Thích Nu Minh Tú Nominated Child Rights Hero

Minh Tú is being nominated for her almost 40-year long struggle for orphaned children and for children who cannot grow up with their families.

The Challenge

People in Vietnam today are suffering from the aftereffects of several decades of war. Many lost everything they owned and were injured and fell ill because of bombs and chemical weapons. Minh Tú grew up during the war and saw how the violence resulted in widespread poverty, hunger and millions of orphaned children. Today, children become orphaned or are abandoned due to poverty, flooding, accidents, and parents being unable to take care of them.

The Work

Minh Tú supports the children who live at Duc Son Pagoda by offering a place of safety, love, play, and by providing medicine. Many get help obtaining their birth certificate and are given a name, so they can start school. They are provided with school materials, uniforms, and help to go on to higher education. Differently abled children get special support. When possible, Minh Tú helps children to be reunited with their families. Minh Tú wants all children to learn to respect one another and be themselves.

RESULTS & VISION

For 40 years the Duc Son Pagoda has looked after between 150 and 250 children every year. Everyone is allowed to stay until they become adults and can manage by themselves. They are seen as saplings that, if given sun and water every day, can grow into trees that offer shade and nourishment to others.

”Children are my saplings that I give sun and water to every day, so they can grow into trees that offer shade and nourishment to others.

I am over 70, but I still feel like a child. That’s probably why I love them so much,” says Minh Tú. The terrible things she saw during the Vietnam War led to her becoming a Buddhist nun and devoting her life to helping vulnerable children.

Minh Tú grew up during a war in Vietnam that carried on for several decades. Before the war, many in North Vietnam fought for almost ten years against France. After that the country was divided into North and South Vietnam and a 20-year war began, with the US help- ing South Vietnam. In the end, the war was won by the North Vietnamese.

OUR RIGHTS!

Becoming a nun

Every other week, Minh Tú’s family visited a Buddhist temple, or pagoda, and prayed. Minh Tú loved how peaceful it was there. All talk outside the pagoda was of war.

One day, Minh Tú told her parents that she wanted to become a nun.

“No, you can’t,” said her dad.

“Why not? I love being there,” said Minh Tú.

“You know you have to

CHANGE FOR THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD study for many years to become a nun,” said her mum.

As a changemaker, Minh Tú helps ful�il children’s rights and achieve the following Global Goals: Goal 2: Zero hunger. Goal 3: Good health and well-being. Goal 4: Quality education. Goal 10: Equal rights.

“Yes, but I like reading,” said Minh Tú.

She kept nagging and studied a lot at home. In the end, her parents said she had to quit school because she was just studying all the time.

But Minh Tú didn’t give up. She borrowed books and carried on reading and studying at home.

Then her mum said she could start school again.

“Your dad and I wanted to test you, to see if you were serious,” said her mum.

Minh Tú was so happy! She put all her effort into becoming a nun.

The orphaned children

The war was now getting closer to Minh Tú’s home city of Huế, which was right on the border between North and South Vietnam. When the battle for the city began on 31 January 1968, Minh Tú, who was now aged 21, volunteered to help the injured and those affected. She learned how to give medical treatment and support those who had lost their families.

When the battle ended on 3 March 1968, the city of Huế was left in ruins. Tens of thousands of people had been killed and many children had lost their parents.

The following year, Minh Tú passed the exam to be a nun. She was sent to serve at one of Huế’s larger pagodas on the edge of the city. One of her first jobs was to help look after the hundreds of children who were living at the pago-

What Minh Tú does for children

• Takes in orphaned children and children whose parents cannot take care of them.

• Gives the children love, food, medicine and the opportunity to play.

• Makes sure the children get birth certificates, names and the chance to start school.

• Helps differently abled children get the equipment and support they need.

• Pays for the children’s schooling and through university.

• Gives the children school materials and a school uniform.

• Teaches all the children to swim.

• Buys a motorcycle for older children and young adults who have to travel far from the pagoda to get to work or university.

• Helps those children whose parents have disappeared to try and find them.

da’s children’s home, and who had lost their parents in the fighting. Meanwhile outside the pagoda walls, the war continued for another six years.

The nuns helped out at the city’s hospitals and visited people in parts of the city and villages that had been destroyed by bombing. They gave them food, water and health care. They helped people who were trying to escape the fighting. Many had lost everything. Minh Tú prayed every day for the war to end. She didn’t want to see any more fighting or suffering.

War ends

When the war came to an end in 1975, the country united. There were many bombs and mines left lying in the coun-

How the children get their names

Many of the children who come to the Duc Son pagoda and children’s home do not have names. When the nuns apply for birth certificates and identity documents with the local authorities, they name the children according to their personalities. For example, Thien means ‘good person’. For surnames, girls are called ‘Kieu’ and boys ‘Cu’.

tryside and rice fields. Many farmers and children were killed or seriously injured in explosions.

