks, like Sister Monk Thich Dan Lan.

The orphanage also has several children and women who are mentally handicapped and who do not have a home. They offer refuge to those who are in need. No one is turned away from their care.

Thich Dan Len's purpose is to make the monastery become a family and home for those who have no home. At Mondoro Charities, we praise her for her willingness to spend her life serving others by giving a refuge to those who are alone in the world. The Bo De Pagoda is a project that Mondoro Charities, through our Bat Com project, will continue to support. To give to Bat Com, please click here www.mondoro-charities.org/batcom.