"Speak tenderly to them. Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don't only give your care, but give your heart as well." (Mother Teresa)



2010 - 2011 Year End Newsletter

Letter from the president

Theresa Tran – Messengers of Love President
Dear Messengers of Love,

We have had a successful and meaningful year in carrying out our mission of bringing help, love and special moments to those we serve in our beloved country of Vietnam. Your love and contributions have made it possible. Below is the status report of MoL programs and activities for fiscal year 2010-2011. Please take a moment to review and see what your dollars were able to accomplish.

PROGRAM UPDATES: With the help of many volunteers from both here and VN MoLers, MoL was able to finish most programs for the year and added a new program to its list.

"Holiday Gift and Meal": Many MoL volunteers and representatives worked very hard to accomplish MoL's Christmas and Tet's gifts operation. We gave Xmas gifts and meals to over 3300 kids: 1200 orphaned children at 22 orphanages (including 2 from India and 1 from Cambodia), over 1000 kids from flood affected areas of central VN, and1100 from "Thuong Du" highland mountainous areas. The children are from a totaling of 26 villages. We also gave Tet gifts and li xi money to over 1200 orphans. Each Christmas and Tet gift package included a brand new outfit, new shoes, milk, and toiletries: toothpaste, toothbrush, soap shampoo, facewash, towel. We also included their favorite snacks, candies and a small toy. For Christmas, we sent volunteers dressed up as Santa Claus to deliver the gifts, hoping to give them joyous holiday childhood memories. For children from orphanages, on top of the individual gift packages, we added a few months supply of rice, noodles and other food. A few orphanages received new bicycles for the children to ride to school and new dining room tables and chairs to replace old ones. We gave Trung Thu gifts to 25 children from St. Joseph orphanage. Besides giving gifts to the children, MoL also gave Holiday gifts to over 300 lepers, handicapped and elders such as food, rice, blanket etc. Over 1000 poor people from the flood affected area also receive Tet gifts and meals.

"Scholarship for a Child": This school year, MoL supported 185 poor students and gave them an opportunity to continue their schooling. Many of these students underwent hardships and difficult circumstances such as illness or death of a parent, some are orphaned children. We subsidized school tuition, lunch money, cost of uniform and books.


"Home for a Poor Family": We built 7 new houses for 7 families, 3 in My Tho and 4 in Hue.

"Sponsor a Child": We provided daily lunch food for 76 kids in Mau Giao school and provided food/milk to 77 orphaned children from 3 smaller sized orphanages.

"Disaster Relief": We provided food and rice for 200 families who were victims of the flood of Ha Tinh (central VN).

"Medical Services": We provided funding for 2 kids in My Tho for successful heart surgery. We added "Burned Mission" to our Medical Services program, supporting Dr. Anh Truong and her team at Op Smiles for their mission trip to VN from the social aspect standpoint: helping families with burned victims with funding for food, travel and medicine after the operation. We were able to obtain sponsorship from Dr. Tue Dinh from Methodist Reconstructive Surgery to agree to treat Thuy Nhu, a poor student that MoL sponsors who has a disfigured face, free of charge. MoL is working on preparing paperwork and fund raising for Thuy Nhu to come to the USA for treatment.

INTRODUCING MOL'S NEW PROGRAM: "Investment in our Children's Future" MoL invests in poor but bright with high potential students, sending them to boarding school or to high quality schools, hoping to give them a bright future, so they can return what they have received to the communities and help the society. MoL had been sending 6 kids to boarding school in Hue the past 6 years. Our sponsors investments have paid off: 3 of them graduated from college this year. One went on to seminary school to be a priest, the other two already found a job. This past year school, MoL was able to obtain 5 tuition free scholarships for 5 students to attend Nam My school, a private prestigious school that follows American programs and teaches extensive English to prepare the children for study abroad in their college years. These tution free scholarships were made possible by Ms. Kim Vu of Stafford Primary, Ms. Thuy To and professor Hien Tran, owners of Nam My. Their futures are made possible with the supports from MoL sponsors: Mr. Don Rankins & Mr. Jim King of Colorado, Mr. Thuy Nguyen of San Jose, who subsidized their tuition, fees, boarding and school costs. MoL chose 5 bright orphaned girls to attend the program. One couldn't attend last minute because she was ill. We are hoping to find additional sponsors to add 5 more bright students this coming school year. Because of the boarding situation where the students will be living in quarter with the nuns at the convent, we were only able to pick girls for now. We are hoping to add boys to our programs once we can secure housing for them.

FUND RAISING UPDATES:
MoL have had many successful fund raising events:
- Our yearly Christmas fund raising this past Xmas
- Cherry Blossom fund raising event in DC last year spring
- Medical mission fund raising in Austin last Oct
- Fun Plex with picture with Santa Claus
- Help father Sang Nguyen selling CDs at Marian festival last year
- Booth at Marian Festival in Missouri, selling fashion jewelry, religious statues, CDs
- Donation from ND for charity website
- Miscellaneous donations received throughout the year from newspaper advertising.
A lot of hard work went into these fund raising events, on top of other on going activities such as newsletter, yearly reporting, tax returns, audit financial reports. MoL was able to keep its administrative expenses at 3% because many volunteered their time and effort.

