The three fatherless sister and brothers live in a poor house in Dai Cat 2 Hamlet, Ninh Phung Commune, Ninh Hoa Town (Khanh Hoa).
The three fatherless sister and brothers live in a poor house in Dai Cat 2 Hamlet, Ninh Phung Commune, Ninh Hoa Town (Khanh Hoa). Vo Thi Tra My is just a fifth grade student, but she has to care for her two little brothers, Vo Trung Thai (fourth grade) and Vo Trung Hieu (second grade) by herself because their mother have abandoned them.
Their father died from disease in 2011. Some months later, their mother left house after bringing them to a charity accommodation in Ninh Xuan Commune and leaving them there. After that, Nguyen Thi Nguyen, the children’s aunt, brought them to her house and took care of them. Although Nguyen’s family also had many difficulties, she managed to help the three children to continue their studying at school. However, in 2005, Nguyen went to Nha Trang to look after her daughter who just gave birth. My and her two brothers had to come back to their parents’ house and have lived on a small amount of money (VND50,000 for whole week) given by her aunt. Their relatives living nearby have also offered them a little money to pay electricity and water bill.
“I and my husband have not a stable job and stable income. I broke my arm four years ago, since then I have often been ill. I am now busy taking care of my grandchild, so I cannot look after and help my niece and nephews as before. My five sisters and brothers live nearby; however, they all have many children and have to manage to earn a living. Therefore, although we love our niece and nephews, all we can do is offering some little helps,” said Nguyen.
The three children are living in a small house with an old corrugated iron roof being in holes. There is almost no valuable thing in the house. Every day, My wakes up at 4:30am to do a lot of household chores besides taking care of her brothers. After doing morning chores, they go to school together. After school, My is busy with cooking, learning and helping her little brothers to learn their lessons. “What I am afraid most is that my brothers are ill. I have to miss class to look after them when they are ill. I wish that I can continue to study. My same-aged friends are seventh grade students now,” My shared. (My started school two years late because of late birth registration.)
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As reported by Tran Thi Thu Yen, Principal of Ninh Phung No.1 Primary School, the school offered free tuition to the three children; gave them three scholarships (VND100,000 each); offered each child VND300,000 extracted from the Study Promotion Funds. In this school-year, My and her brothers are given 25kg of rice per month by the school through “Friend helps friend” activity; 10kg of rice by a patron in the commune. However, the school has not enough funds to pay their boarding meals (VND500,000 per month).
“In recent two years, we cannot apply policies for the poor to the three sister and brothers of My because Nguyen’s family of which the children were registered as members has not been a poor household anymore,” said Tran Ngoc Chinh, Deputy Chairman of Ninh Phung Commune People’s Committee. This is also the reason why all three of them have not had health insurance cards.
Hopefully, the readers and sponsors everywhere can offer support to help My and her little brothers to overcome difficulties. All the supports can be sent to the charity box of Khanh Hoa Newspaper office at 77 Yersin St., Nha Trang City (phone number 0258.3822019), or Khanh Hoa Newspaper’s bank account at Vietcombank Nha Trang (account number 0581000765262).
B.K.H
Translated by H.N
