Hội Hướng Đạo Việt Nam ở Hoa Kỳ
We are an organization claiming our heritage from Hội Hướng Đạo Việt Nam before 1975. Our aim is to preserve and carry on Vietnamese culture, and the traditions and methods that Hội kept.
Hội HĐVN.US is the national body. The campouts, the weekly họp đội and the Trưởng your child will actually know belong to a Liên Đoàn near you.
Who our members are
Youth, their parents, and the adults who volunteer.
- Youth aged 6 to 21The Hướng Đạo Sinh themselves
- ParentsThe families behind them
- VolunteersAdults who help a Liên Đoàn run
A Liên Đoàn Biển Đông outing. Photographs on this site are from the Liên Đoàn's own camps.
What makes HĐVN.US different
Three answers, and the first one is the whole reason the organization exists.
- Bản Sắc ViệtVietnamese identity
- Not a language class bolted onto a Hướng Đạo program. Every camp cooks with nước mắm, the songs are Vietnamese, the Tên Rừng is Vietnamese.
- Chí Khí and emotional lifeCharacter, emotional intelligence, emotional well being
- The organization names EQ and emotional well being as its own subject matter, alongside character, and trains Trưởng in it.
- The brotherhood of Hướng Đạo Việt NamBonds meant to last a lifetime
- Hướng Đạo Sinh are told that they and their Vietnamese brothers are to form bonds meant to last their lives.
Việt Identity is finally a choice each person makes for themselves. The organization puts it plainly: we invite you to be Vietnamese.
The Lời Hứa and the 10 Điều Luật
The promise and the ten laws of Hướng Đạo Việt Nam, in Vietnamese, unchanged. A Hướng Đạo Sinh says the first out loud at their promise ceremony and is held to the second for the rest of their life.
Lời Hứa
Tôi xin lấy danh dự hứa cố gắng hết sức:
- Làm tròn bổn phận với tín ngưỡng tâm linh, và quốc gia tôi.
- Giúp ích mọi người bất cứ lúc nào.
- Tuân theo luật Hướng đạo.
The original Vietnamese, word for word, as HĐVN publishes it.
The 10 Điều Luật of Hướng Đạo
The ten laws. HĐS is short for Hướng Đạo Sinh.
- HĐS trọng danh dự, ai cũng có thể tin lời nói của HĐS
- HĐS trung thành với Tổ quốc, cha mẹ và người cộng sự
- HĐS có bổn phận giúp ích mọi người bất cứ lúc nào
- HĐS là bạn của tất cả mọi người và coi các Hướng Đạo Sinh khác như anh em ruột thịt
- HĐS lễ độ và hào hiệp
- HĐS yêu thương các sinh vật và cây cỏ
- HĐS vâng lời cha mẹ, huynh trưởng mà không biện bác
- HĐS gặp khó khăn vẫn vui tươi
- HĐS cần kiệm của mình và của người
- HĐS trong sạch từ tư tưởng, lời nói đến việc làm
Core values, mission, processes, goals
Hội HĐVN.US keeps one chart that holds all four. It is reproduced below exactly as the organization publishes it, and set out here in full.
Develop Viet youths born or raised in America using traditional Vietnamese scouting method.
Mission
- Chí KhíCharacter
- Bản Sắc ViệtViet Identity
- Ngoài TrờiOutdoor
- Tâm LinhSpirituality
Core values
The five processes
The five key processes. How the work is actually done.
- Giáo Dục Từng Cá NhânBuild character one HĐS at a timeA đoàn does not exceed 32 HĐS.
- Học và HànhLearn by doingMastering the skill is the process; the character is the product.
- Phương Pháp Hàng ĐộiPhương Pháp Hàng ĐộiTrưởng lead the đoàn through the đội trưởng.
- 13 Phương Pháp Đào TạoThe HĐVN Way, the 13 methodsFive levels, from Instruct to Challenge.
- Đồng PhụcUniform
The goals
The goals on the same chart. Every line below is a stated target, not a figure the organization has reached.
- 6000 đoàn sinh trong 6 năm6000 members in 6 years
- Trại họp bạn mỗi 4 nămA national jamboree every 4 years
- 15 đêm trại mỗi năm cho mỗi đoàn sinh15 nights of camping per year per member
- Hội Quán · Đất Trại · HĐVN AppHome, camp land, an app
- Chương trình huấn luyện xuất sắcExcellent training program
HĐVN.US does not publish a current member count or a count of Liên Đoàn, and this site will not estimate one.
The 10 Year Target
As published by Hội HĐVN.US.
These are things the organization intends to build. None of them is a current figure, and the 25,000 below is not a membership number. It is the number HĐVN.US is aiming at.
- 25,000 members
- HĐVN camp every 4 years
- Support 15 nights of camping per year per member
- Infrastructure in place: Hội Quán HĐVN, training facility, administrative facility, Đất Trại, the camping facility and equipment
- Technology to support members: a registration database, and an HĐVN app to track the growth of each HĐS and deliver HĐVN content
- Training program
- 2 major benefactors will consistently support Hội HDVN.US
What Hướng Đạo is
The answer in the organization's own words.
Hướng Đạo is a game played out of doors. It is a place where HĐS and Trưởng go adventuring together, side by side, raising their health, their happiness, their skill and their readiness to serve.
Scouting is a jolly game in the out of doors, where boy-men and boys can go adventuring together as older and younger brothers, picking up health and happiness, handicraft and helpfulness.
BP, Aids to Scoutmastership, p. 20
Scouting is a game for boys, under the leadership of boys, in which elder brothers can give their younger brothers healthy environment and encourage them to healthy activities such as will help them to develop CITIZENSHIP.
BP, Aids to Scoutmastership, p. 17
HĐVN quotes Baden-Powell in the original because the method arrived in Việt Nam this way and was carried out again in 1975. The two sentences above are the ones the organization puts in front of a new Trưởng first.
Ngoài Trời, the outdoor, is where a Hướng Đạo Sinh meets rain, sun, heat, cold, hunger, thirst and fatigue, and that is the opportunity.
The most HĐS one Đoàn may hold
A structural limit, not a preference.
Build character one HĐS at a time
The first of the five processes.
A đoàn does not exceed 32 HĐS. That is a structural commitment, not a preference, and it is the reason a Liên Đoàn opens a second đoàn instead of letting one grow.
Baden-Powell's argument, which HĐVN takes directly, is that instruction and education are different things. You can instruct a hall of children at once. You can only educate them one at a time, and character is educated, not instructed.
The principle on which Scouting works is that the boy's ideas are studied, and he is encouraged to educate himself instead of being instructed.
BP, Aids to Scoutmastership, p. 20
HĐVN cites Aids to Scoutmastership p. 30 on the cap itself.
Who is responsible for what
How the national body divides the work. This is the HĐVN accountability chart from 2021, reproduced as published.
The work is assigned by area rather than by title: program development, Việt Identity, outdoor, character development, spirituality, Chuyên Hiệu, volunteer training, technology, marketing, finance, and admin with registration. Trưởng are named on it by their Tên Rừng, the forest name an HĐS is given, which is how they are known inside the movement.
HĐVN.US has not published an updated chart since, so this site does not publish a current national roster. For anything specific, write to Tr Linda Le.
Once a Hướng Đạo Sinh, always a Hướng Đạo Sinh
The Hội does not run the campouts. A Liên Đoàn does, and that is where a family actually joins.