Oanh’s Family

This is the winter season in the north of Vietnam, and Hanoi is very cold. You can feel frozen to the bone with rain and wind. Nobody wants to go outside but, I heard the plea of a poor woman and I felt compelled to go. Despite the cold, I found myself on the way to the second slum of Hanoi – Truong Dinh – Phuong Mai.

Turninginto the tiny lane, the flash and glitter of the lights on the main street disappear. Here in this alley many houses are crowdedtogether, almost on top of each other, and the road itselfis barely wide enough for 2 motorbikes to pass by each other.

I asked some people in the lane where Ms. Oanh’s house is - they showed me the way.One old man took me to the end of village where her house is located. He ran in front of my motorbike barefoot - because he didn’t want to sit behind me on the motorbike!

Oanh’s house is situated on a rubbish-heap, next to a graveyard. Her dilapidated “house” is really nothing more than a shackbuilt with many pieces of scrap wood and discarded junk. The inside of this hovel was as bad as the outside.

Ms. Oanh was born into a very poor family with 12 siblings. Only 5 of the siblings got married. The rest of them are still single and have a strange disease: they grow old and weak at a young age, before their time. Oanh left home when she became pregnant. She had no job, no house, and no money. She ekes out a living by picking up trash and selling it. She’s been pregnant three times and has had to give her first 2 babies away because she couldn't afford to raise them properly.Ms. Oanh’s third child, a girl, stays with her. The daughter is 12 years old now, and her name is Phuong. She has never gone to school. She looks beautiful with wild eyes. She can’t read or write but she answered all my questions very clearly. Her left ear has a puncture wound in it. She told me that she fell down three years ago and a stick pierced her outer ear causing the wound. In addition, her mother has a big ulcer as well,yet, neither has ever been to a hospital to check out these injuries because they have no money.

Oanh and her mother are always hungry because they have so little food. There were two bananas in their house when I was there - the only food to save both of them from starvation in as many days. The daughtertold me sadly that she has never had breakfast. The mother cooks once a day and they only eat a lunch. If there is any rice left over from lunch, they would have the rice for dinner. If not, it meansgoing to bed at night on an empty stomach.

What I found to be even more shocking about their situation: when it rains, the roof of their pitiful hut leaked so much that they were forced to leave the hut and sleep in the graveyard.The neighbors felt sorry for the bot of them, and sometimes they helped Oanh and her daughter with water, some food, and supplies… but the hut still looked like a mess when I got there.

The daughter does not have anyfriends her age, as other kids shun her because she is poor and doesn’t attend school with her peers. She’s athigh risk of being sexually abused or trafficked. In addition, the hut wheretheywere living can be taken away by the government at anytime because they are squatters on public land.If this happens, thenthey will be homeless again.

When I finished my visit, the daughter followed me all the way out of the village. She held my HSCV business card as if it were a precious gift or, more so, as a hope. This made me very sad – to think that this card may be the only thing between her and starvation.

Can you PLEASE help?!Any support you may be able to provide would be greatly appreciated!Contributions to assist this family can be made on-line at HSCV’s website at: www.hscv.org.

Or, if it is more convenient, a check can be forwarded to:

HSCV
2965 Spring Lake Road
Prior Lake, MN 55372
USA

And for those living in Vietnam:

HSCV Vietnam
So 8, 145E Pho Yen Phu,
Tay Ho – Hanoi
Vietnam
Tel.: (84) 4 3 715 3673

Should you have questions or need additional information please do not hesitate to contact us. Thank you very much.

Hanoi, January 9^th, 2012

Blogger, Tran Ngoc Lien