When it was time to say goodbye, we still needed help with translation to tell one another what we wanted to say.

But our reluctance to part needed no translation.

A few days earlier, we had been strangers in one another’s lives. A few days later, someone we had painted with, shared colours with and walked beside under the hot sun had become someone we did not want to leave.

From 28 July to 5 August 2026, the ninth PureView® programme took us to Angel Orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Volunteers of different ages, from different countries and regions, brought the children painting guidance, time together in person and opportunities to discover the world beyond the courtyard. We arrived with art supplies. We also brought our time, patience and care.

Founded in 2010 by Bùi Công Hiệp, Angel Orphanage has long cared for children without parental care, children who have been abandoned and those from families facing hardship. During our programme, 124 children lived there, ranging from infants to teenagers.

What does it take, day after day, to care for a family this large? Meals, daily routines, education and the different needs of children as they grow all depend on sustained care. Behind the children’s smiles and energy are caregivers who keep going, year after year.

PureView® hopes to contribute to that continuing work: to give the children another opportunity to express themselves, more time with someone who listens patiently, and another friend willing to get to know them with genuine attention.

Being there for someone takes real effort.

The volunteers arrived in Vietnam from different cities, adjusted to time differences and organised supplies. Outdoors, they walked under the hot sun and dealt with sudden rain. They also had to adapt to practical difficulties at their accommodation, including no hot water and intermittent water outages. Each person adjusted their habits, learning to do the task at hand well in unfamiliar surroundings.

And throughout the journey, there was the difficulty of communicating across languages.

Many of the children were not familiar with English, while the volunteers did not speak Vietnamese. Asking what a partner liked, explaining a painting technique or understanding an answer all required help with translation. An ordinary conversation often took much longer than usual.

So we learned to slow down. To give one another time to speak, and time to understand.

Painting one another’s portraits was how we began to get to know each other. Under a teacher’s guidance, the young volunteers paired up one-to-one with the children at the orphanage, looking closely at each other and painting a face that was still unfamiliar. As they painted, some began to relax, some smiled, and some sought help with translation simply so they could say a little more to their partner.

Painting instruction and an introduction to art became part of the time we spent together. The children learned to observe, use colour and express themselves. Partners worked on their paintings together and discovered each other’s different ideas. Those careful brushstrokes deserved someone’s time and full attention.

Portraits and the creative process

Portraits and workshop moments from the first day of the Vietnam project. Open an image to view it at its original size.

Later, we accompanied the children through the streets and lanes of Ho Chi Minh City, visiting the fine arts museum, the Café Apartment and the old post office. We also sat in ordinary street-side cafés, painting the houses opposite us and the life before our eyes. New sights and experiences in the city gradually became colours and lines of their own on paper.

In the young volunteers’ field notes, the most moving moments were often very small.

When clean water was needed for painting, a partner offered to share. When paint containers needed washing, a child stepped forward to help. As they shared art materials, partners discussed how to make things easier for each other. Children who had been shy at first began asking to borrow brushes, asking for help and trying to say thank you in another language.

Care and kindness passed back and forth between them.

At Binh Quoi Village, gardens, ponds and wooden houses became a new classroom for painting. The children observed and created in nature. Some were unhappy with their paintings but chose to keep trying; others finished their own work and went on to help a friend. Sharing lunch, singing together and celebrating a young volunteer’s birthday with a cake put together at short notice: these simple moments, too, became reasons why it was so hard to say goodbye.

Throughout the journey, the young volunteers kept writing down what they discovered. They learned patience and perseverance from their partners, and reconsidered their own impatience and expectations of perfection. They had come hoping to be there for others, and found something precious given back in the time they shared.

The children made an effort to learn English, while the volunteers learned Vietnamese. Every new word brought them a little closer.

But when the moment really came to say goodbye, none of us wanted to leave.

A World in Paint, Among the Trees · Ho Chi Minh City Charity Art Exhibition

Before we said goodbye, the paintings went up.

The Ho Chi Minh City exhibition was an important shared achievement of this art charity programme. Children from Angel Orphanage and international volunteers had observed, talked and created together. The connections formed during that time also found a place in the exhibition.

In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, the children’s works hung among branches and leaves. Surrounded by greenery and the river breeze, the faces they had studied, the streets they had walked and the landscapes they had observed over the preceding days were ready to meet a wider audience, each in its own colours and brushstrokes.

The children discussed ideas, developed the concept together and took the initiative in planning the exhibition. Using materials available on site, they found places for the works within the natural surroundings, carrying their earlier experiences of observing and creating in nature into the exhibition itself.

These paintings each had a beginning.

From painting one another’s portraits to observing the streets of Ho Chi Minh City and sketching in the countryside, the work grew from real encounters and first-hand experience. The children brought the details they noticed, the colours they liked and the feelings they experienced into their paintings. Each individual way of seeing and expressing was given space.

When you look at a painting, please give a little time to the story behind it, too.

Behind these works were conversations made possible by translation, shared art materials, the patience to keep working on a painting that did not yet feel right, and moments when a partner stepped in to help. The observation, learning and companionship of the journey became something people could pause to look at and share with others.

At the exhibition, Li Jie presented the children with exhibition participation certificates and the volunteers with certificates recognising their service. The certificates recorded each person’s participation; the paintings held the effort they had put in. The children’s dedication to creating and the volunteers’ patient companionship were acknowledged in an exhibition they had brought into being together.

For PureView®, a charity art exhibition is also a way to bring attention to the children. We hope visitors will see the creativity in their work, understand the orphanage’s long-term responsibility for their care, and recognise the support needed for arts education and time with caring volunteers.

Exhibition Photographs and Artworks

Every visit ends with a journey home. The children continue to grow, and these paintings will carry the story of this encounter forward.

PureView® plans to bring the works to Singapore and other places for further charity art exhibitions, giving the children’s expressions a place in more museums and public spaces, and helping more people understand the support needed for arts education and time with caring volunteers.

A contribution of art materials, time given in volunteer service, an exhibition space willing to welcome these works, programme sponsorship, or help in sharing these stories can each provide practical support for this charitable work to continue. We look forward to more individuals, businesses and organisations joining us to create further opportunities for children to learn, express themselves and be listened to with care.

The reluctance we felt at parting makes us treasure each day we shared all the more. It also deepens our hope that, when these paintings reach the next city, someone will pause, see the world within them, listen to the stories beyond them, and choose to join us in keeping this companionship alive.