Mai Tam House of Hope

and

The Mai Tam Project

“Mai Tam is love in action.”

- Christine Slattery, Mai Tam House of Hope Volunteer, Victoria, Australia

HIV-positive children around the world lack the medications to enjoy a quality of life consistent with their society and surroundings. Over 80% of the HIV affected people worldwide—and 88% of children—lack the appropriate medicines to sustain good health (UNAIDS).

Mai Tam House of Hope

Mission

To provide necessary medicines and food within a controlled environment to a targeted group of HIV positive children and mothers in order to ensure a quality of life consistent with their healthy peers and surroundings; the first priority is to the children.

Services

Mai Tam House of Hope (“the center”) started its activities in 2005 to protect orphans, children, and widows infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS by providing lifesaving medicines, food, housing, and medical and social and psychological welfare care, as well as educational and income-generating opportunities. 

As the only facility of its kind in Ho Chi Minh City, the center has dramatically expanded its services to meet the needs of this vulnerable and underserved population.  The center started with 5 orphans in 2005 and currently serves some 360 children and widows infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS at the center and in the community.

Leadership

Mai Tam House of Hope’s director and founder is Father John Toai, a Catholic priest and nurse practitioner. Father John is also the program director of the Pastoral Care for People Living with HIV/AIDS Program of the Ho Chi Minh City Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church

Mai Tam House of Hope staff include three nurses, seven care-givers, three teachers, four social workers, two peer educators (people with HIV/AIDS to approach families with kids with HIV/AIDS in the communities), an accountant, two logistics staff, a medical secretary and a driver, in addition to the two overall managers at the center.

Accomplishments

Since its founding, Mai Tam House of Hope has provided shelter and lifesaving medicines within a controlled environment to women and children with HIV/AIDS.  It has also helped reintegrate its clients into the community; placed HIV-positive children into schools from which they would usually be denied access; and provided the women it serves with income opportunities through its on-site sewing facility and flower shop.  It has achieved all of this even as its population has expanded exponentially.

Father John, the director, also established a community HIV/AIDS clinic, pharmacy, education and counseling center with the support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 

The center’s services have also evolved to meet its clients’ changing needs: the center has also created a new ”Independent Living Program” for those children who now have reached early adulthood.

Funding

Mai Tam House of Hope is a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that receives no funding from the Vietnamese government. However, since its founding, the center has received international recognition for its work, successfully generating grants and donations, as well as developing self-supporting income streams, over the past several years.

Outside funding has included USAID/PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief)), the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control, The Clinton Foundation, Hope for Tomorrow, San Jose Vietnamese Community (San Jose, California), Caritas Germany, PACTVietnam, Global Community Service Foundation, Knights of Columbus (Vancouver, Canada), St. Mary’s University (Slovenia), Fetzer Institute USA, as well as funds generated through the Mai Tam Project and this website from private citizens all over the world, including from the United States, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Thailand, Canada, and Australia.

Despite the above successes, Mai Tam remains underfunded and without self-sustaining income.

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The Mai Tam Project

Mission 

The Mai Tam Project, a private group, will provide funding and oversight for medicines for HIV positive children and mothers, on a limited basis, to specified orphanage(s) or community situational programs (mother/child care programs) within these site(s).  Children should be living at the site or visiting daily and attending school full time as appropriate. Other situational sites can be identified.

Funding for purchase of appropriate medicines and food as necessary will be first priority.

Leadership

Jill Morris, Intensive Special Needs Educator

Julio Giulietti, Loyola University Chicago, Loyola Vietnam Center

Dr Robert E Morris, International Health Consultant

George Daher, International Consultant, Landscape Architecture

Anna Morris, International Affairs Professional

Donate

The Mai Tam Project works with the U.S.-based Hope For Tomorrow, a 501(c)3 organization, to raise funds for Mai Tam House of Hope. All donations made through the Mai Tam Project are applied to medical and support care for the clients of Mai Tam House of Hope; no donations are used for administrative costs.

To donate to Mai Tam House of Hope, 
please use the PayPal button on the Services page. 
Consider joining donors worldwide who are supporting this extraordinary work of love and compassion with a $100, $250, or $500 gift to this life saving program.

Who We Are

John Phuong Toai, Director/Founder Mai Tam House of Hope

Jill Morris, Intensive Special Needs Educator

  Julio Giulietti, Loyola University Chicago, Loyola Vietnam Center

Dr Robert E Morris, International Health Consultant

Anna Morris, International Affairs Professional

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