Name: Hoa Du
Birth Date: Oct 29, 1968

Sketch of My Mother

I was born Oct 29, 1968. My mother's name is Vo Thi Ngoc Suong. My mother met my father in 1967 at a radar station in Phu Lam, where she would go to buy food from the American soldiers. There she met Mr. Frank Horot and a short time later they became lovers. They lived together at the hotel Hong Ta, Number 18, Tran Binh Trong, District 5, Saigon, for a long time. In January 1968 she became pregnant and I was born in October 1968. She made the birth certificate for me with the name Vo Thanh Hung. After that my father moved to Da Nang and we lived at 60 Phan Chu Trinh, Da Nang.


In 1972 my father went back to Washington. My father was married in the US before he married my mother, so my mother and I couldn't go to the US at that time. My father left in 1972 and I was sent to live with my aunt in An Giang.

My aunt treated me very bad, always beating me. She also would throw me into the river and hold me under the water. She had a son the same age as me but treated him very good. When I was 6 years old my mother came back to see me and the neighbor told my mother how my aunt treated me.

One of my neighbors wanted to adopt me. When I was 7 years old my mother had to give me to Mr. Duong Hoa Thuan as a foster child. She had to accept that my name was changed into Duong Hoa Du. After I was adopted my foster parents sent me to school and I quit school after grade two, as it was very difficult to study. I believe it was because of the way my aunt treated me, especially her holding me under the water.

After a few months my foster parents had their own baby and I would stay home and take care of the baby and do the housework. At the age of 14, I went to my foster parent's paddy fields to work as a helper. Sometimes I would go fishing to get extra food for the family to eat.

When I was 20 years old I heard about the AmerAsian Program. The Police came to my foster parent's house and told them to apply for the program. My foster parents didn't want to go, but if I wanted to go by myself I should go ahead and apply. I was scared as someone told me they would throw me into the ocean, so I didn't apply at that time.

When I was 24 years old I got married. After that I would carry fill dirt on a boat to a building site. I could earn 40,000 VND a day doing this work. It was very hard work to dig it out of the river and put it on the boat and then row the boat for a distance to the work site.

I then had to take it out of the boat and bring it up to the building site. I would do this for a couple of months and the rest of the year I helped in the rice fields. I could earn 20,000 to 40,000 VND a day with this second job. I did these two jobs for 4 years.

When I was 28 years old I worked in the rice fields only until I moved to Saigon. In the year 2000, when I was 33 years old I moved to Saigon, by myself, and did the paperwork to apply for the AmerAsian program. My wife and three children were listed on my application. Three months later, in August, I had an interview. I was rejected because I had no birth certificate with my real mother and I did not have a picture of my father, or enough documentation to support my application. Meanwhile I continued to work as a construction worker in Saigon.

On April 2001 I went back to my home town to attend my step brother's funeral. On my return I found out that my wife had left with my children. I went back to Saigon and in December, 2001, I met Mrs. Phuong Watts and she said she would help me with my file so I gave her all of my papers, but she never did anything for me.

I started working for her at the school and sleeping in her house. The first month I was paid 600,000 VND and the following months I did not receive any pay. After three months I asked permission to return to my hometown she gave me 600,000 VND for transportation fare. I stayed in my hometown over one month and then Mrs. Phuong called me and told me that many AmerAsians live in her house on Nguyen Dinh Chinh Street and told me I could live there and work in her school as a security guard. Again I went to work for her and she didn't pay me.

In December 2002, Mrs. Phuong Watts made all of the AmerAsians leave the house on Nguyen Dinh Chinh Street. I then returned to my hometown and worked as a construction worker again.

On July 15, 2003, I got a divorce with my wife. The 3 children live with my ex-wife's mother. In December 2003 I met Le Thi Ut Mai, born in 1979, and she became my girlfriend, and then we got married in December 2004.

In February of 2005, a thief came to my house and took all of the original papers I had, including my father's picture. I do have a duplicate copy of my father's picture with me.

Today I continue to work as a construction worker.