In this article we present the testimony of Sister Maria Pham Hoa My Kieu, who has been serving those who suffer in the Vietnam Vice-Province of the Sisters Hospitallers for 17 years. With a deep dedication to children with disabilities, she shares her experience and the challenges she faces in children’s mental health care.
What is your role and how long have you been part of the Hospitaller Sisters?
My name is Maria Pham Hoa My Kieu. I am a Sister Hospitaller of the Vice-Province of Vietnam. I have been in the Congregation for 17 years. Most of these years, I worked in our centre, especially accompanying children with disabilities. I am very happy and grateful for this opportunity, this gift that has allowed me to be very close to the Lord through their living images, sharing with them their life, their joy, their pain, sadness and above all to be God’s mercy for them.
This month we celebrate World Mental Health Day. In Vietnam, you work with children who need support in this area. What challenges do you find in the care of children’s mental health and how do the Sisters Hospitallers help to improve their well-being?
The challenges I find are the following: the lack of people to care for the patients, at the moment we have no collaborators, we sisters are in charge of all the activities; we lack the means for comprehensive care, as well as the support of their family, because most of them do not have parents and we have to provide them with everything; we also need sisters with professional training, well prepared in this field so that we not only help them with their basic needs, but also to help them to maximise their capacity to be able to resolve difficulties in different situations, to acquire the greatest possible autonomy.
Another challenge is the attention to large groups of children with different pathologies and this, together with the insufficient number of people to attend to them. We try to improve this child mental health care in our centre with everything we have and everything we can. We look for suitable, healthy spaces, we use means often taken from nature and elaborated by ourselves. We try to discover the small capacities of each child in order to develop them and thus acquire greater autonomy. This care is full of maternal love, tenderness and generosity in service.
Could you define hospitality in one sentence?
For me ‘Hospitality’ means opening up to welcome another person, loving them, serving them and above all, making them feel loved.