She never forgot
where she came from.
Born in Vietnam and raised in the United States, Leyna Nguyen built a distinguished career as an Emmy Award-winning journalist at KCAL/KCBS in Los Angeles. But success never dimmed her memory of the people she left behind.
In 1997, Leyna founded Love Across the Ocean with a simple, powerful conviction: that those of us fortunate enough to live in abundance have a responsibility to reach back across the ocean and lift others up. Not through bureaucracy. Not through institutions. Through personal, direct, human love.
For nearly three decades, Leyna has personally led every distribution mission — flying to Vietnam, purchasing food and goods herself, sitting in the homes of the families LATO serves.
"Not all of us can do great things, but we can all do small things with great love."
LATO is not run from an office. It has no paid staff. Every dollar donated becomes food, medicine, school fees, or a farm animal — delivered by hand, with love, across the ocean.