MOL GROWTH:
MoL GOT APPROVED for inclusion into Combined Federal Charity (CFC) list. A lot of hours went into preparing the extensive application and the financial report which was audited by an independent auditor. MoL attended various charity fairs held at various naval and army bases to promote and raise awareness amongs our federal employees of MoL's mission. MoL's CFC code is 34043, please help spread the word to all federal employees you know. Many of MoL supporters and friends including those from afar such as Washington DC and Baltimore, Maryland are working actively to campaign and promote MoL amongs their federal employee co-workers.

CURRENT PROJECTS NEEDING FUNDING:
Even though MoL accomplished a lot, there is still much more needed. There are currently projects still awaiting funding: building of 2 clean water systems for 2 villages in Kontum, providing clean water to 200 families. Although there were 106 new applications, we could only accept 20 new students each year, unless we can find sponsors for all of them. There are currently 76 poor students currently on waiting list to receive MoLer scholarships. MoL hopes to tackle these projects and find sponsors for these students in time.

VOLUNTEERS:
We could not accomplish all these wonderful things without the help and financial support of all the gold hearted people who contribute their time, money and good will. MoL always needs man power and volunteers. Please consider joining to become a Messenger of Love and make a difference.
Many thanks to all MoL VN and USA representatives who all helped executed our programs so efficiently and effectively: Fr. Le Van Nghiem of Hue, Sr. Cao Thi Lanh of Ho Nai, Sr. Vi of Go Vap, sr. Clara Lien of Da Lat, Sr. Nghien and all the sisters of Rosa Lima Thu Duc, Fr. Joseph Binh of Thanh Hoa, Fr. Nguyen Sang of My Tho, Tru Tri Van Phap (Cambodia programs), Thuy Nguyen (India programs), bac Thong of Lo Duc (Thanh Hoa) ... Thanks to Ms. Kim Yen Vu, Ms. Hau, professor Hien for traveling to give scholarships to students.
Thanks to all friends, members and boards for making MoL programs successful. Thanks to all MoL supporters and sponsors for their continuous love and support and help make MoL's mission possible.

MoL hopes that you will continue to be Messengers of Love to the least of our brothers & sisters: the orphaned and the poor, the handicapped, the outcast. Please continue to volunteer and support MoL so it can carry on its mission: to help and make a difference in the lives of the orphaned children and poor by bringing relief, joy, happiness and special moments to them.

May God bless you and your family with many blessings and happiness.
Sincerely,
Theresa Tran



Donations

 

Sponsorship

Nutrition Depot
Super Relax Inc
Dr. Hai Nam Tran
Exxon Mobil
Dr. & Mrs Tam Nguyen
Dr. Ho Phan Ha
Bellaire Medical
PharmCare
Direct appliances
V247
Montessori Learning Institute
Joseph Nursery
KT Printing
Viet Hoa Market
Saigon Radio Houston
Dr. Nguyet Monique
Hewlett Packard
El Paso Corp.
Mr. Johnny To & family
Dr. Anh Nguyen at Infectious Disease Clinic
HLTQD
Anna Draperies
Đuc Phuong
LS Robert Pham
Pho so 1 (DC)
Ms. Trang Le at PharmCare
Mr. & Mrs. Lan Ngo
SBTN Hoa Thinh Đốn
Ms. Agatha Tran, Mattress Firm
Dr. Nghia Vuong
Fr. Tam Pham & Fr. Hanh
Mr & Mrs. Son Hong Nguyen
Qualcomm Inc.
Ms. Lien Kingston at Acorn
Mr. Mark Kingston
Ms. Cam Trinh

WHAT YOUR DOLLARS CAN DO

   Our projects are completely financed by donations. We can only accomplish our missions through the support of our sponsors, and through volunteers who give their time and effort to support the cause. We hope that you will help us fulfill that dream. Together, we can be Messengers of Love to the world and help build the Kingdom of God on earth. Your donation to Messengers of Love will make a lasting difference in the lives of children in need. Your generosity provides crucial assistance for children around the world: children who face hunger for food and love, disease, and extreme poverty. Your support is urgently needed.

$10 per child Holiday gift: includes new clothes, shoes, toy, books, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, li xi money, Holiday dinner and special Holiday treats.
$10 relief per poor family: includes food, rice, cooking oil, blanket, warm clothing, etc.
$15 per child per month: send a child to a good school and buy school clothes, books and other needs.
$200: Dig a well for a poor village
$1200: Build a brand new two room home for a poor ex-leper family.
$2,000: Rebuilding and remodeling a 40 students class room in rural areas.
$3,000: Build a brand new dining hall, a bathroom and a playground for each 40 student class room in rural areas .

All donations are tax deductible, and you may contribute by mail or use the internet at your convenience.





To donate by check or money order, make payable to Messengers of Love. Mail your donation to: Messengers of Love, P.O. Box 590936 Houston, TX 77259.
To donate on line, visit: www.messengersoflove.com



Copyright 2009 © Messengers of Love. All rights reserved.
Messengers of Love is a 501c(3) non profit charity organization dedicated to bringing joy and happiness to the orphaned and poor.
Tax ID # 11-3730103