Children of Vietnam ...

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Ho Chi Minh City with a team as part of work. The focus of our visit was to provide our Singapore children the opportunity to visit three orphanages and they would have opportunities to interact as well as represent the items they had raised before the trip.

It was my first time to Vietnam and it turned out to be a trip that I will remember for a long while. This post is dedicated to the many children we met at the orphanages and I wished I could have done more for them. The orphanages are doing their very best to provide the basic needs for these children and any help that we can offer them will be greatly appreciated. 

The child below loves being photographed. He was more than happy to pose while I snapped away ...

During the visit, the Singapore children brought balloons that were quite a hit with the Vietnamese children.

       

Even after the balloons had burst while the kids were playing with them, a couple of the kids below were quite happy to chew and stretch the balloons.

I was more worried about the balloon snapping and hitting their faces but they didn't seem too bothered by that at all.

One of the orphanages had some of the boys with pretty cool hair cuts. We did ask the guide but he wasn't able to explain the reasons why. 

The children at the orphanages ranged from newly born babies abandoned by their mothers to teenagers who have been in the home for many years. The older teens were pretty camera shy. So you'll notice that I have more pictures of the younger children.

These two boys caught my attention because they were roughly the same age as my nephews and it was really really sad thinking that these boys had no one to cuddle them and spoil them silly. Very very sad.

The little fella below is a real sweetheart. Had the most beautiful smile that makes you want to just pick him up for a cuddle.

Equally as adorable were the little girls at the orphanages. This lil sweetheart is gorgeous and she was thrilled when I showed her the photograph of her after I took this shot. She happily pointed to herself and nodded her head. 

If you're wondering why the girl below has stickers on her face? Well, our Singaporean children brought stickers for the kids to paste on the cards but I guess some of the stickers ended up elsewhere. Don't worry, the stickers come off easily.

During the visit to one of the orphanages, there were some local University students there and we learnt that they spent their Sundays there with the children. It was heart-warming to see the youths spending time playing, feeding and just caring for the children there. It was meal time and some of the youths were helping to feed the younger children below.

Looking at this kiddo, made me want to just reach out and hug him.

This sweetheart below just caught my attention and I was just snapping my camera away. I think it's her sad eyes that made it very difficult to just walk away ..

Same girl again and yes, if I could bring her home, I would have ...

As mentioned before, the older kids were a lot more camera shy. But at one of the orphanages, I managed to take a shot of this girl. She and her brother were happily playing with the Singapore children and I think this photo captured how she felt then.

This boy below truly impressed me. He is camera shy and I had to trail after him to get a photo of him because I wanted to acknowledge his 'work'.

Let me explain some ... I was going around taking photographs of the children at the orphanage and when I came to this boy, he was dodging me because he was real shy. So I turned my attention to the others, not realising that he was watching what I was doing. Each time I take a photograph, I would show it to the child so that s/he could see it. He was curious and took a look. Next thing I knew, he grabbed my DSLR and peeped into the camera window and tried to press the buttons but I think his little fingers weren't strong enough. So I held the camera for him and helped pressed the button. After each shot, I showed him what he took. And after two or three shots, he knew what he had to do and I was impressed by what he took. At that moment, I wished I had a spare camera to give to him to let him explore. Let me share with you three shots by him ...

Above is one of the little boys who was in the room when he took the shot. Below is one of the care-givers who was looking after a baby in the room.

He then dragged me and the camera to his friend below so that he could take a shot of him too.

Although we did spend a day doing the touristy thing and visited some of the local attractions (will do a separate post as I do not have as many photographs of those), the visits to the orphanages ... those memories will stay with me for a long while. To the children, we were probably some people who came and left, but to many of us who visited the orphanages that day, these kids truly touched our hearts ....