Homeless people struggle during the days of social distancing in Vinh city

"If someone gives you something to eat, if no one gives you something to eat, you go hungry."

"Every time I bring meals to give to thehomeless, besides the words of thanks, what haunts me the most are still their haggard, dirty faces and their mumbled words - if anyone gives, then we have food, if no one gives, then we go hungry" - Ms. Dang Thi Luu in Le Mao ward, a person who regularly cooks charity meals, said and gave an example of the pitiful situation of Mr. Tran Nhat Minh - who has been living on charity meals for the past two years.

Homeless people in Vinh city. Photo: Hoai Thu

Mr. Minh is from Ha Tinh, is 83 years old this year, and has been homeless in Vinh City for nearly 30 years. After an accident, Mr. Minh lost all his relatives, sold all his house and property to compensate others and became a vagrant. Mr. Minh moved from Ha Tinh to Vinh to earn a living by sharpening knives for hire. During the day, he cycles to the markets in Vinh City, and at night, he stays in front of closed business kiosks in Cua Bac Market.

Now old and weak, Mr. Minh is almost unable to work and is sick all the time. For the past two years, Mr. Minh has been living on charity meals from Ms. Dang Thi Luu's volunteer group. Then, thanks to the appeal of the Xe khong dong group spreading on social networks, Mr. Tran Nhat Minh received support from an overseas Vietnamese in Germany, 800,000 VND per month to rent a small room on Kim Dong Street, Hung Binh Ward, to help him have a place to stay and avoid the wind and rain. As for food, the volunteer group called for it and provided it free of charge every day. Currently, partly because Mr. Minh is old and weak, and partly because the place where he rents is under lockdown, every day the volunteer group brings him food, he has something to eat, otherwise he has to go hungry.

Volunteer group visits Mr. Tran Nhat Minh. (Photo taken in March 2019)

According to statistics of Ms. Dang Thi Luu, in Vinh city there are currently about 15 peoplehomeless, wandering aimlessly in alleys and some streets such as Doc Thiet, Ho Tung Mau, Minh Khai, Tran Phu... Among them, there are 10 people without relatives, no home and have been wandering around to make a living in Vinh city for decades like Ms. Hoang Thi Thanh, Mr. Nguyen Van Huong...

In addition, many other locals came to Vinh to find work and work to earn money to support their families but were “stuck” and unable to return home. These people came from many different rural areas. Due to Vinh city implementing social distancing, they had no jobs, no homes, no relatives, so they had to wander around and live on charity meals from the community.

Kind hearts

For the past two years, Dang Thi Luu and her husband, a small trader in Le Mao ward, have been cooking charity meals every afternoon to give to the homeless in Vinh city. “There are about 10 homeless people, the rest are freelance workers and poor people. Every day I cook about 15 meals to give to them at the end of each afternoon,” said Ms. Luu.

Ms. Dang Thi Luu cooks charity rice to give to homeless people in Vinh City. Photo provided by the character

Mr. Phan Hung Son, a porter at Vinh market, is passionate about volunteering with the hope ofhelp the poor, Mr. Son established the volunteer group Xe khong dong, then established the 2000 dong rice shop to sell meals to poor patients at 2000 dong/meal. Together with Ms. Dang Thi Luu, with enthusiasm and spreading through social networks, calling on the community to support the homeless to have daily meals. "With the money that benefactors support, we buy food to cook, buy clothes, blankets... to give to the homeless. When no one supports, we use our own moneycook ricegive them" - Mr. Son said.

For the whole year, the volunteers have been helping the poor to have enough food to survive. “Even on the night of the 30th of Tet, we still bring food to the homeless. If there is no food from charity, they will go hungry. Some people go hungry from morning to night, when we bring food to give them, they ask for 2 portions because they are so hungry. And fortunately, there are still kind-hearted people who care about the homeless, some contribute money, some contribute with their efforts” - Mr. Phan Hung Son shared.

Mr. Phan Hung Son (left) gives free rice to homeless people living in the flower garden area at the end of Minh Khai Street, Vinh City. Photo provided by the character

While researching to write this article, on the morning of June 29, we received a phone call from the family of two young friends Bin and Bem in Truong Thi ward expressing their desire to donate 1 million VND to the homeless. This is the amount of money the two friends saved from breakfast meals and from their hard work in studying. We immediately transferred the money to Ms. Dang Thi Luu. Ms. Luu happily said that with this amount of money, more than 10 homeless people can eat well and feel secure for about 5 days. Due to the epidemic, food prices have also increased compared to normal days, each day Ms. Luu's volunteer group cooks 15 meals, each meal costs about 25-30 thousand VND...