by Drs Hien & Tien Pham – 25 February 2026
We first started working with Ha Giang in 2023 when some volunteers/founders of Hope Today asked us to join their efforts improving the lives of dirt-poor Hmong tribes. They are living on one of the highest mountains of Viet Nam. Geographically, it is next to China, at the most Northern tip of Vietnam.
The Hmong tribal people have long been fiercely independent. They have their own language, cultures and way of life. They mistrust the mainstream Vietnamese who for centuries have pushed them slowly up into higher elevations, taking over their land, their livestock and their homes. And Ha Giang, a vast mountainous area, which is composed mostly of hard rock, less so of top soil, provides their best hiding places away from the Vietnamese. No “normal, civilized people” wants to go there!
Away from mainstream civilization, they live in thatch huts, dilapidated brick houses without running water, and 40% are without electricity. Most cannot read or write Vietnamese. Most do not like or trust the mainstream Vietnamese. Their families, extended families, and relatives spread widely over Viet Nam, China, and Laos – crossing the borders.\
Then we were invited directly by Mr. Thang Tran, the chief of border patrol police force who oversees the area. Our past experiences with local authorities since we first came back to VN in 1990 were all very, very negative. They intimidated, harassed, threatened us whenever we crossed paths. Once, they had guns pointing at us in a tense confrontation when we tried to deliver food packages to starving Hmong people near Laos’ border. Never forget that day!
Mr. Thang Tran was the extreme opposite. We could tell he was well educated with perfect and gentle manner. He never pressured us. He presented the difficult lives of the Hmong, and asked if we could help. We came in 1/2024 to directly study the situation, bringing along food packages and clothes for the local Hmong as our first gifts. We met a family with 3 blind boys, and this family convinced us to help without the need to utter a word. Unable to walk more than 3 hours from their house to the main road to seek medical help while close to labor, she delivered them at home. They were not routinely treated with antibiotic ointment into their eyes at birth as all doctors in the world would do. They need to treat presumed presence of Chlamydia bacteria (a sexually transmitted infection). So, all boys (or girl, if any) are now blind for life.
We decided to prevent tragedies as such by building paved roads over trails of hard rocks connecting villages to the main roads. We have completed 3 so far, with the cost varies between US $10,000 to $24,000 each. Then last year, after we were informed that children have been swept away crossing streams to go to school, we acted on building bridges as well. Our project just recently received a huge, staggering gift from an old friend from my high school, Minh Quach, to be used exclusively in building bridges. We cannot thank her enough!!!!
Attached are images of 2 bridges recently build, Hy Vong 1 and Hy Vong 2 (Hope 1 and Hope 2). To arrive to each bridge, we had to sit on the back of a motorbike with duration of 35 minutes to 1 ½ hours from the main road to the bridges over an existing paved road.
The paved roads to the bridges were very, very narrow of 12” as they were built years ago , while the roads we built during the last 2 years were more than twice as wide. In addition, there was no guard rail with the roads inches away from steep cliffs. The worst parts were when the motorbike had to plunge up and down the road when elevations changed. We, Tien/Hien, Hien’s sister Kim and her 6’.4” American husband had never been that scared in our whole lives. This explains why we refused to spend another 1 ½ hours to visit the second bridge. We are not brave enough!
In addition to building roads, bridges, food drives, we also have visited several schools for elementary levels. Very, very depressing when doing so!!! We brought along 6 medicine cabinets to 6 schools last year, with all of the essential and basic medications from antibiotics, antidiarrhea, allergy, first aid with lots of dressing and bandages, all with careful instructions. Once established, we have to bring fresh batches every year to replace the old ones. The teachers had to go through first aid and wound care training from us.
The teachers are young and many are strikingly beautiful. Thang told me their social life is basically zero. Teachers and students as young as 5 must live in the school 6 days per week, to go home only one day in the weekend. The reason: their houses are hours away from school with walking. The government provides food, water and mosquito nets for all, but with 3 NO’s: No electricity, No running water, No toilet. They have ample of room to do their body business, but they must watch out for others’ piles of poop, sharp rocks, mosquitoes, ants and even snakes.
The government knows the cost of lack of education vs. the cost of building schools and facilities. To encourage schooling, they give the parents VN $900,000.00 for each child in school per year. This is equivalent to US $40.00 per year!!!!!!!!
To go to school, they climbed over huge mounds of hard rock, swift running stream that did sweep several children away to their deaths. This was why in building roads we have to cut the stony mounds blocking their ways to school. The government refused our request to use dynamite due to the presence of other villages directly below the village in need of new roads. The villagers chiseled the rock by hands. The roads then lead them from the main roads, through villages and ending at schools. Solid concrete bridges over streams need to be built to prevent further loss of young lives. Unfortunately, we must calculate the population of each village against our available fund to decide which road or bridge to build.
Why are we doing that? I had a dream where I met God along with the lepers, the Hmong, the dirt poor Vietnamese, the children of Gaza trapped in starvation and under bombings, the innocent people of Sudan who are lIving in hell on earth. I asked God: “Why do they have to suffer so much? Did they do some bad thing in this life or their previous life?”. God answered: “They did nothing wrong.”. So I asked: “Did I do something good this life or in my previous life so I can become a doctor, live in a big house in the USA, eat seafood buffets all the time? “. God looked at me with pity: “Not a darn good thing!”. I woke Tien up, telling him it’s time to pay forward. So here we are, back in Viet Nam doing what we are expected to do.
We sincerely thank Hope Today, friends and families helping us to improve the lives of lepers, poorest Hmong people, and the poor in general. God bless you and your families for your sympathy, understanding and love for the underdogs, and for your continued supports.
Tien/Hien Pham
