Philanthropists who "nurture" children discover that the student labeled "abandoned" was never actually abandoned.

(Dan Tri Newspaper) - Ms. Phan Dieu Huong joined the "Nurturing Children" project in September this year with a "child abandonment" case in Gia Lai. She agreed to reveal her real name to clarify the story of the "abandoned student" that she suspects was staged.

Sharing with Dan Tri reporter, Ms. Phan Dieu Huong said that last September, she adopted a student from 2/9 Kindergarten, La Ko commune (former Chu Puh district), Gia Lai province. This is her first child to adopt.

At that time, the project did not have a code for the 2025-2026 school year, but only had "abandoned codes" for the 2024-2025 school year. "Abandoned codes" is how Nuoi Em calls students who were once adopted but now had to stop because the benefactor "abandoned them".

“As a mother of three, the word ‘abandoned’ makes me feel heartbroken. I don’t want a child who is enjoying delicious meals at school to stop,” said Ms. Huong.

But it was not until the night of December 8 that she realized her compassion was for a false story. Her “foster sister” had never been “abandoned”.

Image of the project Raising Children (Photo: FB Raising Children).

According to Ms. Huong, because she received the abandoned code, she paid for meals for the previous school year, 2024-2025.

After paying, the project allowed her to join the zalo group to update lunch photos of the 2/9 school. However, from the time she joined the group, she did not see any photos posted by the teachers.

In November, Nuoi em reminded her to pay the fee for the 2025-2026 school year. After the transfer, Ms. Huong received a second notice that her Nuoi em code would remain the same but the student could change because the teacher might no longer recommend it.

Ms. Huong accepted, because the money she paid would still be used to support another student.

In recent days, the Nuoi Em project has been accused of lack of transparency by the online community and philanthropists, making Ms. Huong feel confused. On the evening of December 8, Ms. Huong went to the 2/9 school group to look for information and discovered that the group had only been active since February of this year.

Meanwhile, if Ms. Huong's "adopted child" is an "abandoned code", then the child's meal information must be available from at least September 2024.

When Ms. Huong brought this question to the project, she received the answer that she had typed the wrong code. Her “foster child” was not an “abandoned code” but just an additional code from February.

The project also confirmed that the amount of money she paid to raise her younger sibling was 750,000 VND more for 4 months, from September 2024 to January 2025 - the period during which the child was not adopted by any foster siblings. In other words, the child was never "abandoned" or "abandoned" as the Raising My Child project uses the term.

The project also told Ms. Huong that the unused project costs would remain in the account, used to buy more warm clothes, send teachers support costs and if there was a lot left over, it would be used to build a school. Ms. Huong did not agree with this explanation.

"My fellow foster parents and I send money to 'Nurture the Children' to support them. Why is there extra money, and even a lot of it? So how much money does 'Nurture the Children' actually send to the school for each child's food each month that there's extra money?" Ms. Huong questioned.

On the afternoon of December 9, Ms. Huong went to find the answer herself. She contacted the Principal of Siu H Mup 2/9 Kindergarten to inquire. After many text messages and phone calls, Ms. Huong was informed by Ms. Siu H Mup that all 19 students of the school had just received Nuoi Em's food support since February of this year.

The school provided documents showing that it had just received meal money from Nuoi Em for the last 4 months of the 2024-2025 school year (Photo: NVCC).

The school has just received meal money for 4 months of the 2024-2025 school year, and has not received meal money for the 2025-2026 school year.

The principal also provided the school’s payment request slips. From February to May, the school’s “foster children” did not have enough 22 meals/month – equivalent to the amount of 150,000 VND/month that the foster siblings contributed.

Specifically, in March and April, children ate 21 meals. In February and May, children ate 15 meals and 10 meals respectively. This means that there was a surplus of 21 meals for each child that was not reported by the Child Care Department.

Payment request form provided by the school to Ms. Phan Dieu Huong (Photo: NVCC).

Ms. Huong continued to contact other foster carers in the group. One person told her that they were also given an abandonment code with the same content as her. This person also paid for meals for both the old and new school years. Meanwhile, at 2/9 Kindergarten, no student will be fed before February 2025.

“Is this a case of “miscoding”? How many students have been “miscoded” as children “abandoned” by their foster parents? Is there a scenario of “abandoned code” created to appeal to the compassion of the benefactor? I hope this will be clarified,” Ms. Phan Dieu Huong expressed her wish.

Another issue that made Ms. Huong dissatisfied and lost faith was that Nuoi Em did not proactively detect errors (if any), did not proactively speak up about errors, and did not notify about the use of the difference in money when the siblings had contributed. Only when the benefactor raised questions and asked for explanations did Nuoi Em respond.

“With Nuoi Em, I came with the heart of a mother. I also shared with my friends in the hope that more people would support and extend the children’s school days. If Nuoi Em really has financial irregularities, I don’t know how to describe my feelings. Because disappointment is too mild a word,” said Ms. Phan Dieu Huong.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/nha-hao-tam-nuoi-em-phat-hien-hoc-sinh-ma-bo-roi-chua-tung-bi-bo-roi-20251209195631667.htm