The cries of orphans during a trip back to Vietnam haunted an English woman of Vietnamese origin and set her life on a new course.
Businesswoman Suzanne Hook, 41, sold her house and belongings in Buckinghamshire and left her comfortable life to return to Vietnam to take care of disadvantaged children.
With the Vietnamese name of Thi Hien, Hook was the abandoned daughter of a Vietnamese woman and a black US soldier who fought in the Vietnam war. Luckily she was found by an English nurse and then raised at the Germany-UK Society’s orphanage in Saigon.
In 1972, Hook was taken to the UK under a child adoption programme after being adopted by a catholic family in Hayes, Middlesex and led her life with very few memories of Vietnam .
Thirty-five years later in 2007, Hook, who at the time was running a beauty salon named the Couture Nail Service in Beaconsfield, returned to Vietnam and visited the orphanage where she had spent her early years in Ho Chi Minh City.
Her life then changed as the unfortunate orphans broke her heart and she knew she could not return to her previous life.
After the visit, she nurtured the idea of going back to Vietnam and building an orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City .
“My life now, is to go back to Vietnam to the children. I want to give them a future and the opportunity of going to school so that they can stand on their own two feet,” said Hook.
Hook took back her Vietnamese name, Thi Hien and says she is proud to tell everyone that she is Vietnamese.
According to the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, Hook’s Allambie Orphanage will begin to operate in November this year.
Suzanne Thi Hien said she hopes that the money she received from selling her property will be enough to build the orphanage, until she can raise more from other charitable foundations and philanthropists./.
Businesswoman Suzanne Hook, 41, sold her house and belongings in Buckinghamshire and left her comfortable life to return to Vietnam to take care of disadvantaged children.
With the Vietnamese name of Thi Hien, Hook was the abandoned daughter of a Vietnamese woman and a black US soldier who fought in the Vietnam war. Luckily she was found by an English nurse and then raised at the Germany-UK Society’s orphanage in Saigon.
In 1972, Hook was taken to the UK under a child adoption programme after being adopted by a catholic family in Hayes, Middlesex and led her life with very few memories of Vietnam .
Thirty-five years later in 2007, Hook, who at the time was running a beauty salon named the Couture Nail Service in Beaconsfield, returned to Vietnam and visited the orphanage where she had spent her early years in Ho Chi Minh City.
Her life then changed as the unfortunate orphans broke her heart and she knew she could not return to her previous life.
After the visit, she nurtured the idea of going back to Vietnam and building an orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City .
“My life now, is to go back to Vietnam to the children. I want to give them a future and the opportunity of going to school so that they can stand on their own two feet,” said Hook.
Hook took back her Vietnamese name, Thi Hien and says she is proud to tell everyone that she is Vietnamese.
According to the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, Hook’s Allambie Orphanage will begin to operate in November this year.
Suzanne Thi Hien said she hopes that the money she received from selling her property will be enough to build the orphanage, until she can raise more from other charitable foundations and philanthropists./.
