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Hotel for the poor

A couple in Binh Duong province has turned their 50-room hotel into a centre to take care of homeless elderly people and orphans.

A couple in the southern province of Binh Duong has turned their 50-room hotel into a centre to take care of homeless elderly people and orphans.

Hotel for the poor - 1
 

The hotel owner, Nguyen Van Suc, is tidying up the hotel and feeding a child
The rooms are all equipped with TV, air-conditioning, mattresses and water heaters; the hotel covers nearly 3,000 square meters on a road leading to Dai Nam tourism resort.

The hotel owner Nguyen Van Suc, 69, said he was born in Ben Tre Province and he went to HCM City when he was 10 years old. The hotel is the result of a life-time of his work. At a certain point he felt sorry for these disadvantaged people, so he allowed them to stay at his hotel.

More unfortunate people have since come to his hotel. He and his wife upgraded the building and changed it into their own social protection centre which started operations in November 2012, with the necessary license given by local authorities.

After that, the couple went to the hospitals and the markets everyday, to look for abandoned newborn babies and homeless people. Currently, the centre is looking after 30 people, including 13 children.

Do Thi Quy, who is holding a six-month old boy, Nguyen Van An, said to the reporter that, “The boy was abandoned by his parents just after he was born. After being informed of this by Lai Thieu Hospital in Binh Duong Province, we went there immediately to bring the boy back here.”

The children often fell when they were running on the house’s slippery front yard, therefore, Mr. Suc used flowered enamel tiles to replace the old cement floor, however, there's still a 10 square-meter area which needs to be repaired but he did not have enough money to do it.

Nguyen Thi Hoang said more than 10 years ago, her children fought against one another over family assets and they threw her out into the street. She had been homeless since then until she met Mr. Suc and his wife.

Everyday, neighbours bring rice and vegetable to support the centre. Even some sellers at a nearby market sometimes offer the centre some vegetables. Nung Thi Khuyen voluntarily works as a cook for these unlucky people. She and her 16-year-old daughter are now living at the centre.

Sometimes, poor people in neighbouring areas drop-in at the centre to beg for food and rice. “They are all very poor. We do not have enough money, but we give them a few kilos of rice and instant noodles,” Mrs. Quy said.

For the old couple, playing with children is a joy and they are called  “grandmother” and “grandfather”.

In 2008, someone wanted to buy the hotel which was valued  at VND12 billion (USD571,428), but the couple were determined to keep it. Now, the hotel has been turned into the centre for the poor and they do not care how much it's worth--they're not selling at any price.