The happiness of wearing brand new shoes and little things that become great things. During two different days of the first week of July, HEARTS FOR HUE has distributed brand new shoes to the children of Con Hen Island, Vinh Phu and Thuy Phu Fishing Villages. Through the “Shoes Program” HEARTS FOR HUE seeks that children can wear shoes to the school. Summer also seems to be a good moment for the distribution of the shoes, as children may start the upcoming school year wearing new shoes.
In all the above-mentioned places, the children were been waiting for this moment with great expectation. Children were eager for the new shoes. And although they all looked very excited they waited patiently to be called by their names and to receive the new pair of shoes. After that, a well known process of trying the shoes on and tying the shoelaces, a task that in some cases took a bit longer than expected.
At the end, the children experienced the happiness of wearing brand new shoes. In some cases, the very few, it was necessary to swap shoes between the children as the shoes either did not fit at the receiver’s feet or they were too big. Thankfully, we managed to go around all the problems and to solve all situations so we succeeded in removing disappointment from the faces of children.
But let me talk about other children, the ones that made this shoes distribution possible. They live in a city on the Northwest coast of Spain named A Coruña Julieta, Candela y Sol, my nieces, still are lovely young girls. They are 9, 8, and 6 years old. During my stay volunteering for HEARTS FOR HUE, I use to write some postcards to my nieces and nephews, so they are aware of what I am doing here in Vietnam. And it seems that my nieces like to comment on my postcards while having breakfast. All these are little things that fill our ordinary lives. And while having breakfast one of them looking at her mother said: “Mom, what can we do to help our uncle to buy shoes for disadvantaged children in Hue?”
Their mother suggested to them to collect money among their friends and relatives and to send the money to HEARTS FOR HUE, so the NGO could buy the shoes. And here is that my nieces got to work and involved some of their cousins (Paloma, Aránzazu, Pepe, Paco) in the task and started to collect money among their friends and relatives and they spent several weeks doing so till they thought they had enough money to buy shoes. And the money was finally sent to Vietnam, to the accounts of Hearts For Hue. I don’t know what forces prompted my nieces to help me and to help the Vietnamese children. I don’t know what kind of enthusiasm kept them firm in their endeavors. But I am sure that they were very strong forces.
A force and enthusiasm deeply rooted in their young hearts. It was their first experience giving back and it was an amazing lesson for all us. The enthusiasm of my nieces resulted in 91 pairs of brand new shoes for 91 children of Con Hen Island, Vinh Phu and Thuy Phu Fishing Villages. The 91 children that experienced the happiness of wearing brand new shoes.
It may happen that my nieces and the children of those communes may never meet. But they will forever share the same joy that these little things have brought to us. Little things that become great things.
Mr Agustin – Hearts for Hue Team
