We got married when we both were medical students at University of California and Stanford. At this point, without pledging or making personal promises, we both knew we would pay it forward by utilizing our medical skills to the poorest and neediest once we obtained our medical degrees. At the peak of our medical careers, we first started out by contributing to international causes where the needs were greatest, mostly through financial gifts toward trustworthy organizations.
When the political situation started to improve between the USA and Viet Nam where we were born, we looked into the possibility of returning in person. We first came back to Viet Nam in 1990 under much scrutiny both from the Viet government and the anti-Communist Vietnamese community overseas. Then in 2005, we started providing free medical clinic at remote areas of the country, through a group of professional Christian Vietnamese Americans who contributed their own money, time, and legal knowledges in running a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Its name is Hope Today, with the desire to give HOPE now to the most hopeless, either in Viet Nam or any place else on earth.
In 2005, we made contact with a wonderful physician – an angel -who was the head of Pediatric department of HCM city school of medicine. Dr. Doan T Ngoc Diep, her name, was gentle, dedicated, and altruistic in its purest sense. She helped us to create a group of around 100 volunteers who were local doctors, nurses, and medical students to provide free medical cares to all corners of Viet Nam: Nghe An, Loc Ninh, Binh Thuan, Thanh Hoa and finally Pleiku /Kontum. We provided free cares, free medications, and free reading glasses in addition to some food drives on yearly basis.
Our group focused on saving lives and absolutely had no interest in politics regardless of any change of country leaders. The local Vietnamese medical staffs provided their muscles and brains. We provided the financial mean. Our group operated until 10 years ago. Unfortunately, right after a trip to leprosy villages in 2017 with us, Dr. Diep succumbed to a terrible neurological disease and has been in a semicomatose condition during the last several years. At the end of 2017, the flame of our group has been extinguished once she surrendered to her fate and became bedridden and non-communicative until now. We just visited her and her dedicated husband, Dr. Tran V. Khanh, only a few weeks ago this year of 2026
In 2007, on our first trip to Pleiku, we were invited by Viet RedCross to provide care to patients of leprosy as well. The central highland: Pleiku, Kontum, Giarai has the highest absolute population of lepers for some unknown reasons. We suspect genes have something to do with it in addition to poverty and poor hygiene, lack of water and soap among aboriginal patients of Giarai and Bana tribes.
As leadership of Viet Redcross changed with time, our care was also hit and miss. Then in 2010, we were invited to return by a very mild mannered, quiet priest named Father Ngo Phan Phuc, who oversaw all patients of leprosy combined from Pleiku, Kontum and Giarai provinces. This was the beginning of our close relationship with the community of leprosy villages. At that point in time, there were around 5,000 families of lepers. Most families have both spouses inflicted with leprosy, so a simple math would give you a rough estimate of 10,000 patients or less.
With each of our yearly trip, we can see clearly the population of our leper friends have dwindled from 5000+ families to only 900+ as in 2026. With the current treatment of multiple drugs: Rifampicin, Dapsone and Clofazimine, leprosy is considered as curable. Actually, the Vietnamese government has declared (with unknown accuracy) that new cases of leprosy has stopped since 2010.
Unfortunately, despite of lack of new cases, patients continued to suffer – permanently. The leprosy bacteria destroyed the nervous system, killing all sensory on the skin. Lack of ability to sense pains, lack of running water, soap and foot wares, infections set in. Without pain comes complacency – false sense of security. The infections finally lead to amputations, sepsis and death.
In addition to sepsis, patients suffer from poverty, malnutrition, illnesses, accidents while living far away from civilization to seek medical cares for simple ailments or injuries. By being ostracized and isolated from “normal people”, they become extremely stoic and skeptical of others to seek help. This explains for higher rate of mortalities among these gentle patients of leprosy.
