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 with us 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 Sisters Hospitallers?

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 center, 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 the mercy of God for them.

• This month we celebrate World Mental Health Day. In Vietnam, you work with children who require support in this area. What challenges do you find in children’s mental health care and how does 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 do not have collaborators, we sisters are in charge of all the activities; the means for comprehensive care are lacking, as well as the support of their family, because most of them do not have parents and we have to provide them with everything; there is also a need for sisters with professional training, well prepared in this field so that we not only help them in their basic needs, but also to help them to maximize their ability to be able to solve 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 them.

We try to improve this attention to children’s mental health in our center with everything we have and can. We look for adequate and healthy spaces, we use means often taken from nature and elaborated by ourselves. We try to discover the small capacities of each one, to develop them and thus to be able to acquire a 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 oneself to welcome the other person, to love them, to serve them and above all, to make them feel loved.