A Rare Glimpse
“When I was a little girl … my mother said: ‘At every meal instead of three bowls of rice I would like us to eat two and a half, and give half to those in need.”
Master Nun Nhu Tri, Founder of Dieu Giac Orphanage.
Imagine a place where 120 small strangers live together as one large family. Dieu Giac Orphanage is such a place. Located within a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, it is a microcosm of love and security from the hustle and bustle of the streets outside.
Each Grain of Rice provides a unique insight into this safe haven. Intimate footage and candid interviews with the children, their carers and benefactors, reveal the stories of their lives before coming to the orphanage and the challenges they face at every step.
Filmed two generations after the Vietnam War, this documentary is a painful reminder that the burden of war and poverty is carried by the children who inherit their country’s past.
It is also a testament to human kindness and the healing power of compassion. For if there is an abiding theme in Each Grain of Rice it is that charity is essential for human dignity, both to those who give and those who receive it.