The "Secret" of Spring
In the volunteer community, almost everyone knows a "secret": The days after Tet (Lunar New Year) are always the time when people are most open to sharing and giving. At the beginning of the new year, love is given silently, without remembering names or expecting anything in return.
In the volunteer community, almost everyone knows a "secret": The days after Tet (Lunar New Year) are always the time when people are most open to sharing and giving. At the beginning of the new year, love is given silently, without remembering names or expecting anything in return.
That's how Nguyen Tu Hoang, a member of the "Zero-Cost Vehicle Thanh Chuong" volunteer group, describes the beginning of spring. Through many years of involvement in charitable work, this man born in 1989 has realized a humane "rule": After the Lunar New Year, people's hearts tend to open up more, and the flow of donations to those in difficult circumstances is significantly higher than at other times of the year. This year, his "season of sharing" began with a very touching appeal for the family of Nguyen Ngoc Thien in Tong Doi hamlet, Hanh Lam commune.
Thiện's family was already impoverished, with both his elderly mother and eldest child suffering from mental illness, and his wife critically ill. Tragedy struck on the first night of Tet (Lunar New Year), when, while on his way to take his wife to the hospital, Thiện was involved in a serious traffic accident. The accident claimed his wife's life, and Thiện was left in critical condition, undergoing life-or-death surgery at the Nghe An Friendship General Hospital. Amidst this profound grief and loss, Hoàng's story served as a bridge connecting strangers with a shared sense of community.
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In a short time, over 600 million VND was deposited into Mr. Thien's account. This figure astonished even Mr. Hoang, a seasoned networker. He said emotionally, "Although I knew people would be willing to give more after Tet, this act of solidarity is truly meaningful and immense. Behind that money are small but heartwarming stories of love. Some people only had a little over 100,000 VND left in their accounts but were willing to donate half of it. It was this community resonance that ignited a ray of hope for a family that seemed to have reached a dead end."
Explaining his charitable acts at the beginning of the year, Mr. Hoang said that Tet is a time when people are more compassionate and forgiving. The mentality of "sowing good seeds" at the start of spring to pray for peace for the family, coupled with year-end bonuses or savings, makes people more comfortable allocating a portion to help others.
Ms. Vu Thi Thai An (born in 1991, Thanh Vinh Ward) began her Lunar New Year holiday in 2026 with a special trip. From Truong Vinh Ward, Ms. An, along with her husband and their 3-month-old son, traveled up to Son Lam Commune to visit Luong Van Nhat, the child she had been raising for the past two years. The trip was unplanned, a spontaneous visit at the beginning of the year, but it brought back a wealth of emotions, far exceeding those of a typical charitable journey.
The connection between the woman born in 1991 and the boy from the highlands "blossomed" during a trip to build a school in Thanh Chuong district (formerly) in 2024, organized by a business association. Witnessing the hardships of others, An was determined to become a direct support for a child. Upon returning to the lowlands, she asked a teacher to find and connect her with several students from particularly disadvantaged backgrounds. Luong Van Nhat was one of them. His father had lost a leg and couldn't work, and his mother was mentally impaired, so Nhat and his two siblings faced hardship and deprivation from an early age. As the youngest child in the family, Nhat would have almost been sidelined from his dream of going to school if it weren't for the appearance of Ms. An.
For the past two years, every month, Ms. An has regularly sent money for Nhat's food and education to the teacher, totaling 15 to 16 million VND per year. Every small item purchased, every step of the boy's progress at school, is photographed and updated by the teacher for her "foster sister." Besides Nhat, Thai An has also managed to get her mother and close friends to adopt several other children in western Nghe An province, without going through any organization.
This year's Tet (Lunar New Year) marks An's second visit to her adopted brother. For An, just seeing Nhat's radiant smile and the joy of receiving lucky money from her makes the trip complete, filling her heart with the spirit of spring. An confided, "Although I don't have the means to immediately change the impoverished circumstances of many people, I still yearn to share small things that can change someone's life. I hope I always stay healthy enough to work and support Nhat's education until he turns 18."
For Ms. Quang Thi Lieu, this year's Tet holiday is warmed by a glimmer of hope, a hope quietly kindled in a small notebook.
Ms. Lieu, born in 1985, lives in Tam Hop commune, Nghe An province. This frail, petite woman is a "close" patient of the doctors at the Nghe An Hematology Center and also the steadfast supporter of a family burdened with tragedy. Her mother passed away early, and Ms. Lieu and her two younger siblings all suffer from thalassemia inherited from their father. Furthermore, her middle brother is paralyzed on one side of his body and unable to care for himself, while Ms. Lieu herself suffers from numerous other illnesses. When poverty left her family with nowhere else to borrow money, her spleen became enlarged, compressing her liver and lungs, preventing her from living a normal life. At the same time, her elderly father was hospitalized for complications from diabetes and pneumonia. Without enough money for her father's medication, a CT scan, or surgery to remove the spleen, Ms. Lieu was plunged into despair.
From a humble sharing, Ms. Lieu's plight became known to kind-hearted strangers. By the 5th day of Tet (Lunar New Year), the amount of donations received exceeded 14 million VND. That amount may not be enough for a major surgery, but for Ms. Lieu, it is a lifeline. It helps alleviate some of her worries about her father's medication and rekindles hope for the day she can get examined and have surgery.
This Tet holiday, Ms. Lieu took the time to meticulously record every donation sent to her account. Her handwriting was clumsy but full of gratitude. She clearly noted the sender's name and the amount received, including many anonymous donors. For her, no matter who they were or how much they sent, they were all benefactors. Ms. Lieu's season of love and hope began like this, with messages from people she had never met and a notebook filled with gratitude.
