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The Struggle Is Real: Ben’s Journey

By September 13, 2022 No Comments

Ben (not his real name to protect his identity and privacy) never knew who his parents were. Abandoned as an infant at the gate of an orphanage, his whole world of the first 19 years was very much attached to this home….

For Ben, it seemed somewhat normal to be growing up without parents since he never knew who they were and his life was totally revolved around the orphanage staffs and his peers. This was his normalcy. This was his whole life.

In sharing his feelings about his parents, Ben said, “Sometimes, I dream about seeing my parents in my sleep…So strange. Then I feel sad waking up and find I have none. Next day, it aches me when I go about my day and see my friends with their parents.”

Despite the challenges, Ben has managed to study all the way to high school during his time at the orphanage, then aged out and was accepted into our transition home. Since he couldn’t enter college, he needed to get some vocational training and PureVN is here to help him.

After he completed his graphic design course, Ben realized it wasn’t his thing and he did not have the passion for it. He decided not to pursue a job with this trade but now looks into something else that may suit him better. One of his dreams is to open a fashion boutique shop in the far future.

Ben has real struggles to adapt to life outside of the orphanage, figuring out his “new normalcy” in the real world. He finds life both liberating and overwhelming with both good things and bad things happening, meeting so many good people and but also lots of bad people. Some cheated him, others despised and looked down on him because he has no parents.

Ben finds his new life in the transition home like a family, where there are, in his words, “love, correction, acceptance, and sharing.”

His family at the transition home is very understanding and supportive of Ben and helping him to walk this transition journey, physically, mentally and spiritually. We are still in the process of evaluating and assessing Ben to find the best fit for him so that we can help him engage in society as a healthy productive young man.

We at PureVN are really committed to help Ben navigate through life’s struggles and strive to create solutions to support other struggled orphaned youths like Ben.

Stay tuned for more story on Ben in the future and the person he will become.

Thank you for your love and support to what we do at PureVN. Your help truly enables us to help out more youths like Ben!