Blind woman has had no Tet for five year
Her neighbors said she has to save money to pay debts so for the last five years, she hasn’t celebrated Tet. For Dang Thi Hua, the best she can hope for at Tet is not to be hungry.
$400 and five years without Tet holiday
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At the age of six, the eyes of Dang Thi Hua in Po Tai hamlet, Trung Khanh district, Cao Bang province could not see the sunlight. Her parents were very poor so they couldn’t afford to take the child to a hospital. At that time, Trung Khanh didn’t have it’s own hospital.
Hua, 62, has lived in darkness for over half of a century. Her mother died very young. The father lived alone to take care of his daughter. He died 18 years ago, leaving in this life his blind daughter, who was 40 at that time.
Tri Vien commune is 20km from the town. At the time VietNamNet’s reporter was there, the road to Ms Hua’s village was alsphalted, making great changes to the life of the locals.
However, Tri Vien is still a poor commune and there are many people like Ms Hua.
Ms Hua’s house is on the root of a hill. When we arrived at the house, it was locked.
After a while, the blind woman appeared with a stick on her hand. The stick led the woman through furrow drains and a slope. Hua stopped at the door and opened the lock.
Hua has a brother, who is living in a southern province, and a sister who has lost contact for a dozen years. Her only asset is several thousand meters of unfertilized land, which her leases to earn five bundles of rice a year. That’s her only source of living.
Some people advised her to sell the field but she said she has to keep it to have rice.
The blind woman lives in a ten-square meter house, with a a bed and a wood trunk to keep clothes and rice. That’s all.
In 2006, she borrowed 7 million dong ($400) to build the house because her old house was falling down. She pays the debt in a very strange way: the government pays her 120,000 dong a month as social allowance and she pays the allowance to the creditor. It will take five years to pay this debt.
“How do you live if you have to pay that debt?”
“I’m able to get by on five bundles of rice,” she said.
Tien, the interpreter, explained: “She borrowed money to build this house in 2006. Until 2007 the local government had a policy to build houses for the poor. She had this house already so they rejected her from that programme”.
The neighbors said that in order to pay the debt, the old woman has not had Tet for five years. For her, Tet is good if she has a meal.
Woman who takes care four paralytic brothers-in-law
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| The charity house of Nong Van Thanh. |
We went to Bai Xieng hamlet, Phong Chau commune, Trung Khanh district to visit Nong Van Thanh’s family. Thanh is paralyzed as are his three brothers, Lanh, Bao and Chung.
In 1986, Bao married Bach.
Lanh died nearly 20 years ago and then six years ago, Bao died because of an infected bite of a dog.
The two brothers Chung and Thanh lived off their sister-in-law. Then, last year Nong Van Chung died
The paralyzed man’s charity house is located near the house of his sister-in-law, Bach. He takes meal with his sister-in-law and her daughter and helps around the house.
The house is built on the hill slope, looking to the hamlet’s field. “Peeople ask why do you build this house on a slope but I was out of land so I had no choice”.
Thanh has a wheelchair, a gift from the local Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs. But the slope is high so he can’t use the wheelchair. When he moves – e moves with crutches.
We were talking with Thanh when Bach returned from the field.
She married Thanh’s brother over 20 years ago. They have three children. The eldest daughter, 22, has just gone to Malaysia to work under a program for the poor. The second daughter is studying at a college and the youngest daughter, a 7th grader, stays home with the mother.
Since the eldest daughter went to Malaysia to work, Bach’s family has been rejected from the list of poor families and they no longer receive social welfare anymore.
“My daughter has gone for nearly one year but she wrote to me, saying that she doesn’t have stable job so income is very low. She cannot send money back home,” Bach said.
Source:vietnamnet.vn
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