Samaritan's Purse Australia & New Zealand

Looking back now, Tran Xuan Hoa is amazed that a small shoe box could have transformed his life forever. That’s because, 15 years ago, Hoa was a sad kid with very little hope, living alone on the streets of Hanoi, Vietnam. His family never had enough money and there was no future for him in the remote mountain village where he grew up.

“At age eleven, I dropped out of school after finishing grade five, due to extreme poverty and having to walk nine kilometers to school every day,” he remembers. “It seemed that I would never have any dream for the future.” Because of their desperate situation, Hoa’s parents let him go to Hanoi, hoping he could find work, never imagining he would end up a street kid. Aimless and alone, Hoa heard about the shelters run by Samaritan’s Purse.

And, thanks to the support of friends like you, he was able to find a new home with other street children where he was safe and cared for. Two months later, Hoa became one of the first children in Vietnam to receive a Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child shoe box. His eyes opened wide as he pulled out the flute that was packed inside. Who would have guessed that he knew how to play a flute? “The shoe box was small, but its power changed my life forever,” he smiles.

When Hoa opened his Operation Christmas Child shoe box, he opened up so much more than a box full of gifts. His shoe box opened up more opportunities through Samaritan’s Purse for Hoa and his brothers to finish school and, putting their education to use, support their family.

Hoa now serves as a Project Officer with Samaritan’s Purse Vietnam where he oversees the northern mountain region where he was born! He is married to Huyen and they have a two-year-old son called Noah.

As a child, Hoa didn’t dare to dream. But now, thanks to friends like you, he is giving hope to other impoverished kids… And it all started with an Operation Christmas Child shoe box, given to a wide-eyed mountain child.