A day in paradise for disadvantaged kids
| 16:35' 27/06/2007 (GMT+7) | ||
That morning, Lucky House for Orphans and Disabled Children was more busy and noisy than usual. Kids woke up early to stand in line and wait for the bus to pick them up. “The appointed time was 8.30 am but as early as 7 am they were all ready with their cleanest uniforms,” said teacher Vo Thanh Tung, who is in charge of education at Lucky House and had to ask where Diamond Theatre is, since he himself hadn’t ever been there. After a traffic jam that made some of the kids “bus-sick”, the 77 children arrived on the 13th floor of Diamond Plaza at the centre of Saigon at last. A former homeless boy told his friends with pride that he had known “this green tall building” in his street days before living in Lucky House. A girl said she had once stood in an elevator like the one they had taken to get to the theatre. But none said they had watched a movie in a theatre before. When the light was turned off before the screening, one wondered how her eyes could see in such a dark room. Another 8-year-old girl named Diem shyly sat in the first row and whispered to her friends, “The other day I saw on TV a cinema theatre with seats as big as these. It feels wonderful to be sitting on such a seat now to watch a movie.” And when the first images appeared, small fingers pointed towards the screen, mouths exclaimed and laughed, and eyes watched attentively. “People look bigger than on TV, like real,” some said. 7-year-old Hoa muttered, “I’ll tell my brothers and sisters who aren’t here today.” And so they all found the 120 minutes of the screening of hilarious Mr. Bean’s Holiday fly by very fast. Diamond Theatre’s CEO Kim Dong Wook sat through the screening with them. He was deeply touched. “A boy asked me, ‘Uncle, will the movie appear on that white cloth screen over there?’ I don’t know how to express what I felt then.” As for President Kim Tae Hyung, who first thought of the idea of screening movies free for those kids, he said, “At first, we thought we would give such a screening once a month. But we’ve decided to screen movies once every 2 weeks for the kids. "Everybody, not just those with money, should be able to enjoy such entertainment. “The kids deserve all this. I hope not only Diamond but other theatres will also share with them the opportunity to watch movies.” After Lucky House, children from other centres will be invited to free screenings. CEO Kim Dong Wook said such free screenings (plus beverages, candy and cakes) would more or less draw some of the theatre’s revenue, but he said he was willing, for the sake of unlucky children. (Source: Tuoi Tre, VietNamNet) |
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