The orphaned child hopes to continue attending school.

(Baonghean) - Orphaned and living with her aunt, Hoang Luc Minh Thu (born in 2007) faces the risk of her education being interrupted. The first day of school is fast approaching, but she still doesn't know if she'll be able to attend classes...

The house of Ms. Luc Thi Nam, located at the end of Hamlet 11, Nghia Binh Commune (Tan Ky District), contains nothing of value, just enough space for two old beds and a mat to serve as a table for guests. The woman who owns the house is the older sister of Ms. Luc Thi Long (the mother of little Hoang Luc Minh Thu). When we arrived, Minh Thu was standing next to a haystack behind the house, her small hands gathering handfuls of straw, then quietly carrying them to the cow shed to feed the little cow.

The house of Ms. Luc Thi Nam (the maternal aunt who is taking care of baby Hoang Luc Minh Thu) is located at the end of the village, and there are no valuable items inside.

Seeing a stranger, the little girl hid behind a haystack, her eyes filled with sadness. Looking at her orphaned niece, Mrs. Nam couldn't find the words to say: "She lost her father at 1 year old, her mother at 8, and has lived with her aunt since she was just over a year old. Fate forced her to become an orphan so early, and now I don't know how to plan for her education..."

Over 10 years ago, Ms. Nam's younger sister, Luc Thi Long, left her hometown to work as a garment factory worker in Ho Chi Minh City and started a family with a man from the South, giving birth to a baby girl named Hoang Luc Minh Thu. To this day, Ms. Nam still doesn't know her sister's husband's name or where he's from, as she's never met him. When Minh Thu was one year old, relatives back home learned that Ms. Long's husband had died in an accident, leaving her a widow with an orphaned child.

Ms. Luc Thi Nam couldn't hold back her tears as she recounted the circumstances of her orphaned nephew.

Not long after, mother and child returned to their hometown. Long asked his older sister to look after his child so he could go back to the South to earn a living. Ms. Luc Thi Nam's fate was also very tragic; her husband died early due to illness, when her son was just a newborn. The two of them had to glean rice in the fields, pick potatoes in the rice paddies, or work as laborers to make ends meet. Now, her son is 23 years old and has been working in the South for several years, occasionally sending money back to help his mother.

Returning to the story of Hoang Luc Minh Thu, who lost her father at just over a year old and was separated from her mother, the little girl was as thin as a dry twig, crying hysterically from hunger. In 2013, when Minh Thu was old enough to start first grade, her mother called home and asked Aunt Nam to take her to school, promising to send money monthly for Aunt Nam to take care of her and buy books and supplies. Every day, rain or shine, Minh Thu walked more than 3km to school.

Minh Thu is taking care of the small cow that the government recently provided to poor people to help her earn a living.

On days when she didn't go to school, the orphaned girl babysat for families in the neighborhood, or herded buffalo and cut grass to earn a living and a little extra money to ease Aunt Năm's burden. Everyone felt sorry for the girl's lonely life, but the Thai village here was still poor, and they could only occasionally help with meals.

Fate seemed determined to continue its trials for little Hoang Luc Minh Thu. At the end of 2015, her mother returned from the South with terminal cancer. Homeless and without a plot of land to call her own, during her final days of illness, Ms. Luc Thi Long had to rely on her elderly mother, nearing 80, for support and loans from her siblings for treatment. In her dying moments, the unfortunate mother looked up at her young daughter and whispered to her older sister, "Please take care of my child for me. I can't live with my family and my child anymore..."

Minh Thu is willing to do anything she can, as long as she can continue to go to school...

In these last days of August, while her friends are excitedly preparing for the new school year, Hoang Luc Minh Thu is burdened with a worry. To this day, she is still unsure whether she will be able to continue attending school with her friends or will have to stop her education. This is because, according to her sister, Luc Thi Nam, her health has deteriorated over the past few months, with constant illnesses, and she is currently being treated for appendicitis and gastritis.

The new school year has arrived, but Minh Thu still has to use her old textbooks. The poor orphan girl longs to go to school and later become a doctor to treat the poor.

Meanwhile, her son in the South heard that work was becoming increasingly difficult, income was unstable, and he could no longer help much. If Minh Thu continued her studies, Mrs. Nam feared she wouldn't have enough resources to support her. "I advised her to drop out of school, but she sobbed and begged to continue. I feel so sorry for her, but now I don't know what to do..." Mrs. Nam shared.

Minh Thu sat quietly in the corner of the bed, opening her schoolbag. All her books were from the previous school year, meaning she was in third grade; there wasn't a single book for fourth grade. Her eyes grew even sadder, and tears rolled down her cheeks. We asked, "What is Minh Thu wishing for?" She replied, "I wish to go to school and become a doctor to help the poor!"

Cong Kien - Phuong Thuy