Detective is also impressed by Luke Nguyen, who runs Sydney's Red Lantern restaurant and whose new SBS series, Luke Nguyen's Vietnam, has smashed records for international sales. (See Affair of the Heart, Wish magazine, December 3.)
While the handsome 30-something could easily sit back and lap up the plaudits, Nguyen is instead focusing on what he tells Detective is his most important project to date: setting up a charity for underprivileged kids in Vietnam.
The Little Lantern Foundation came about after Nguyen met a young girl working on a mango stall at a Hoi An market and discovered her family was too poor to send her to school. "It costs about $100 a year there for an education and I thought of all the times I had spent a hundred bucks on a meal or blown it in an hour," Nguyen tells Detective.
"This girl was so bright and if she had an education she would go so far, but as it is she's stuck in a market with no future."
Nguyen vowed to return and do something to help. "My plan is to open a little guesthouse where youngsters can train in hotel operations and in a restaurant, doing front of house and commercial cookery," he says.
"It will be hands on, with a good curriculum, an 18-month training course. At the end of it I'd hope these kids can go out and get a job in the industry but, if not, it will at least set them up for other things."
Nguyen and his partner Suzanna Boyd are searching for a central Vietnam site in which to set up Little Lantern HQ. "There's a lot to do," says workaholic Nguyen. However, one of the first things is tracking down the girl who was the inspiration for the project. Nguyen has not seen her since that fateful meeting at the mango stall. "She was gone the next time I went there looking for her," he says. "But I will find her." More: www.littlelantern.org
Source
No comments:
Post a Comment