Everyone experiences struggle and sadness throughout the course of their life, but what separates individuals in these circumstances is the reaction one takes. For a lot of the greatest artists, such feelings could be channeled into some of their most sensitive and inspired work. Think Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks album, a personal favourite which he wrote in the seventies as his decade-long marriage to Sara Dylan came undone. Or how about Franz Kafka, whose work never saw the light of day during his lifetime and yet is now considered so revolutionary we go as far as referring to things as Kafkaesque? Artists know how to channel their struggles and sadness into a medium, thereby creating from the black, bottomless well of human misery something that in its darkness resembles light. Having said that, what does someone who isn’t an ‘artist’ do when things just seem to be falling apart? When they’re experiencing hardship, whether it be the death of a loved one, the death of a relationship, or any other shape or form of pain that we as humans may be subject to suffer one day. In the case of Viet Nguyen, founder of Vietnam Hearts, his answer was simple. He decided to help others.
Viet was born in California. Raised in a Vietnamese/Filipino neighbourhood, he was always close to his Vietnamese roots though it’d be decades before he ever stepped foot in the country. Growing up, he was a self-proclaimed nerdy kid, with a love of games like Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and League of Legends. Though he had a perfectly comfortable childhood, he was acutely aware of his place both in his family and in the world. Being the middle child to parents who had more than their share on their plate, he often felt a need to keep quiet and out of trouble. Besides that, at the time Asians weren't necessarily painted in the most positive light in the media, which impacted how he believed others perceived him. It was even stranger for Viet given that he didn’t understand Vietnamese culture or the language, which put him in a position where he was being disparaged for being from a race that he couldn't even identify with. At family gatherings relatives would call him a “Twinkie”. Essentially, yellow on the outside and white on the inside. It was confusing, to say the least. Growing up in this environment, Young Viet decided that the best way to get by was to put his head down in his studies—even though he harbored dreams of being a music teacher. In typical Asian parenting fashion, this was obviously unacceptable. His parents wanted him to be a doctor but Viet was never good at chemistry and so opted for a route more aligned with their wishes and his own skills. When college came around he went to study software engineering.
Upon graduating from the University of California Santa Cruz, Viet found work in San Francisco as a software engineer. So began a period of non-stop grinding which, by the end, resulted in the rose-coloured glasses coming off and the world appearing bleaker without their sanguine tint. He’d moved to the city with hopes of enjoying his newfound freedom and independence but the reality is, work was all consuming. Beside that, San Francisco wasn’t the golden metropolis it was once marveled as, with drugs and homelessness festering throughout while rent ballooned to exorbitant prices. It didn’t take long for Viet to grow tired of his life there. What, in such circumstances, does one do? For Viet, the answer was to escape. He’d been seeing advertisements for remote work and thought why not? There was no better time to get out and see the world. As a Vietnamese who’d never been to the motherland, there was only one place in mind to go.
Viet arrived in Vietnam in February of 2024. From the moment he landed, everything was a shock. The language, culture, Saigon itself. He spoke a bit of broken Vietnamese which helped but given that he looked like a local, there was something of a disconnect between how he was perceived and the reality of his identity. Locals might speak to him, expecting him to understand only to be met with a mixed look of confusion, some shame, but often after a smile. Having said that, even during this period of figuring things out, he recalls feeling something innately familiar about Saigon. From the sidewalk street food vendors to the uncles and aunties drinking coffee on low plastic stools, it was as if Viet had seen all of this once before. Was he home? It was still too early to tell but Vietnam definitely didn’t feel as foreign to him as it does for many tourists. On his first visit, he loved the high energy and chaos that came with the Saigon nights out, ham chơi, and finally being able to enjoy the freedom and rewards for grinding in tech for five years. While it sounds like a waste to visit your motherland for the first time only to focus on nightlife, those evenings did result in Viet meeting a girl. Just as Vietnam had been outwardly confusing and yet innately familiar, this meeting caused the country to suddenly feel more like home. It became a place that he could envision a future in, a place that he could grow to understand and become a part of. The only problem? He only had a month’s holiday from work. Time passed at the blink of an eye and suddenly he was back in the States.
When Viet returned to America, life faded to black and white. He desperately tried to regain a sense of home in the States but the contrast to the glorious chaos he’d left was too much to bear. He went from drinking coffee on the sidewalk, daily commutes amidst jumbles of motorbikes and buses, and nights partying till late to the white-picket boredom of suburban American. Travel depression quickly took over and questions started running through his head: was this really how he wanted to live his life? Then there was the girl. The spark that comes from meeting someone in a different country is a unique, often revelatory experience. The world seems to open up. Colours look brighter. Warmer. But then reality settles once you return to where you came from and all of a sudden, they’re not around. While they were in a long-distance relationship, it just wasn’t the same. Phone and video calls only serve as a momentary respite before the dial bleeps and you’re back to black. It was all becoming too much. Depression hitting hard and nights spent lying in bed, wondering how he could go on living like this. Eventually it became too much to bear. He had to go back.
Viet returned to Vietnam in May of 2024. He reconnected and attempted to make his relationship work with his girl but their long-distance separation had already taken a toll—Viet had some unresolved conflicts and patterns he needed to work out himself. As a result, they ended up breaking up. Vietnam, once glorious, exciting, and magical no longer seemed as divine. Overwhelmed with grief, he continued his trip along Southeast Asia, and tried to avoid pain with travel, chasing highs, and escape. He knew he was only trying to numb the pain but after a while it’s the addiction to the numbing that ends up becoming the most destructive drug. In November that year, Viet was in Bali and in a darker hole than he’d ever been. Though he tried resolving things with his ex, it was to no avail. His mistakes were glaring and inescapable. Though the worst was yet to come, he did, in that moment, realise he needed to change.
