District Party Secretary calls for support to build a house for an orphaned female student looking for a place to worship her mother

On March 11, at Xop Nam village (Tam Hop commune, Tuong Duong), the groundbreaking ceremony for building a house for Luong Thi Quynh Nhu (17 years old), a student at Tuong Duong 1 High School, took place. Quynh Nhu is the character in the article.“Orphaned female student finds a place to worship her mother” posted on baonghean.vn on March 7.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Hai - Secretary of Tuong Duong District Party Committee, right after reading this article, he immediately went to the school to meet Quynh Nhu directly. After asking about her and knowing her difficult circumstances, Mr. Hai decided "to build a house for her at all costs".

Mr. Hai and Quynh Nhu at the groundbreaking ceremony. Photo: Hien Tung

“When I got back to the office, I immediately called benefactors and businesses. Many people came forward to support all the bricks, some with stones, some with cement, and some with the design…”, Mr. Hai said.

After a short time of mobilizing benefactors plus the District Party Secretary's own money, the total amount of money and materials donated reached 150 million VND, enough to build a small house for Quynh Nhu.

“However, there is money and construction materials but no land because Nhu does not have land. At this time, I had to call the leaders of Tam Hop commune to arrange. In Xop Nam village, because the community house had just been built, the land in the old community house was still available. The government then held a meeting with the villagers, and all the households agreed to let Nhu live here, so we decided to start construction,” said the head of Tuong Duong District Party Committee.

Just 4 days after being published in Nghe An Newspaper, the project is nearly 70m wide.²has been started. Expected to be completed in about 3 months.

Quynh Nhu's house was built on the land of the village community. Photo: Hien Tung

Secretary Tuong Duong said: “After reading the article, I was really moved. As a local leader, I also want to use this to inspire the spirit of humanity, the need to help each other. On the day the construction started, my child was very emotional. I also encouraged him to study hard and pursue his dream.”

Quynh Nhu was born without knowing her father. Some time later, Nhu's mother, Luong Thi Huong, remarried a man named Dau in Tam Thai commune.

The miserable life seemed to have passed, but a few years later, Mr. Dau became seriously ill and died. At that time, Quynh Nhu was only 8 years old. The house on the edge of Cha Lap stream of Nhu and her mother was in the area of ​​a hydroelectric project that had to be relocated. The compensation money kept pouring in every time Mr. Dau was hospitalized.

Reluctantly, the mother had to leave her child in her hometown and go to Laos to seek a living. In the second grade, Nhu was one of the few students in this border commune who passed the entrance exam to Tuong Duong Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities. The school provided her with a scholarship and food and accommodation, so the burden on her mother's shoulders was somewhat lightened. Not in vain for her mother's efforts, Nhu was recognized as an excellent student of the school every year. In the third grade at Tuong Duong 1 High School, although only in grade 10, Quynh Nhu was one of the few students honored to participate in the Nghe An Provincial Phu Dong Sports Festival in the stick-pushing event.

Quynh Nhu always wished to have a house to worship her mother. Photo: Dao Tho

“That day was the 25th of Tet, our school was closed but my mother called and told us to wait in town for her, that afternoon she would go buy some things and then tomorrow we would go home together. But that afternoon she had an accident and passed away in Laos,” Quynh Nhu said, wiping away her tears. That was her mother’s last call.

Mrs. Huong's body was brought back to Xop Nam village in the days before Tet. The villagers, out of sympathy, built a temporary hut on the old ground next to Cha Lap stream to take care of the funeral.

Unable to miss out on her studies, after mourning her mother, Quynh Nhu packed her bags and went to town to study. The landlord sympathized with her situation and waived her rent. However, when the funeral was over, the old hut was demolished. A relative temporarily brought Mrs. Huong's portrait home for convenience in worship.

Every week, without a vehicle, Nhu asks a friend to take her home to burn incense for her mother. With no place to stay, she relies on relatives every time she returns. “My biggest wish right now is to have a stable place to worship my mother. Now, it’s inconvenient to ask someone else to set up an altar for me.”Quynh Nhu shared on Nghe An Newspaper.

And her wish came true when the house was built by donations from benefactors, after the Secretary of the Tuong Duong District Party Committee issued an appeal.