The Will of a Family of 3 Blind People

(Baonghean) - Once upon a time, the couple was known as "Ms. Dau's couple", but now she is known as an active farmer association leader, a typical example of overcoming difficulties to rise up in life, a support and light to guide 3 blind members in the family.

A time of great suffering

After 5 years of love and waiting, in 1986, Vo Thi Hai (born in 1964) officially reunited with her family when Pham Van Lien was discharged from the army and returned to his hometown in hamlet 4, Hung Chinh commune (Vinh city). Before that, because they loved their child and feared that their child would have a hard life because they knew Lien's family was poor, Hai's parents opposed the marriage. But she affirmed to her parents: "I love you and I believe that with the power of love, we will overcome everything."

Ms. Hai and her 91-year-old mother-in-law have been blind for 17 years. Photo: Ha Linh

Coming to her husband's house, it was called a "home" but it was just a thatched hut with mud walls, lacking all the necessities of life, but she never complained. When her first child was born, the couple still had to eat cassava for meals. Due to hardship and deprivation, she became increasingly thin and small. The couple suffered so much that the villagers called her "Chi Dau's couple".

Hai's family was so poor that even when she was over 50 years old, when life was better, she was not used to eating rice, meat, or fish, let alone other delicacies. All year round, she only ate rice, pickles, and eggplants. She was lucky to stop by the market a few times a year to buy some food for holidays or when her husband or children were sick. And if there was food, she would only save it for her husband and children, because she never touched it herself.

Pham Thi Quynh Trang's daughter has to wear 12-degree glasses but still has to walk by inertia. Photo: Ha Linh

It was even more difficult when the couple's children were not normal. Of the three children, only the eldest daughter, Pham Thi Hien (born in 1988), was healthy, the second child, Pham Van Duc (born in 1990), was as skinny as a stick. When he was 7 years old, Duc suddenly developed an eye disease, his pupils suddenly became round and protruded like a light bulb. He went to the hospital and was told that he had to have surgery soon or else he would explode and become permanently blind. With no money and no property to mortgage, she asked a relative to borrow 12 million VND from a credit fund.

In 1997, Duc had surgery on his right eye. After 2 months of treatment, he returned home. Four days later, the same phenomenon occurred with his left eye, and he had to go to Hanoi Eye Hospital for surgery. In 2004, the debt for Duc's eye surgery had not been paid off when Pham Thi Quynh Trang (youngest daughter) developed the same illness as her brother. She went to the doctor and did not need surgery, but she wore 12-degree glasses in one eye and 12.5-degree glasses in the other eye.

Growing up, Trang went to school but could not read or write, so she had to drop out after 3rd grade. In 2010, Pham Van Lien was diagnosed with liver cancer. Knowing that he would not live long, he refused to go to the hospital for treatment, fearing that he would have to borrow money and make his wife and children suffer more. Unable to bear seeing her husband in pain, Hai secretly borrowed money from her brothers and relatives to take her husband to the hospital. After 3 years of illness, Pham Van Lien passed away, leaving his wife with a heavy debt.

Do not succumb to poverty

When Mr. Lien passed away, she lost a great support both materially and spiritually. With debts piling up, her 91-year-old mother-in-law was blind and bedridden for 17 years. Her eldest son, Pham Van Duc, got married and had two sons, one with blood infection, the other with rickets, and his wife was unemployed. Duc had to join the provincial blind association to work as a massage therapist to support himself.

Hai's youngest daughter, Quynh Trang, also groped in the dark, along with her husband's sister who had no family to live with. The house was crowded with people but there were only people to eat, no one to work, not to mention the cost of medicine, many times there was not even a lump of rice to cook porridge...

Officials of Vinh City Farmers' Association and Hung Chinh Commune inspect the brooding chickens of Ms. Vo Thi Hai. Photo: Ha Linh

Her family had one sao of rice field, many people saw that Hai's family was hungry and lent her land, she accepted to work for up to one mau (10 sao). Since her husband passed away, she worked alone in the field. In the morning, people left before she could see them, and at night, when the village lights were on, she picked up her hoe and returned home, working hard and rarely looking up. After the harvest season, she went to sell potatoes, sell rice noodles, or make noodles for hire... All year round, the villagers rarely saw her.

In 2013, given the circumstances and efforts of Ms. Hai, the Vinh City Farmers’ Association reviewed and provided her with 100 11-day-old J.Dabaco chickens and feed from the “For the Poor” fund, along with training programs and biosafety chicken raising materials from the Poverty Relief Program. Raising chickens does not require much capital, as long as the techniques are applied well, all disabled family members can participate.

Thanks to her diligence in the new business direction, in 2015 her family escaped poverty. With the initial capital and profits, she continued to expand her chicken farming to nearly 250 chickens; in addition, she also bought one-day-old chicks to incubate and provide to other members.

Through her specific actions, Ms. Hai not only helped her family to escape poverty and pay off all debts, but was also elected as the President of the Women's Association of Branch 4. In this position, she guided other members to successfully raise chickens in a biosafety-based manner, helping dozens of members escape poverty.

Mr. Nguyen Quang Trung - Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Hung Chinh commune said: Ms. Hai has revived a weak farmers' association for many years with many members who had difficult lives and have now escaped poverty.

Ha Linh