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YEAR-END
DONATIONdrive
Please help us reach our goal to raise $100,000 by December 31, 2017.
Dear BPSOS Supporters,
We need to raise 100K by December 31, 2017 to meet our financial target for this year. Your donations have allowed us to help refugees in Thailand, victims of religious persecutions, prisoners of conscience at-risk and many other humanitarian cases.
UPDATE 12/05/17: For those in need today and their democratic future: A year-end appeal
* An opportunity to double your charity donations up to $200,000.
According to our tradition, December is the year-end season of charitable donations. Year-end charitable contributions also present an opportunity for individuals or companies to qualify for a tax deduction in this calendar year.
At the end of each year, BPSOS appeals for contributions from donors to fund its operations of the following year. In particular this year, a young entrepreneur who roots for our cause, has set aside a matching gift of $100,000. Starting from December 5th until December 31st, each dollar you donate will be matched by a dollar until this matching fund reaches its $100,000 limit. Hence, your charitable contributions will get double impacts.
This fund will be used to:
(1) Providing legal protection for refugees in Thailand would be at risk if returned to Vietnam;
(2) Create livelihoods for hundreds of refugee families in Thailand;
(3) Help and intervene for prisoners of conscience;
(4) Develop strength and capacity for communities to protect their rights and interests.
Below are a few cases that illustrate what each of your donations will support:
Nguyen Thi Tuyet Nga – Refugee & Human Trafficking Victim
In 1972, when Nga was 2 years old, her father, an airman of South Vietnam Air Force died on duty. After April 30th, 1975, the communist government seized their house and expelled the family to unexplored lands dubbed as “new economic zones”. In 1976, her mother drowned and her only brother, aged 11, died of starvation and malaria.
She was adopted by a neighboring family. In 1980 they took her with them and escaped to Cambodia. In 1987, following the raid of Vietnamese and Cambodian communist troops, they fled to Thailand, but Nga went missing. On the way to find her foster parents, Nga was robbed and raped by Cambodian soldiers, then abandoned on an island. She was pregnant and after giving birth to daughter, she was frequently raped by the island soldiers.
In 1992, while fleeing to Thailand, she was attacked with acid by strangers.
Upon waking up in the hospital, she was blinded with both eyes, a deaf ear, and her face deformed. A Vietnamese couple took her in then sold her to a beggars’ club. She had to go begging every day and the club owner used her daughter as a hostage. In 2002, the club owner was stabbed to death by gangsters.
Two female cooks of the club brought her to Bangkok where she continued begging. In 2016, a Vietnamese refugee took her to BPSOS's legal clinic.
Thanks to the attorneys’ assistance, after 37 years of wandering, she was finally recognized as a refugee. The US government is taking steps for her resettlement. She still has no news about her daughter. If she is still alive, she would be 29 years old.
LATEST UPDATE: Nga will move and be settled in the US this week.
Story of Young A Ron
A Ron in Post-Op Convalescence
A Ron (in striped shirt) and other kids
A Ron is the son of Pastor A Ga. He suffered from cerebral palsy. His family only realized of his condition when he was 2 years old and could not walk. He was diagnosed at the Pediatric hospital in Saigon (Bệnh Viện Nhi Đồng) and his parents were told that the surgery was to be performed only when he reaches 10 years old; he was only 6 then. In 2013, Pastor A Ga and his family had to flee to Thailand due to religious persecution in Vietnam. Besides legal assistance, BPSOS also secured financial contributions (approx. US $2500) from private donors to help A Ron with surgery. He later underwent a second surgery with a donation from benefactors in Australia (approx. 2,000 Australian dollars). Now A Ron can walk with 70% - 80% mobility and go to regular school with other kids.
Duong Xuan Luong – A “Religious” Fugitive for 8 years
Mr. Duong in front of UNHCR office, Bangkok, Thailand
Mr. Duong was greeted by family, Cao Dai and BPSOS representatives at Dallas International Airport
Mr. Duong Xuan Luong was a member of the Popular Council of Cao Dai Religion. Due to his advocacy for religious freedom for his religious organization, he was jailed for 30 months in 1996. His daughter, a US citizen, had sponsored him to immigrate to the US. However the Vietnamese authorities refused to issue him a passport, effectively preventing him from having an interview with the US Consulate in Vietnam. After their failed attempt to arrest him at his home, the Vietnamese authorities issued an arrest warrant. He went into hiding for 8 years and escaped to Thailand in March 2016. BPSOS’s legal clinic in Thailand helped him to apply for his refugee status with UNHCR and simultaneously had his daughter’s immigrant visa petition transferred from the US Consulate in Vietnam to Thailand. Finally the Thai authorities cleared his departure even though he did not have a valid passport. On March 29, 2017 he happily reunited with his wife and daughter in Dallas, Texas.
Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh – Religious Prisoner
Both Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh and his wife, Mrs. Tran Thi Hong are victims of torture. In 2011, Pastor Chinh received an 11-year prison sentence on the vague charge of “undermining national solidarity.” while he was assisting Christian minority ethnics in the Central Highland to defend their right to religious freedom. In prison, he was often mistreated and tortured. In April, 2016, Mrs. Hong met with a delegation from the State Department to bring up her husband’s case. Right afterward, she was investigated by Gia Lai police for two months; she was tortured three times for refusing to disclose the contents of her discussion with the delegation.
She protested with two hunger strikes, lasting 9 days and 4 days respectively. BPSOS has repeatedly raised the case of Pastor Chinh and Mrs. Hong in the US Congress. Their case has been mentioned by US officials to illustrate the religious persecution happening in Vietnam. In March 2017, Former ambassador Jackie Wolcott, USCIRF, adopted Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh and his wife, Mrs. Tran Thi Hong. On July 28th, 2017 Pastor Chinh, his wife and their five children arrived in US. They currently residing in Orange County, CA
PLEASE HELP US RAISE $100K BY DECEMBER 31
TOTAL RAISED!!!
$101, 749
CAMPAIGN CLOSED 12/31/2017
0
DAYS LEFT
$100K
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