Admire the student who sold scrap metal and got into university
A boy from Nghe An, Dinh Van Nhan used to follow his blind father around to beg for rice, and with his brother he collected scrap metal to sell for 5,000 or 10,000 VND to buy books, and always dreamed of passing the university entrance exam.
Father died, the whole family had no rice
Dinh Van Nhan (first-year student of the Academy of Educational Management), is from Dong Van commune, Thanh Chuong district, Nghe An province. He is small and skinny, 1.6m tall and weighs only 40kg. I was impressed by his dark, experienced face...
The Nghe An student who collected scrap metal to make a living and passed the university entrance exam is a great example of the spirit of overcoming difficulties (photo by Kim Ngan).
Hand
Fidgeting with his shirt, Nhan slowly and choked up as he told about his family situation: “My father got sick and passed away a year ago. My mother can’t do anything and my sister, born in 1993, just had two fingers cut off while working at a wood workshop in Gia Lai. All the burdens in the family are taken care of by my brother who works in Binh Duong…!”.
This year, Nhan's mother is 57 years old (mentally disabled) and does not know that her son passed the university entrance exam, only that he is very far away. Nhan's father has been blind since childhood and cannot work. The family of 6 people can only rely on the 200,000 VND/month allowance from his father. Loving his wife and children, the blind father still wanders from commune to commune every day to beg for rice for the whole family.
In 2011, a storm hit the poor family when Nhan's father suffered from a stomach hemorrhage and died suddenly. At that time, Nhan was in grade 12 at Nguyen Canh Chan High School (Thanh Chuong, Nghe An). Hearing the terrible news was like a thunderbolt, Nhan was shocked and collapsed.
“In the family, my father is the one who receives monthly allowance to buy rice to eat. Now that he is gone, my mother and I don’t know how to survive,” Nhan said in tears.
Talking about his father, Nhan choked up remembering the memory of when he was 1 year old, his father carried him everywhere to beg for rice. The second time, father and son walked to a district more than 45 kilometers away from home to beg for money and rice. After walking a short distance, father and son would rest, feel better, and then continue walking... Some families gave him money, some said: "You look so big and strong, why do you have to beg if you don't work?" Every time he thought of that saying, Nhan tried hard to study to escape poverty, so he wouldn't have to beg.
When he was 7 or 8 years old, he stopped begging with his father. Nhan and his brother collected clams and sold them for money... "Every day we only earned 5,000 - 10,000 VND, but we saved up enough to buy books and rice. At that time, a pack of instant noodles cost only 800 VND. My brothers and I craved it but didn't dare to buy it, so we had to save it to buy rice and books. Only on death anniversaries and New Year's Day did we dare to go to the market to buy meat and fish, but on normal days we never had any. We ate whatever was available, because we didn't have money so we only ate vegetables from the garden," Nhan sadly recalled.
Not only did he go begging and collect scrap metal to sell, Nhan saved up money to buy 8 geese to raise. “I raised the geese for more than 3 months, and when I was about to start school, they were stolen. I didn’t raise them at home because I didn’t have the capital and nothing to feed them,” Nhan still regretfully recounts.
The mother and children living in the charity house received subsidies from the commune. Without buffaloes or cows to plow, Nhan's family had to contract 3 sao of land, and for each crop they were paid 600kg of rice. But that amount of rice was not enough, so every month the older brother saved up and sent 200,000 VND to his mother and younger brother to buy enough rice to eat.
Determined to go to school to escape poverty
Although his family was poor, Nhan never lost faith and determination in his education. Once, his father told him to quit school because the family had no money, but his teachers, friends, and brother encouraged him not to quit. “Education is the only way to escape poverty. I will try my best to pass the university entrance exam, to help my family. My whole family is counting on me,” Nhan choked back tears.
When he received the admission notice, Nhan immediately called his brother and sister. Nhan recalled: “At first I was very happy, but then I was worried because I didn’t have money for school. I was going to drop out of school and go to Vinh city to work, but my brother said that if I decided to go to school, he would try to work more to help me.”
Finally, the day to enter the gate of his dream university has come. With the help of some money from his relatives to go to Hanoi to enroll, and the enthusiastic support of his fellow countrymen, Nhan feels less tired and sad.
Nhan whispered, everything is expensive up here, a 20,000 VND meal that Nhan eats every day is enough for a meal for his mother, sister and younger brother in the countryside. He doesn't dare to eat much to save money, every time he buys rice in the dormitory, he asks for extra white rice to eat until he's full. Since entering school for more than a month, Nhan hasn't dared to go out with his class or friends. He also doesn't dare to buy anything for himself, he even saves money to go home to celebrate Tet with his mother at the end of the year.
Sharing his dream, Nhan did not hesitate to reveal that he wanted to become a teacher to help people in the same situation as him go to school. “It was the teachers who helped me a lot. In the near future, I hope to have good learning conditions and overcome the university environment. After graduating, I want to return to my hometown to teach… I know that university is very expensive, so in the near future I will work part-time, any job is fine, car washing, parking, dishwashing, construction worker… if there is a job, I will do it, to earn enough money to finish university", Nhan said.
(According to giaoduc.net) - HL
