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| Soeur Vu Thi Tho and the children at Son Ca centre welcome Henri Albert Gabriel Felix Marie Guillaume, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, during his visit to Vietnam in November 2011. |
The incident marked the beginning of Tho's two decades of endless efforts to save the abandoned children in many poor villages in the province, whose father or mother suffered from HIV/AIDS, disability, or too poor to care for the child.
The infant she first saved now has grown up to be 12-grader Tran Thi Kim Anh, one of the 68 children living in the Son Ca centre in Kim Long Ward of Hue city that she founded in 1991.
"Whenever I can help a life that could be ruined, I feel relieved and happy," she said.
Nearly 70 years old, Tho has never felt tired of saving and catering to her children.
Each of the children who come here leaves behind a story of hopelessness. Some were orphans, mentally-illed, cerebral-palsied or deaf.
For the newborns who do not come with names, Tho gave her last name.
Seven-year-old Vu An Tinh Xuan was brought to the centre when she was one-week-old, weight only 1.2 kilo. Her mother, a member of the ethnic group Pa coh, became pregnant when she was only 15, abandoned by her own family and had merely nothing to eat before giving birth.
Now, Xuan has entered 2nd grade, performing well in school.
For the children here, Tho, or known as grandma Tan (taking from her Catholic name Chantal), is also a source of life lessons.
The centre also cares for 13 children with disabilities, providing them with basic lessons so they could in the future integrate to society.
Vu Anh Tu, half-paralysed and half-brain trauma after a traffic accident at two years old, now has been able to write his name from her twisted hand.
The kids are also provided extra lessons with tutors being hired to help them.
Tho refused to speak about funding required for running the centre a month but said most came from her efforts in fund-raising and support from individuals and international organisations.
In 2008, Tho managed to raise funds for building a new facility for the centre, providing enough spaces for the children to live and play.
Besides her work at the centre, Tho is also an exemplary in charity works, such as mobilising funding to provide clean waters to 1,000 households in the province, eliminate makeshift homes for 30 poor households, or building areas for poor households to grow mushrooms in Kim Long Ward.
Nguyen Thanh Kiem, head of the Hue Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said the work that Tho had been carrying out was truly inspiring to every community.
Vu Thi Hong An, who was recently awarded the top prize in the province's French language competition for students, said: "Grandma Tan gave me the dream I once lost - that was living in a family."
