Female official working as a beggar in the middle of Ban Ve Lake.

(Baonghean.vn) - For a long time, the people around Ban Ve Lake have been familiar with the image of Ms. Bui Thi Lan, a statistics officer of Mai Son commune, Tuong Duong district, carrying bundles of warm clothes, school bags, and shoes that she collected from various places to help poor students. Many people who know her have joined hands with her in her charitable work, and people often jokingly call her the "beggar" officer.

After graduating from the University of Archival Studies (now the Academy of Internal Affairs), Ms. Lan worked in her hometown (Hoi Son commune, Anh Son district) for several years. In 2004, during a recruitment drive for young people to work in difficult border areas, she applied. She was assigned to Mai Son commune, Tuong Duong district. At that time, Mai Son commune was home to over 60% of the Khmu ethnic minority, and access to the commune center was extremely difficult; there was no electricity and no telephone signal.

Lan often takes advantage of her breaks to go to the village and give clothes to poor children.

“When I first arrived, I thought about going home several times. Being a young woman far from home in a place without electricity, phone signal, or any acquaintances was very depressing. But after going into the villages and seeing the children of the ethnic minorities who didn't have enough to eat or wear, I felt sorry for them. At that time, every month I would set aside a small portion of my salary to buy candy and snacks as gifts for the poor children, and that was my joy during those early days in this unfamiliar place,” Lan confided.

Ms. Lan, along with officials from Mai Son commune and the Border Guard Post, distributed charitable gifts to children in the reservoir area.

Witnessing the lives of the poor children in the village, she was truly moved to tears. During the bitterly cold winter days in this remote border region, they only had thin clothes and no shoes. Therefore, whenever she returned home, she would mobilize relatives and friends to get warm clothes to bring to these children. Sometimes, she would painstakingly sew and mend their clothes so they would have more suitable outfits.

It was also during her visits to the poor children in the village that she fell in love with teacher Lu Van Thinh (born in 1977), who taught at Mai Son Semi-Boarding Secondary School and was also a member of the Khmu ethnic group. In 2007, they got married, and from then on, Lan moved to live with her husband's family in Mai Son commune.

Thanks to the information and advocacy efforts of Ms. Lan, many organizations and individuals have sent gifts to help the children of Mai Son.

In 2009, when the Ban Ve hydroelectric dam closed its reservoir, her husband's family moved to a resettlement area in Thanh Chuong district. The Mai Son commune People's Committee office was also relocated, so she and her husband moved their house to Huoi To 1 village, Mai Son commune, to continue their work. Life in their new home was quite difficult for the two of them, and they had two sons in quick succession. Ms. Lan had to send her eldest son back to her hometown to be cared for by his maternal grandmother. Despite this, she still felt fortunate and better off than many of the people in the area. She continued her work of collecting used clothes and books from her hometown and other places to bring back and help the children in Mai Son.

“Back then, there was no phone signal, and phones couldn't take pictures like they can now, so I could only go out and campaign on my own. It wasn't until later, when social media and cameras became available, that I started taking pictures of the underprivileged children and sharing them on my personal Facebook page. That's when more people learned about the hardships and disadvantages faced by children in the Bản Vẽ reservoir area,” Lan explained.

Locals here affectionately call Ms. Lan the "beggar" officer for poor children.

Thanks to her efforts, many charitable groups and benevolent individuals learned about her and contacted her to send clothes and shoes to the children in the villages. Before the road in western Nghe An was completed, whenever someone reported receiving charitable donations, she would take advantage of her days off to transport them by boat. Then, she personally distributed them to the children in the poor villages. Seeing the practicality of her work for poor children, many officials and teachers in Mai Son commune also responded by supporting her in receiving and distributing charitable donations in the villages.

In particular, during the summer of 2016, with the support of a charity group that donated books and stories, she established a small, free library right in her home in Huoi To 1 village. Since then, her house has always been filled with the sounds of children coming to read books and stories. Ms. Lam's actions – as a dedicated "beggar" – are loved and respected by the people in the reservoir area.

Xuan Hoa