Maison Chance
Founded in 1993, Maison Chance gives orphans, street children and people with disabilities in Ho Chi Minh City a home, medical care, education and a trade — and a real family to belong to along the way.
A chance meeting that grew into a family of hundreds
Maison Chance traces back to 1993, when a young Swiss painter named Aline Rebeaud visited a psychiatric hospital in southern Vietnam and found a boy chained alone in a corner, gravely ill. She took him to the hospital and cared for him around the clock for three months — and never really left Vietnam again. Local families began calling her "Tim," meaning "heart," and the modest home she opened to orphans, street children and people with disabilities became known simply as Maison Chance, the House of Chance.
What makes Maison Chance unusual is that able-bodied and disabled residents, children and adults, live together as one family rather than in separate wards — older disabled residents mentor the children, while the children help push wheelchairs and lend a hand with daily tasks. More than thirty years on, the organization now supports several hundred people at a time across four sites in and around Ho Chi Minh City and in Lam Dong province.
Four homes, one shared mission
Housing & Care
The original shelter offers free housing, meals and medical care to orphans and people with disabilities who have nowhere else to turn.
Health & Rehabilitation
On-site physical therapy and medical support help residents with disabilities regain independence and mobility.
Vocational Training
The Take Wing Center trains residents in sewing, computing, design and woodworking, leading directly into paid employment on-site.
Education
A national-standard primary school at Village Chance, purpose-built for wheelchair access, educates children alongside their peers.
Residents at the Take Wing Center, where sewing, computing and craft workshops turn vocational training into paid work.
A village and school designed around wheelchairs, not around obstacles
Village Chance, the third site to open, brings together accessible apartments, a national-standard primary school, a nursery and a therapy pool built specifically for residents with disabilities. Unlike much of the housing available nearby, every building here was designed for step-free movement, even in heavy rain — a small detail that makes an enormous difference to daily independence.
See Our Causes
A short film from Maison Chance
Video courtesy of Maison Chance (maison-chance.org).
Moments from the classroom
Photos: Maison Chance
Our support at Maison Chance
Entraide Asia's contribution at Maison Chance is directed at the practical, everyday needs of the community: improving classroom facilities, adding accessibility ramps and fixtures for residents with disabilities, and covering costs that would otherwise compete with each family's ability to keep a child in class or a resident in therapy.
Christophe visits Maison Chance directly, meeting staff and residents on-site to see where support is most needed, rather than funding the organization from a distance.