This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 山村幸恵の高校中退 (talk | contribs) at 17:23, 27 August 2015. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 17:23, 27 August 2015 by 山村幸恵の高校中退 (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) For other people named Peter Nguyen, see Peter Nguyen. For other people named Nguyen Van Hung, see Nguyen Van Hung.
Father Peter Nguyen Van Hung (chữ Hán: 阮文雄; born November 21, 1958) is a Vietnamese Australian Roman Catholic priest and human rights activist in Taiwan. He was recognised by the United States Department of State as a "hero acting to end modern day slavery".
Early life
Peter Nguyen Van Hung grew up in a lower middle class family outside of Bình Tuy Province, South Vietnam, with two brothers and five sisters; his father was a fisherman, but died after a long battle with illness, forcing his mother, a devout Catholic with roots in the country's north, to become the family's main breadwinner. Peter Nguyen Van Hung himself absorbed his mother's faith and devotion. He was an admirer of Saint Francis of Assisi, and reportedly stole food from his own family to feed to the poor.
He left Vietnam in 1979 on an overcrowded boat; rescued by a Norwegian ship after just 36 hours and taken to Japan, he joined the Missionary Society of St. Columban upon his arrival.
He lived in Japan for three years, studying and taking a variety of jobs to support himself, including as a highway repairman, steel factory worker, and gravedigger. He first came to Taiwan in 1988 as a missionary, after which he went to Sydney, New South Wales, Australia to study at a seminary. He was ordained in 1991 and returned to Taiwan the following year (in 1992).
Work in Taiwan
Peter Nguyen Van Hung established the Vietnamese Migrant Workers and Brides Office in Taoyuan County (now Taoyuan City) in 2004 to offer assistance to Vietnamese immigrants in Taiwan. Vietnamese American radio station Little Saigon Radio and others helped him to rent the second floor of a grammar school; two seventy square foot rooms offer sleeping space, while two others are used for office space. They provide Mandarin classes, room and board, and legal assistance.
Peter Nguyen Van Hung's exposure of abuses against foreign laborers and brides led the United States Department of State to list Taiwan as a "Tier 2" region alongside countries such as Cambodia due to their lack of effort in combating human trafficking, which proved a major international embarrassment for the island's government. His work has also made him the target of intimidation in Taiwan.
References
External links
Categories:- 1958 births
- 20th-century Roman Catholic priests
- 21st-century Roman Catholic priests
- Australian people of Vietnamese descent
- Living people
- Missionary Society of St. Columban
- Vietnamese democracy activists
- Vietnamese dissidents
- Vietnamese exiles
- Vietnamese expatriates in Taiwan
- Vietnamese human rights activists
- Vietnamese Roman Catholic priests