Kindness all around her

Davik Teng, 9, thanks Chi Nguyen, 11, for money she donated to help Davik get her heart surgery. Nguyen, who suffers from leukemia, decided to use the money in her piggy bank, $50, to help Davik. The pair met for the first time Friday at Sophys Restaurant in Long Beach. (Jeff Gritchen/Staff Photographer)

Davik Teng has received aid from an unexpected source.

03/10/2008
By Greg Mellen
Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)

WANT TO HELP?

People interested in helping Hearts Without Boundaries pay for Davik's expenses in the United States can make tax-deductible donations to Hearts without Boundaries, 744 Redondo Ave., Long Beach, CA 90804 or by calling 818-640-6191.

Organizers can also be reached by e-mail at:
PeterChhun@heartswithoutboundaries.org or
LuckyChhuon@heartswithoutboundaries.org

LONG BEACH - The plaintive eyes of the girl in the poster spoke to Chi Nguyen. When the fifth-grader at Lincoln Elementary read about the plight of Davik Teng, a 9-year-old girl from a remote Cambodian village who needed heart surgery, Nguyen knew she had to reach out.

Now, here's what you need to know about Nguyen. She suffers from leukemia, which she says is now in remission, so she has had her own series of life hurdles to overcome.

Here's what else you need to know. Nguyen is a Vietnamese native who moved to the United States as a 7-year-old. She shares a cramped apartment with her mother and stepfather in a struggling neighborhood near Cherry Avenue and 10th Street. When her family moved to the United States, they had to leave her older brother, Trung, now 17, behind.

But one look at Davik staring out from a poster in Sophy's Restaurant touched Nguyen. Maybe she sensed their shared burdens and obstacles. Or maybe she just wanted to do something nice for someone else, someone she saw as less fortunate.

"I wanted to help her so badly," says Nguyen, with perfect English diction and grammar.

"I said, `Mom, she's poorer than us; she needs our help,"' Nguyen recalls. "She said `Fine, but you have to make your own money."'

So Nguyen, 11, emptied her piggy bank. She did extra chores for her mom and relatives to make cash. And, when Tet, Vietnamese New Year, arrived in February and she received traditional gifts of money from relatives in red envelopes, she added that to the cache as well.

In all, she raised $50 for Davik.

Nguyen said she was particularly moved when she learned that because of a hole in her heart, Davik couldn't run and play like other children.

"When I was in the hospital I couldn't move either," says Nguyen, who said she was bedridden for a while during her treatments at Miller Children's Hospital in Long Beach.

Nguyen and Davik met for the first time recently at Sophy's. The next day, they went to a McDonald's restaurant with a play area. Although they speak different tongues, they share the universal language of play.

"She seems shy, but she's very nice," Nguyen said of Davik.

The warmth of Nguyen's spirit was no surprise to those who know her at Lincoln Elementary School.

"I'd like to say I'm shocked, but I'm not," says Shani rae Erickson, Nguyen's teacher. "She has this kind of old soul."

Erickson shares a special affinity with her pupil, as the teacher is a cancer survivor. Although Erickson said cancer is not something either tends to advertise, they share a kinship and understanding of each other.

"She's just adored by everyone," Erickson says of Nguyen. "You meet her and she just stays with you - and it's not because of the leukemia."

When contacted by a reporter about Nguyen, Erickson asked what the child was doing. Nguyen hadn't told her teacher about her philanthropy.

"I tell you what," Erickson said. "I'll match her $50 and maybe we can get something started."

Those who brought Davik to the United States for her surgery hope Nguyen's gesture can help start something between communities.

Nguyen's homeland of Vietnam and its people have feuded for centuries with Cambodia. For several Cambodian adults, Nguyen's effort is a revelation, devoid as it is of any sense of the arbitrary nature of nations and history.

"We adults could learn so much from these children," says Lakhena Chhuon, vice president of Hearts Without Boundaries, the Long Beach nonprofit that brought Davik to the U.S. for her surgery.

"For this little girl who is Vietnamese to help a Cambodian is wonderful," says Peter Chhun, founder of Hearts Without Boundaries. "I think it sets a good example for adults. Maybe it will bring the Vietnamese and Cambodian communities closer together."

Davik's surgery is scheduled for March 20. It is the same day Nguyen and her family board a plane for Vietnam where they will be reunited with Trung and hopefully be able to bring him to the U.S.

"I'll be on a plane, but I'll pray for Davik," Nguyen told Chhun.

The prayers will be going both ways.

greg.mellen@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1291