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==[[Nguyen Van Hung]] ([[:en:Peter Nguyen Van Hung]])==
{{Infobox person
|name = Peter Nguyen Van Hung
|image = Peter Nguyen Van Hung.JPG
|caption = Peter Nguyen Van Hung in [[Ketagalan Boulevard]] on 2015
|birth_name = Nguyễn Văn Hùng
|birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1958|11|21}}
|birth_place = Bình Tuy Province, Vietnam
}}
Father '''Peter Nguyễn Văn Hùng''' ([[History of writing in Vietnam|chữ Hán]]: {{Linktext|阮|文|雄}}; born November 21, 1958) is a [[Vietnamese Australians|Vietnamese Australian]] [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] [[priest]] and [[Human rights activists|human rights activist]] in [[Taiwan]]. He was recognised by the [[United States]] [[United States Department of State|Department of State]] as a "hero acting to end modern day slavery".<ref>[https://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2006/67020.htm Heroes Acting To End Modern-Day Slavery]</ref>
==Early life==
Nguyen Van Hung grew up in a [[lower middle class]] family outside of [[Bình Tuy Province]] in [[South Vietnam|South]] [[Vietnam]], with two brothers and five sisters; his father was a [[fisherman]], but died after a long battle with illness, forcing his mother, a devout [[Catholicism|Catholic]] with roots in the country's north, to become the family's main breadwinner. Nguyen Van Hung himself absorbed his mother's faith and devotion. He was an admirer of [[Francis of Assisi|Saint Francis of Assisi]], and reportedly stole food from his own family to feed to the poor.
He left Vietnam in 1979 [[Vietnamese boat people|on an overcrowded boat]]; rescued by a [[Norway|Norwegian ship]] after just 36 hours and taken to [[Japan]], he joined the [[Missionary Society of St. Columban]] upon his arrival.<ref name = "Taipei Times">[http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2006/10/01/2003330029 Where there's darkness …]</ref>
He lived in Japan for three years, studying and taking a variety of jobs to support himself, including as a highway repairman, steel factory worker, and gravedigger. He first came to Taiwan in 1988 as a missionary, after which he went to [[Sydney]], [[New South Wales]], [[Australia]] to study at a [[seminary]]. He was [[ordination|ordained]] in 1991<ref name="Taipei Times"/> and returned to Taiwan the following year (in 1992).
==Work in Taiwan==
Nguyen Van Hung established the Vietnamese Migrant Workers and Brides Office in [[Taoyuan, Taiwan|Taoyuan County]] (now Taoyuan City) in 2004 to offer assistance to [[Vietnamese people in Taiwan|Vietnamese immigrants in Taiwan]]. [[Vietnamese Americans|Vietnamese American]] radio station Little Saigon Radio and others helped him to rent the second floor of a grammar school; two seventy square foot rooms offer sleeping space, while two others are used for office space. They provide [[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]] classes, room and board, and legal assistance.
Nguyen Van Hung's exposure of abuses against foreign laborers and brides led the United States Department of State to list Taiwan as a "Tier 2" region alongside countries such as [[Cambodia]] due to their lack of effort in combating [[human trafficking]], which proved a major international embarrassment for the island's government. His work has also made him the target of intimidation in Taiwan.<ref name = "Taipei Times"/>
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
{{Commonscat|Peter Nguyen Van Hung}}
*[http://vmwbo.com/ Vietnamese Migrant Workers and Brides Office]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nguyen Van Hung, Peter}}
[[Category:1958 births]]
[[Category:20th-century Roman Catholic priests]]
[[Category:21st-century Roman Catholic priests]]
[[Category:Australian people of Vietnamese descent]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Missionary Society of St. Columban]]
[[Category:Vietnamese anti-communists]]
[[Category:Vietnamese democracy activists]]
[[Category:Vietnamese dissidents]]
[[Category:Vietnamese exiles]]
[[Category:Vietnamese expatriates in Taiwan]]
[[Category:Vietnamese human rights activists]]
[[Category:Vietnamese Roman Catholic priests]]
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