The little flowers tell stories about Uncle Ho.
With their innocent and emotional storytelling style, Ho Phuong Phuong (7th grade, Nghia Dan Town Secondary School) and Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan (5th grade, Le Mao Primary School, Vinh City) excellently won first prize in the secondary and primary school categories in the 2025 provincial-level "We Tell Stories About Uncle Ho" competition. Through these meaningful stories, listeners not only felt the pure and sincere affection of the children for Uncle Ho but also understood the moral and humanistic values that he left behind.
The student who is good at Math
and a talent for telling stories about President Ho Chi Minh.
If anyone has ever followed the finalsprovincial-level competition "We tell stories about Uncle Ho"Recently, you will surely be deeply impressed by the story "The Cry of a Baby and the Mother's Lullaby" performed by Ho Phuong Phuong (7A class, Nghia Dan Town Secondary School).
With her expressive and heartfelt storytelling, Phuong transported listeners back to the difficult years of Uncle Ho's childhood. This was the time when Mr. Nguyen Sinh Sac – Uncle Ho's father – was assigned to supervise the provincial examination in Thanh Hoa, taking his eldest son, Nguyen Sinh Khiem, with him. Left behind in Hue, only Mrs. Hoang Thi Loan was left to care for her children alone in difficult and impoverished circumstances.
Despite his young age, Nguyen Sinh Cung was always close to his mother, helping to look after his younger siblings and sharing her burdens. Then tragedy struck: On a cold winter night, Mrs. Hoang Thi Loan passed away from a serious illness. Uncle Ho, then only 11 years old, suppressed his grief and, together with his neighbors, arranged the funeral for his mother and cared for his younger siblings.
With complete immersion, Ho Phuong Phuong successfully portrayed the agonizing moments of loss experienced by young Nguyen Sinh Cung as he lost his dearest loved one. The entire hall fell silent, and many eyes welled up with tears as they listened to the story.
.jpg)
The audience was overwhelmed with emotion as the story recounted the moment when Uncle Ho's younger brother, deprived of his mother's sweet milk, gradually weakened and breathed his last in the arms of his little brother. The choked sobs and the profound loss etched themselves in Uncle Ho's memory, and throughout his life, he always dedicated deep love to the unfortunate and orphaned children.
The story not only recreates the difficult times of President Ho Chi Minh but also ignites in the hearts of today's young people love, gratitude, and an awareness of the value of family – the simple happiness that exists within us.
Phuong shared that the image of young Nguyen Sinh Cung busily running back and forth, caring for his sick mother and looking after his younger siblings, moved her deeply. Through the story, she learned to love and be more filial to her parents and realized that despite facing countless difficulties, young Cung always strived to overcome them, eventually becoming a great leader of the nation.
Remarkably, Ho Phuong Phuong not only possesses a captivating storytelling voice but also boasts impressive academic achievements. In the 2023-2024 school year, she won third prize in Mathematics at the district-level Olympic competition and a bronze medal in Mathematics at the national TIMO competition.
She recounted that many people wondered why a student who loved natural sciences could be so deeply immersed in telling emotional stories. For her, it wasn't a contradiction. It was precisely because of her love for mathematics – a subject demanding precision and logic – that she learned to look deeply into situations and feel every detail. When telling stories about President Ho Chi Minh, these small details became meaningful pieces of a puzzle, painting a vivid picture of the love and humanistic values he left behind.
Furthermore, Phuong has consistently been an excellent student for many years, winning numerous awards at the district and provincial levels in subjects such as Young Informatics and Vietnamese Language Champion. Before winning first prize at the provincial level, she had also excelled in winning first prize at the district level for junior high school students in this competition.
I love Uncle Ho even more through these stories.
A prime example of excellence in the primary school category is Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, a 5th-grade student from Le Mao Primary School (Vinh City). Her performance of the story "Uncle Ho Visits the Poor" left a deep impression.
With a gentle, warm voice, Kim Ngan takes listeners back to the touching moment of the Lunar New Year's Eve of the Year of the Tiger (1962), when President Ho Chi Minh visited the family of Ms. Tin – a widowed mother raising three young children in a dilapidated house on Ly Thai To Street, Hanoi. Despite the hardships, Ms. Tin diligently worked odd jobs, carrying water and chopping firewood to earn money to support her children's education. Even on New Year's Eve, she had to work to earn a little rice for the New Year's Eve meal.
When Uncle Ho entered, Mrs. Tin was startled; her carrying pole fell, and the two iron buckets clanged against the ground. The children recognized Uncle Ho and rushed forward, shouting, "Uncle Ho, Uncle Ho!" and clinging to him. After a moment of astonishment, Mrs. Tin embraced him, sobbing uncontrollably. Her words, "People like me never expected you to visit," moved the entire hall, touched by the sincerity and simplicity of this poor mother.
Ngan recounted these details skillfully and subtly. More than simply describing, she brought the listener into the character's shoes, allowing them to clearly feel the emotion and gratitude of Ms. Tin. Uncle Ho's words, "If I don't visit people like you and your mother, then who else should I visit?" resonated like a simple yet profound message, reflecting his immense responsibility and special affection for the people.
Besides her storytelling talent, Kim Ngan is also an outstanding student: she won second prize nationally, first prize in the North Central region, and first prize at the provincial level in the "Vietnamese Children - Reaching Out to the World" competition in the 2023-2024 school year. She also received the title of "Good Child of Uncle Ho" at the provincial level for the 2020-2025 period and many other notable achievements.
.jpg)
As a judge and someone who closely followed the students throughout the competition, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Son – lecturer in Ho Chi Minh Thought at Nghe An University – shared: “Through each part of the competition, I not only felt the pure and sincere affection the children had for Uncle Ho, but also clearly saw the maturity in their way of feeling, thinking, and expressing themselves. Through the eyes of children, each familiar story about Uncle Ho seemed to be awakened, becoming vivid, profound, and full of emotion.”
In particular, students like Ho Phuong Phuong and Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan demonstrated sensitivity and subtlety in their storytelling: maintaining a natural emotional flow while profoundly conveying the moral and humanistic values left behind by President Ho Chi Minh. They not only recounted stories from memory but also from their hearts – with youthful yet sincere empathy that deeply moved the listeners. Through this, love for their homeland and respect and gratitude towards President Ho Chi Minh continue to spread and be nurtured in the hearts of the younger generation.