Examples of perseverance

(Baonghean) - Each student attending the Ceremony to honor Nghe An Children who have overcome difficulties and excelled in their studies has a different situation and fate. Overcoming their inferiority complex, forgetting the hunger and poverty that are present, forgetting the misfortunes of their families, they have risen up to study well and achieved many admirable achievements...

Tran Mai Chieu – Champion of the competitions

Tran Mai Chieu, just finished 5th grade this year but has a very admirable record, 5 consecutive years as an excellent student, Team Leader; First Prize in the IOE English contest on the district network, First Prize in the national Traffic Safety painting contest, First Prize in the Provincial Math Olympiad for Children, First Prize in the Provincial Youth Informatics Contest and is now preparing to compete in the national Young Informatics competition.

Student Tran Mai Chieu at the Commendation Ceremony.

With so many high awards, Chieu did not have to study at a prestigious school, nor did she have many conditions to follow famous teachers. On the contrary, she only studied at a primary school in the poor commune of Chau Binh, Quy Chau district, where most of the students were Thai ethnic people. I was even more impressed when I learned that Chieu's parents were just poor farmers, neither of whom had finished high school, so they could monitor and help Chieu with her studies. Because of that situation, from a young age she did not rely on others, but soon became self-aware. One thing that Chieu's teachers also trusted in her was that Chieu had a great sense of responsibility. Therefore, whether it was her own studies or the work of the class or the Union, she always tried her best, not being afraid of difficult tasks.

Even in the district sports competition, although chess is not my forte, I accepted the invitation to compete and practiced hard to bring the prize to the school. Then the first prize in the painting competition on the topic of Traffic Safety also came as a surprise, because before that, the teacher only gave me some instructions and I was able to successfully complete it and bring an impressive work that carries the identity of the Quy Chau mountains and forests. Particularly, the first prize in Informatics for the whole province of Chieu in the 5th grade school year 2013-2014 was really a surprise, because compared to my friends in the lowlands, the time Chieu had been exposed to Informatics was only 2 years and I did not have many opportunities to practice. Few people know that, before coming to the competition, Chieu had very little time for Informatics, because at that time my family did not have a computer. Yet, I still studied and researched on my own to become one of the few contestants from Nghe An who were honored to be selected to compete in the national Young Informatics competition.

Only 1 month left, the competition will officially begin. This is truly a challenge, a big challenge for this 11 year old girl. But believe that, with determination, intelligence, confidence and courage, Chieu will not let everyone down.

And Ba Co - Flower of the mountains and forests

Va Ba Co's house is in Nam Can village, Nam Can commune, a border commune of Ky Son district. To get to Muong Xen town, Co had to travel nearly fifty kilometers. The distance was so long, but in 6th grade, with the desire to study at a quality school, Co did not mind the hardship, packed rice and rice balls and followed his brother to town to take the entrance exam to the district's Ethnic Boarding School. In the first year of school, the two brothers' lives were extremely difficult when the monthly expenses their parents provided were only 500,000 VND. Meanwhile, the rent was 2/3 of the cost. The two brothers had to save every penny to cover their expenses.

Because of that difficulty, Co, a boy with good academic performance, was determined to study and study really well, because simply "only good students are given priority to stay in the boarding house". And Co did it by making a breakthrough in all subjects. In the 8th grade alone, at the Ky Son district excellent student competition, Co won the championship in all three subjects of Math, Physics, and Chemistry thanks to his self-study efforts and through the lectures of teachers at school. This award also brought him to the 9th grade Provincial Excellent Student Competition in the 2013-2014 school year. Although he was the only student in Ky Son district to win 2 third prizes in Math and Chemistry, Va Ba Co still said he regretted it because "I was a bit subjective, only focusing on doing difficult exercises, while there were many easy exercises that I did carelessly and lost points".

Me and Ba Co (middle).

Co's family is very poor, it can be considered the poorest in Nam Can village, all the money saved by Co's parents is spent on their children's education. But in return, not only does Co have good academic achievements, but his brothers and sisters are also excellent students and students of many famous universities in Hanoi and Vinh University. Co confided: "I try to study because I study to fulfill my father's and mother's dreams. My grandparents still regret that when I was young, if I had the conditions, I would have tried to study to learn to read and write, to have a less difficult job than now...". Co is also the Mong ethnic student with the best achievement in the 2014 Nghe An Children's Commendation Ceremony for Overcoming Difficulties and Excellent Students and is the youngest delegate of Ky Son district to attend the upcoming Provincial Ethnic Minority Commendation Conference.

Bui Van Vinh - The determination of the pepper boy

Meeting Bui Van Vinh at the 2014 Nghe An Children's Overcoming Difficulties Commendation Ceremony, everyone was moved and sympathetic to Vinh's situation. He is 12 years old this year but weighs less than 12kg. His mother, Dang Thi Tu (Hamlet 9, Vien Thanh Commune, Yen Thanh District) sadly said: Vinh has brittle bone disease, just a slight fall can cause his bones to break into pieces. That terrible disease also limits the body's development, so from the age of 5 until now, although he eats normally, Vinh is still like a four or five year old boy, unable to gain any weight.

Bui Van Vinh and his mother.

Because of his special body, his family never thought that Vinh could go to school. Luckily, when Vinh was 7 years old, the commune kindergarten moved closer to his home. Seeing younger children being taken to school by their parents every day, Vinh burst into tears and demanded that his family let him go to school. After finishing a year of kindergarten, Vinh insisted on going to first grade to learn numbers, to read and write. In the first days of learning to hold a pen, his hands were swollen and red. However, strangely, despite the pain and hardship, his family never once saw Vinh cry or scream. On the contrary, the more Vinh studied, the brighter he became. The more he studied, the more he proved himself to be an intelligent and quick-witted boy. In particular, Vinh wrote very beautifully, with elegant and even strokes like the letters printed on the school's certificates of merit.

Vinh also especially loves Math and Informatics, even though his family is very poor and his parents are farmers and do not know what a computer or the internet is. Vinh's greatest achievement in the 2013-2014 school year is the first prize in the district-level online Math Olympiad, being an excellent student for many consecutive years. This result once again shows the extraordinary determination of this little pepper boy, he has known how to overcome fate, overcome bad luck to bring joy, bring love and belief to everyone.

Song Hoang