US Adopted Overseas Vietnamese Returns Home to Lend a Hand

An overseas Vietnamese foster child of an American family joined in a children’s camp in central Hoi An ancient town to help disadvantaged kids in her home country.

Eighteen-year-old Mai Lynn is one of the nine adopted children Candace Abel and David Z. Abel, businesspeople from Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.

Mai, whose mother is mentally ill, stayed in an orphanage in northern Bac Giang province until she was eight, before being adopted by the philanthropist American family.

Charity trip

Mai Lynn, together with other adopted youths of Vietnamese origin, attended the camp themed “2005 Fun Summer Camp” co-organized by Hoi An Youth Union committee and the US’s Maine Aid and Protection Services (MAP’S)

“I am really happy to be a part of these charity activities”, the eighteen-year-old said of the work, which included teaching English to 50 orphans in Hoi An and working at the Children’s Cultural House at Hoa Vang commune in neighboring Da Nang province.

After the camp, the youths will stay on in Vietnam for more visits and sightseeing tours. Mai Lynn is to spend another month with her biological mother and learn more about her home country’s traditions and culture.

“No one can forget their roots. My foster parents encouraged me to remember and return to my country of origin,” Mai Lynn confided.

More returns

The girl, who speaks fluent Vietnamese, added how shameful it is to know so little about her home country, pledging to return and visit more in the future.

Her dream is to join more charity work like the MAP’S trip after graduation to help her home country, where there are many more unfortunate children like her, Mai Lynn said.

She has just started her first year at a university in Washington DC, and has been working part-time since high school for money to help her biological mother and relatives in Vietnam.

Lynn’s foster mother had joined several charity trips to Vietnam before, and is founder of an Elizabethtown foundation that helps with financial grants for families seeking to adopt special-needs children.

The family also adopted eight other orphans, among whom, two more are Vietnamese, she added.

Reported by Dang Ngoc Khoa – Translated by Ngoc Hanh.
Story from Thanh Nien News
Published: 15 August, 2005, 21:06:52 (GMT+7)
Copyright Thanh Nien News