Please help us translate the contents below. It's for our website which establish to raise fund for the orphanages in Viet Nam. thank you


Mission
Lantern of Hope is an international foundation that provides support for the basic needs and necessities of orphans in Vietnam. This foundation is committed to opening the door of life for children to discover and develop the gifts they possess, but never had the opportunity to know. To see beyond the trials of their lives as orphans and have the opportunity to believe in a promising future is a vision that Lantern of Hope encourages for all children.

Vision
The charity is symbolized by a lantern. The lantern represents light and hope. It has the power to illuminate a dark path while offering a greater sense of possibility for the course that lies ahead. Fashion designer, philanthropist, and now founder of Lantern of Hope, Thien Le, chose to combine the worlds of art and fashion with his passion and concern for orphaned children. Vietnamese born, he understands the plight of children who not only lack the satisfaction of basic needs, but also the support and security of a family. His path in life is lined with people who gave him hope and an opportunity to become the person he is today. Thien pays it forward by championing the future of Vietnamese orphans to live happier, healthier, educated lives.

Thien Le’s international success is owed to the fact that he was given the opportunity to develop his gifts. This is the core reason for him establishing the Lantern of Hope Foundation. Now with every lantern donation, a lantern shines and another life has a chance to blossom in Vietnam. Donors will have an opportunity to discover the light and hope that is within them to give. This in turn becomes a timeless and very basic building block of this Foundation.



The Power to Illuminate a Dark Path
Vietnam is close to my heart. It is where I was born and spent the first seven years of my life. I was born in Saigon, now called Ho Chi Minh. I came to Canada in 1989 and grew up in Windsor, Ont. Now, I live and run a small business in Toronto. Some of my most cherished, joyful and poignant memories will always take me back to the hustling and bustling streets of Ho Chi Minh City.
I recently accepted an invitation to visit a temple about a two hour drive from Ho Chi Minh, where 60 orphans are taken care of by two Buddhist monks. The visitation changed my point of view. I asked myself: What is my purpose in life? I realized that while I might have embraced a new culture and lived my life in another country, my roots will always be Vietnamese.
Since then, I have been helping Vietnamese children with their hospital bills in various life and death situations. The orphans are the children of our future. It is hard to measure by poverty and hard to picture it with statistics, but Vietnam is by various measures one of the poorest countries in the world. Recently, some citizens have benefited from a more open economic system, but this sometimes makes a few rich at the expense of the poor. I have witnessed this first-hand.
Extreme poverty has forced many parents to leave their children at orphanages, Buddhist temples and monasteries because they simply cannot afford to feed them. Most have been abandoned by their parents at an early age, often because of extreme poverty or out-of-wedlock births; also probably because of the government policy restricting families to two children. Some children have lost their parents to natural disasters such as flooding or for other reasons. Most are living in orphanages. Each child in an orphanage is a child whose life might have been ended before birth. But each of these children was carried by his or her birth mother and brought into the world.

This is why I was motivated to establish the Lantern of Hope Foundation, a voluntary organization that provides support for the basic needs and necessities of orphans in Vietnam. This foundation is committed to opening the door of life for children to discover and develop the gifts they possess, but never had the opportunity to know. To see beyond the trials of their lives as orphans and have the opportunity to believe in a promising future is a vision that Lantern of Hope encourages for all children.
The charity is symbolized by a lantern. The lantern represents light and hope. It has the power to illuminate a dark path while offering a greater sense of possibility for the course that lies ahead today. Lantern Of Hope pays it forward by championing the future of Vietnamese orphans to live happier, healthier and educated lives.

But the lantern is more than a symbol: for a donation, your own lantern will be displayed in an annual festival. Visualize this: Vietnamese lanterns will hang in front of City Hall in Toronto, September 2008. With every donation, a lantern shines and another life has a chance to blossom in Vietnam. Donors will have an opportunity to discover the light and hope that is within them to give. This in turn becomes a timeless and very basic building block of this organization.

I can’t do this all by myself, but together we can try to make a difference, whether it’s big or small.