During the war, the US had sprayed large areas of the country with a toxic substance called Agent Orange. The toxin made many people ill, and some died. Children were born with disabilities because of the toxin, even long after the war had ended.

For Minh Tú, the end of the war meant that she had to move. The head nun at her pagoda wanted Minh Tú to follow in her footsteps.

“It’s time for you to lead other nuns at another pagoda,” said the head nun.

“Gladly, I want to continue the work we’ve been doing here,” said Minh Tú.

That was how Minh Tú found herself at Duc Son pagoda, south of Huế. For the first few years, Minh Tú worked with the nuns at Duc Son, visiting people who were living in poverty in the local villages.

The nuns gave the villagers food and medicine. They helped farmers who had been injured by bomb explosions in the fields, and when the Huong River flooded, the nuns supported those who had lost their homes and harvests.

Minh Tú often went hungry, because she gave almost everything she had to others who she thought needed food and money more than she did. Rumours of her kindness and work with the poor spread.

Children’s home opens

The children’s home at the pagoda where Minh Tú used to live was closed down. The

Vietnamese government said the children’s home wasn’t needed, and they pulled it down and built a school.

But out in the rural areas, Minh Tú was still seeing a lot of orphaned children. Sometimes the children’s relatives begged her to look after the children.

“I can’t, we have nothing to

Buddhism and life at the pagoda

Buddhism was founded

2,500 years ago by Siddharta Gautama, who was born into a noble family in India. Buddha means ‘enlightened one’.

It was a title that was given to Siddharta after he began talking about what he believed to be the truth about life.

According to Buddha, life is an endless cycle of suffering. Humans are never satisfied. We are constantly striving for more. So a person will never be free until they free themselves from all cravings and desires.

Buddha created an order of monks and an order of nuns. People who become Buddhist monks or nuns are regarded as having come very far in achieving harmony and freedom from the desire for more.

The monks and nuns live in self-imposed poverty and have pledged never to marry or have children. They rely on the gifts and generosity of others. Followers of Buddhism have a religious duty to give food and gifts to monks and nuns. give them,” was Minh Tú’s reply.

At the pagodas, the monks and nuns devote a great deal of time to study, teaching and meditating. Because of their lifestyle, the monks and nuns are role models for everyone living in a Buddhist community.

But soon she felt she just couldn’t say ‘no’ any longer. She loved children, and cried inside every time she saw children going without food, or being forced to work or not having the chance to go to school.

“We have to open a children’s home,” she finally told the nuns at the pagoda.

“We’ll do as my teacher did at the pagoda I used to live at. We’ll give these children love. I wish they all had parents, but they don’t, and we have to do what we can for them,” said Minh Tú.

Live your true self

The Duc Son pagoda took in one child at a time. Their reputation quickly spread, and more and more children came to live at the pagoda. After a major flood in Huế and the surrounding villages, there were 250 children at the pagoda. Today there are 130 children here.

Lots of people came who wanted to adopt the children, but Minh Tú said no.

“I want the children to feel loved and safe, to go to school and possibly university. They will learn to respect one another, live in peace and live their true selves.”

Some of the first children who came to the pagoda are now adults. They have jobs and have been to university but they still come back.

“Children are my saplings that I give sun and water to every day, so they can grow into trees that offer shade and nourishment to others. I still feel like a child myself. That’s probably why I love them so much,” says Minh Tú. c

“Let’s go to the garden now,” says Minh Tú. “Yes!” cry the children.

Classroom in the garden

Behind the pagoda there’s a tarmac path that leads between the buildings, bamboos, bushes and palms. Everyone stops when they get to a little bridge over a small stream.

“That’s our mushroom patch,” says Minh Tú, pointing to a tin storage shed a bit further up the path. The mushroom patch provides food for the children and the nuns, just like all the other crops grown in the pagoda’s garden.

Down a slope, a large garden stretches out. The children come here at least once a week to learn about growing food and various plants. Here they grow coriander, ginger, lettuce, calabash, cucumber, mint and lots more. The children do the weeding, watering and help with harvesting.

The harvested food is used for cooking in the pagoda’s kitchen, but a lot is also sold, or the herbs and vegetables are used for the lunches that the pagoda sells to passing groups of tourists. Next to the pagoda lies the grave of one of the old emperors, Thieu Tri, and lots of tourists come to see the grave. They can have their lunch at the pagoda while visiting.

“We were given the garden by a family as a gift. It’s a place where the children can have their lunch and learn about how to grow food, and we can sell a little to buy other food,” explains Minh Tú.