At first, many people thought Tong Phuoc Phuc was crazy – even his wife, who had started it all. But then people started coming to his house on the outskirts of Nha Trang – distraught, crying girls, and remittance notices and thank-you letters started falling through the letterbox.
Today, no one thinks Tong is crazy anymore. They call him ‘the father of Vietnam.’ In 15 years, this man adopted 100 children who were threatened with death before they were even born.
Abortion in Vietnam is a common thing. Most often, mothers get rid of expectant girls – despite the fact that it is illegal in Vietnam to find out the sex of a child through ultrasound. But both doctors and patients find ways to circumvent the law. A doctor can, for example, tell a patient that the baby ‘looks a lot like mum’. That means: it will be a girl, and then, more often than not, there will be no one …
In 2001, a Vietnamese man, Tong Phuoc Phuc, came to the hospital with his pregnant wife. That’s when he noticed a door where pregnant women would periodically enter. And coming out of the room, wiping the tears that glistened in their eyes. When the meaning of what was happening reached Tong, his indignation had no limit, and the man decided to act….
‘I will help those who are having a hard time. I don’t know how, but I will. We’ll work something out together. Just make sure they live!’
Tong did not understand how one could not give his own child a chance to be born and not even give him a human burial. With his own money, the man bought a small plot of land to bury unborn children from this clinic. After obtaining permission, Tong embarked on his mission…..
How Tong managed – and still manages – to persuade hospital staff to give him so-called ‘abortifacient material’ remains a mystery.
The family’s expenses have understandably increased. Tong worked as a building contractor, so the family had enough to live on, but never had any extra money. ‘What are you doing? – his wife used to reprimand him. She did not immediately find out about her husband’s idea, and when she did, she was horrified. – Why are our savings going to the graveyard for some unknown person or, rather, what?’ Tong was silent. Unwilling to speak in that tone.
On each slab is the Christian name of an unborn child. There are especially many Pauls and Marys here.
Today there are more than seven thousand unborn children in Tong’s cemetery, and the number of tiny graves increases every day. It’s a sad and scary place. But the story of Tong Phuoc Phuoc is a story of life, not death. It is a story of joy that began with tears.
People began to find out about the strange cemetery. Every now and then, Tong noticed women’s figures by the graves. They came here to cry for their children. Tong was able to talk to some of them and ask them to bring other women who had had abortions.
One day, a girl, just a child, knocked on the door of the house. She too came to talk like the others. The difference was that she hadn’t had an abortion yet – she was just about to. Wu was four months pregnant. She didn’t know what to do: if her parents found out, which would be soon, they would kick her out of the house.
Stay,’ Fook blurted out. And his wife’s belated rebuke, whispered in the night in the kitchen, could do nothing about it. Decisions he made quickly – and did not change. A few days later came another pregnant woman, then another….
The wife never argued with her husband again. And their little brick house gradually began to turn into an orphanage. The house was filled with screams, squeaks and the perpetual steam from drying nappy nappies.
The women who came here for help after giving birth either took the baby with them or kept it, and then Tong adopted the infant.
And more often than not, he adopts. Today this amazing man has a hundred children!
Younger children go to the kindergarten, which is located here, at the house (volunteers work there), those who are older – to school. Tong also has a farm where he raises pigs and chickens for sale: donations and income from two jobs alone are not enough to support such a large family.
How he can stand it is beyond me. Tong just smiles. He not only doesn’t think his life is hard, he’s happy. He says, ‘I will continue this work until my last breath. And I will do everything I can to make sure that my children continue my work and help all the underprivileged.’
More people like Tong. They make this world a better place. If you agree with this sentiment, be sure to share his story with your friends and acquaintances!
