by Drs. Hien & Tien Pham – Mar 5th, 2026
When we first met Mr. Dinh Minh Nhat in 2015, he already had left the priesthood and his seminary to branch out on his own. The reason was not from falling in love with a woman, but with thrown away babies he rescued from cemeteries. Living in an area with high population of Giarai tribal people, he was familiar with the known fact that babies whose mother died before they could survive on their own, must be buried alive with their mothers.
So, he snooped around funerals, followed them to the burial site, and waited in silence. Once the last person left, he would jump into action and dug the baby up. Some already died, some survived. Unfortunately, if he had proceeded to become a priest, he would have to obey any assignment from the superiors, and to rotate from one parish to another to serve. This was when he decided to leave his seminary and his peers. He found his own path.
When we first met him that winter of 2015, he already had 63 children under his wing. I met him occasionally and gifted him some insignificant amounts of money, as we ourselves had our own project and needs. Now, winter of 2025-2026, we met again. It took a while for him to come out to meet us. He had to clean up as “He is working in the pig pen”, the children said.
The number of children now went up to 175. We met in his new home: he found a big piece of land and formed his own orphanage. Most of the children were abandoned by their own families at different ages. There are also success stories: many of the kids have graduated high schools and go on to colleges.
His last addition came from a few weeks before we last met him. A child walking by an open field heard an eerie sound nearby. Fearing ghost, she ran. But she decided to take a second look hearing dog barking as well. What she found was a dog trying to dig up a mound of dirt where the cry came from. The villagers were called, and found a newborn baby with her face all scratched up by the dog. The baby survived and was in the hospital waiting to “come home” under Mr. Nhat’s care once deemed stable.
“How do you survive and support the children?”, we asked. He answered: “We have our own pig farm and vegetable garden to make a profit.”. He took us a tour of his land where he was raising several fat pigs, and his lush vegetable garden. In the past, he told us the truth that each year he received US $600 from the local Catholic church. We forgot to ask how much it is now. The rest of the fund came from his own sweat and blood, his own labor. He calls his home: “St. Joseph’s home”, after his patron saint.
We came when most children were in school. We toured the home, saw many beds and bunk beds, saw old closets full of clothes and sandals, saw military style basic toilets and shower stalls. The teenage section was pretty messy with clothes on beds and floor. We saw children clinging on to him while we talked. We saw his niece, a young lady who assists him to keep the children in order. We saw books, Vietnamese and some English. We met the children: all looked happy and healthy. We also saw lice and lice eggs on the children’s heads. We brough along dozens of flea combs: the lice were crawling all over the floor, giving us goose bumps. Going to school at this isolated highland of central Viet Nam, among the poorest tribal Giarai people, you should expect lice as part of life.
Some children came back from school when we were about to leave. We asked the girls if they were happy: “Yes. We like it here”. We asked if they were orphans: “No, but our parents were so poor so they took us here”. We asked when they last saw their parents: “Years ago, when they dropped us here.”
We asked about the future of his home: what if the population keeps going up? He suddenly looked somber: “I don’t know. I am having a slow growing brain tumor for 8 years. I was told to have an operation to remove it with the chance of survival of 30%. I don’t want to take the risk and die on the first attempt. My brothers and my niece will take over.”. We were shocked!!!!
During the visit, he never asked for donations. We promised to be back whenever we come to carry out our project with the lepers. This visit, we left some money from our Hope Today’s budget. This is never enough as we anticipate the number of children will grow. We also left the place with profound sadness and admiration for an unsung hero: a bachelor living among the thrown away babies.
If you want to help this gentle person, please send your gift to:
HOPETODAYVIETNAM@YAHOO.COM by Zelle, or VENMO: (949) 677-2033, Memo: Leprosy Project & Joseph’s family, so we can send to him from our Leprosy project fund.