We still remember a case when an old lady was dropped off in the middle of nowhere near a leprosy village by her sons when she developed leprosy. A young noble gentleman with leprosy carried her home to care for her. He had to leave home from dusk to dawn doing farming to feed both of them, leaving the woman to fend off for herself. Lack of fingers, she accidently suffered a third degree burn and came to us. Tien, being a surgeon, carefully debrided the wound which took over an hour – while Hien and the nurses from San Jose public health who came along cared for easier wounds among the multitude of patients that day. She survived miraculously. But this story explained why leprosy patients have lower life spans.
We have repeated our promises to the angelic nuns, priests, monks and volunteers that we will continue to return yearly until the last patients leave this earth. We deliver mainly medications, surgical supplies, lots of food packages, and cash. The nuns used to give them cash from their meager allowance to all patients. All are required to take a day long trip to Qui Nhon’s leprosy clinic run by the government every 3 to 6 months. The trip is arduous: Early in AM, they take buses with bus fares provided by the nuns, arrive to the clinic in 4 to 5 hours after closing time at 3 PM. They sleep outdoors or at the doorsteps of the hospital with food packed by the nuns, to be seen early in the morning.
Our annual gifts to the lepers come 90% from our retirement funds. With the leper population going down with time, which is bitter-sweet, our financial obligation also goes down. We now only have 900+ families, or 1,500 patients as most with 2 infected spouses per family, each patient receives from us US $25 worth of food, total: $37,500. Each Mother Superior of 15 locations receives $500 from us = $7,500 (to help patients from bus fares to wheel chairs). In addition, we have to pay for transportation of heavy food packages to reach their fingerless hands, along with fresh batches of medications and surgical supplies yearly.
The leprosy project is one of our 3 main projects: international crisis as the tragic Sudan situation or the last Gaza siege, and our project building roads and bridges for Hmong minority living above the cloud level of Ha Giang, next to China border.
We are doing good at this current time thanks to our frugal lifestyles and wise saving efforts during the active period of our careers. In addition, we are very thankful for a core of close friends and relatives who contribute on regular basis until the last patient arrives to heaven. Our Thank You to you is not enough, we pray that our Maker will not overlook your noble intention to bless and protect you always.
Our big thanks to Hope Today, a mom/pop nonprofit group whose founding members contribute energy, money, and countless hours coordinating the transfers of funds one way to Viet Nam without any administrative fee!
This post is dedicated to many: our ex-office manager Shirley Phan, our friends from the US like Tran/Man Tran, Xuan Siebel, my sister Kim Binh Loveless and her husband Milton, the famous and handsome fighter jet pilot of US Airforce Andrew Dang, the Public Health Nurses in San Jose who have come with us for food drives and direct wound cares to the patients (Monica Lanker, Mary Anne Keeler, Lynda Zimmer and husband Jerry, Marilyn Mara, Deanna Kendall), the 3 siblings Christopher Vinh, Jennifer and Lucy Ton, Dr. Lynn Khoanh Ngo, Dr. Kim Dao, our local Vietnamese volunteers like Ms. Nguyen T. Thu Cuc, Nguyen T. Tuyet Nhung and husband Tuyen, Dr. Phu the Oral Surgeon, Ms. Tuyet and husband Luan, Mr. Doanh and countless nuns, priests and a wonderful Jesuit Monk who has coordinated our visits on annual basis: Brother Tuan Pham, along with our favorite nun/driver Sister Tran, and the dedicated sister/doctor Nguyen Ngoc Ha. We thank God for ALL OF YOU.
The above are friends who have physically joined us in our past trips. However, there are many others who have contributed money to our trips that we tagged into this post. PLEASE ACCEPT OUR SINCERE THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. Among the donors, Son Nguyen, his wife and mother have stood out as monthly donors. Son was a gentle man of few words, a dedicated husband and father of 2 school age children, a loving son who was the staunchest supporter of his parents in every way. He passed away a few days ago on New Year Day, leaving behind 2 young children and his loving wife, my niece Nga. Please pray for his soul and his loved ones. With gratitude and sincerity, Tien Pham M.D and Hien Pham M.D
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Hien Pham
Thank you so much for your friendship, your past contributions, and your concerned about the welfare of the poorest, the lowest castes of society.
