Lucia Doan Thanh Van, an elementary school teacher in Hue, spent her weekends joining other Catholic volunteers in collecting used items on streets during Advent.
The teacher said they sold the used items besides seeking donations from benefactors to organiee a Christmas party for 50 street children on 19 December 2021.
The children were also presented with winter clothes, bobble hats, cakes, toothpaste and toothbrushes to help them survive the severe winter.
The volunteers are members of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Paris in Hue, Vietnam, which has 2,300 Catholics.
The 28-year-old Doan, who offers online courses to second graders, said most of the children are of other faiths and from Vi Da ward, where many residents live on boats and in the slums.
Their families, who eke out a hand-to-mouth living catching fish in rivers, selling food and tickets on streets and doing manual jobs at markets, are badly affected by the quarantine regulations in force to contain the Covid-19 contagion.
Christmas means sharing love and giving kind gifts to one another, so we are happy to do something useful to support our brothers and sisters in need
Anthony Hoang Thai Vung
“We wanted to give children of other faiths Christmas joy and hope that will impress them easily and give them strength to overcome this hard time,” Van said, adding that many children, who are given free basic education by the sisters of St. Paul de Chartres, sang carols during the party.
She said the event rekindled her childhood memories of celebrating Christmas with her friends.
Anthony Hoang Thai Vung, a member of the parish council at St. Francis Xavier Church, said he and 11 others who live by renting rooms and apartments decided not to charge rent money in December in solidarity with their renters who have been badly affected by the prolonged pandemic. These include college students and domestic migrant workers from other provinces.
“Christmas means sharing love and giving kind gifts to one another, so we are happy to do something useful to support our brothers and sisters in need,” said Hoang, who earns seven million dong [$2,388] per month from his seven-room house.
He said local owners of rented properties also donated 16 million dong [$5,480] and bought food items for 50 families in need so that they could celebrate Christmas.
The 69-year-old said that in previous months, when local factories and markets were closed during the Covid-19 outbreak, Catholic landlords reduced the rent by 50 to 70 per cent to help their tenants.
Nguyen Thi Ngoan from Ha Tinh provinc, said she and her son’s family stay in a rented room owned by a Catholic.
The 70-year-old, who looks after her two grandchildren at home, said her son and his wife, who worked for a garment factory, have been unemployed for the past two months and had not been paid salaries for the past seven months.
She said her son now works as a motorbike taxi driver and her daughter-in-law sells old clothes for a living. Together they make about 150,000 dong [$51.19] a day, which hardly sustains the family.
“We are deeply grateful to our Catholic landlord who wrote off the rent and even offered rice and vegetables,” said the elderly woman, who while not a Catholic, came to realise the true meaning of Christmas.
Pham Huu Khoa from Phu Loc district, said his mother and wife were infected with the Covid-19 and treated at a local field hospital.
The Buddhist father of two said they felt the pressure and suffering, often experiencing anxiety over lack of food while they were isolated inside their home for 14 days by local government officials.
“Catholic volunteers delivered bread every day at our home and elsewhere,” said Pham, a carpenter who became jobless due to the pandemic.
Father Francis Xavier Nguyen Thien Nhan, head of the evangelisation committee of the Archdiocese of Hue, said they have been providing 1,000 loaves of bread along with meat to people in quarantine on a daily basis since Advent.
“We tell people that these are gifts from Infant Jesus who comes to love and save all of us,” said the parish priest of Phu Hau.
Caritas in Hue helps local families cover the cost of medical treatment for Covid-19 patients at a clinic run by the sisters of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate. The 200-bed clinic has been receiving patients since December 9 and some 40 religious volunteers from six congregations in the archdiocese help the medical staff take care of them.
We tell people that these are gifts from Infant Jesus who comes to love and save all of us
Father Francis Xavier Nguyen Thien Nhan
Catholic volunteers also arrange food and medicine supplies as well as transport facilities for patients and their relatives.
Many parishes in the archdiocese and across the country have seen a rise in Covid-19 infections and held online Christmas celebrations instead.
Archbishop Joseph Nguyen Nang of Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s most active archdiocese, permitted local priests to impart general absolution to the faithful on December 19 and 23 so that they could receive the Eucharist on Christmas.
Archbishop Nguyen said many people could not go to confession and had not received the Eucharist for two years. Churches in the city were allowed to celebrate Masses with restricted attendances due to the pandemic.
On December 17, the Health Ministry had announced a ban on public gatherings including religious and cultural activities for the coming Lunar New Year festival in February, besides imposing Covid-19 restrictions.
On December 28, Vietnam recorded 14,872 new cases. The country has had 1,666,545 cases and 31,148 deaths since the pandemic began in early 2020.
