The mystery of the silk scarf given to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's wife

During her stay in Vietnam (March 21-24), Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's wife, Mrs. Ho Tinh, was given a silk scarf printed with drawings of a special boy by President Tran Dai Quang's wife, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Hien.

That boy is Ha Dinh Chi, also known as Nem.

President Nguyen Thi Hien, wife of the President, presents a gift to baby Nem. Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

Nem is an autistic boy. Sharing about her son and his autism, Ms. Nguyen Lan Phuong said: Nem was born with autism, Turner syndrome in boys, and cleft palate.

For a long time, Ms. Phuong's family was in pain and despair. Nem refused to speak or communicate with anyone, and spent all day hanging around with a few things he liked. Nem often cried and laughed erratically, did not make eye contact, did not know how to imitate, banged his head against the wall, walked on tiptoes, could not point, only ate certain types of food, and was extremely difficult to raise... When Nem was two years old, the doctor concluded that he had autism since he was in his mother's womb.

During the journey of raising their child, Phuong and her husband discovered that Nem was very sensitive to colors, drawing paper, and drawing pens. Ever since he was a little baby, whenever he saw those items, Nem would run towards them and enthusiastically draw small shapes on the white paper. Nem could draw all day, filling dozens of pages.

When Nem draws, everything around her does not exist except the easel, paint and pen. Through the pictures Nem draws, people can understand more about her "little world". The pictures with bright, vivid colors are proof of Nem's family's optimistic and meaningful attitude towards life.

Touched by the story of little Nem, the Singaporean Prime Minister's wife asked the President's wife to deliver her gift to little Nem and his family. The gift was a set of ceramic cups with funny animal prints. These drawings were also done by an autistic boy in Singapore.

Receiving the meaningful gift from the President's wife, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Nem's mother, Nguyen Lan Phuong, was moved and expressed her hope that Nem and autistic people in Vietnam in general will receive more and more attention, and the community will become more and more aware of autism.

President's wife Nguyen Thi Hien delivers a gift from the wife of Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to autistic child Ha Dinh Chi. Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 160 people are autistic. There are many causes of this syndrome including: Genetic factors, living environment, lack of parental care. Currently, there are nearly 67 million people in the world with autism. The number of children diagnosed with autism is more than the number of cases of diabetes, cancer and AIDS combined. Therefore, autism is one of the three health problems that the United Nations has dedicated a day to raise public awareness. That is April 2nd every year.

In Vietnam, on April 2, 2016, the Vietnam Autism Network (VAN) organized for the first time “Vietnam Autism Awareness Day” in response to the call of the United Nations, as an event participating in “World Autism Awareness Day”. This day is an occasion to call on the community to share, care, and accept autistic people to integrate into the community.

Currently, autistic people still face many difficulties such as: intervention services and educational opportunities are still rudimentary, there is no mechanism to help autistic adults find jobs, there is still a misunderstanding that parents do not care about their children... According to statistics from the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, in Vietnam there are currently about 200,000 people with autism and this number will continue to increase rapidly in the coming time.

A silk scarf, a set of porcelain cups do not have much material meaning, but those gifts are full of love. Nem's mother hopes that through this, the community will understand more about autistic people, people who are born with disabilities but do not know about their disabilities. Let them have a normal life, be loved and tolerated in the warm arms of the community.

According to Dan Tri