Towards the end of 2024, Viet lost his job. So much had changed in the span of a year. It’d started off with the promise of a new beginning, with his first visit to Vietnam that resulted in a blossoming relationship. By the end the relationship was over and the lustre of Vietnam had faded. He was no longer proud of the life he was living. Amidst this stretch of long, cloudy days, Viet took a bike trip to Đà Lạt. He was having some pretty dark and painful thoughts throughout the trip, and this all came to a head when he was driving down a mountainside and crashed. Hours later he woke up in the hospital, and though his conditions were stable he was bedridden for sometime. While he wasn’t aware of it at the time, this was the best thing that could’ve happened to him. Similar to how the artists of old have created some of their most incredible work as a result of their worst tragedy, Viet would soon rise up to do the same. Lying in a hospital bed, he knew that he’d been channeling his energy in the wrong direction. It had to go somewhere else.
He started by posting on Facebook groups. He talked about how he wanted to volunteer in any capacity he could. Did anyone know how he could help? Soon after, the principal of a school in Bình Thạnh reached out. The school provided education for children from poorer backgrounds and they were in need of someone who could come in and teach English. One morning, Viet went over. He’d never taught before so he didn’t have much confidence in his ability. It was a big class. None of the kids really paid attention and by the end he was convinced it’d gone terribly. As he was packing up, certain that his lesson had been a failure, one of the students came up to him and said, “Tomorrow teacher will come, no?”. That was all it took. A question from a child and in that moment, Viet knew he would.
Vietnam Hearts started with the idea of building a community where travelers and locals can connect and bond through service, as well as a place where Viet Kieu can support their homeland. After a few more English lessons, he began to realise that there could be other people who also wanted a more positive way to channel their energy. Recruitment started with Viet posting on Facebook groups asking whether anyone was interested in volunteering for these English lessons. Whenever someone would comment, he’d reach out privately and give them more details about the work. Besides that, he also did a lot of in-person recruiting at language exchange events and gradually, through word of mouth, Vietnam Hearts began to spread.
Since starting in January of this year, Vietnam Hearts has been a constant rollercoaster. For one, Viet’s also currently in the process of launching a tech startup called ShipSenia. They’ve just won the investment round and gotten funding from Antler which means that he’s got more than his share on his plate. Besides that, Vietnam Hearts is a volunteer organisation so it’s impossible for Viet to really expect anyone to contribute consistently. Seeing as classes start in the morning on Monday to Friday, locals and expats don’t usually have the time which is why he tends to target travellers looking to help out for a day or two. However, this means that volunteers come and go, and while he’s got a reliable team now, there was a period at the start where he was the sole teacher. This meant that not only was he teaching on weekdays, he was also in charge of the marketing, recruiting, and screening of new volunteers. Building a school and staff from nothing wasn’t easy and the experience gave him a deeper respect for the work of everyday teachers.
Despite the numerous challenges, Vietnam Hearts is the type of work that Viet can be proud of. He hopes he’s making even the tiniest difference in these kids’ lives, given that besides teaching English, Vietnam Hearts has also organised a variety of events and excursions for them. There’s been a sports day, a trip to McDonalds for the children’s first taste of the fast-food burger, and they’ve even run a GoFundMe campaign aimed at buying enough rice for the kids and their families—they ended up raising enough money to supply rice for a whole year. Through it all, Viet’s learned a lot, and some of the most valuable lessons have come from the children themselves. During our talk he recalled one student who was always falling asleep in class, and upon bringing it up with the principal, was told how a lot of the kids had to support their families by selling lottery tickets or recyclables after school, meaning they didn’t get much sleep. There were even a few who didn't have their parents around anymore, with some stuck in jail, passed away, or simply gone. Realisations like that taught Viet to be grateful for what he has, that education and the kindness of others is a gift, that helps us take care of not only ourselves, but those around us too. There were times when he’s been so caught up with trivialities, when he was worried about things that in the grand scheme of things, weren’t that big of a deal. After all, here were these kids, overjoyed at the prospect of a sport’s day, a trip to McDonalds, rice for their family to eat—the small things, even if it’s just as small as somebody coming in tomorrow.
In the future, Viet wants to continue to grow with Vietnam Hearts. However, herein lies another challenge. Though some of the regular volunteers are on board with expanding, it’s difficult to actually put that into practice given that Vietnam Hearts is a volunteer-only organisation. Scaling is tricky as larger projects mean greater responsibility, and ultimately the need for more committed hands—something that can’t be sustained through ideas or spirit alone. That means more people would be needed in order to execute those tasks and projects, at which point it’s impossible to rely solely on volunteers. While he’s still figuring out the best way to move forward, you can be sure Viet won’t stop continuing to help in any way he can. After all, he’s built a community now. He’s found that ironically, through the act of giving he’s received more than he ever thought he deserves.
At the end of our conversation, Viet reflected on how much had changed. When he first moved to Saigon at the start of 2024, his world opened up with possibility. But by the end of the year, life looked very different. Wanting to channel his energy into something meaningful, he founded Vietnam Hearts at the beginning of 2025. Though he’s in a better place now, he’s honest about the fact that he’s still working to turn difficult moments into something brighter. There’s a saying he believes in that goes, “Wherever you go, there you are”. Though traveling, meeting people, and having new experiences helped him discover who he was, he understands that the greatest change has to come from within. While he’s not there yet, he knows that so long as he keeps showing up each day—whether it be through Vietnam Hearts or anything else he endeavors to succeed in—one day he may be able to look in the mirror and be proud of the man looking back.
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