Ms. Tran Thi Nhu Hoa was born in 1979 in a family of 4 daughters in Vinh. With a pretty face, bright eyes, and a high nose bridge, her mother named her Nhu Hoa with the hope that her life would be as bright as a flower, peaceful. But her life was not fortunate because at the age of 5, after a "near-death" illness, her legs could no longer walk. Growing up with an inferiority complex, but as the eldest sister in the family and with a completely normal intelligence, she did not allow herself to live in weakness.
During her 12 years of high school, she always had good academic achievements. In grade 12, the female student of Vinh 3 school was also an excellent student in Literature of the province. Majoring in literature, liking stories and poetry, she passed the entrance exam to the College of Culture and Arts and chose the Library major because she knew that this job was suitable for her situation. But then, the dreams and emotions of adolescence made her make mistakes, she became pregnant when she was in her second year of study.
In the early 2000s, it was really hard to accept that a student was going to school and getting pregnant. She knew that, when every day she had to receive the reproaches of her parents, the pitying looks of everyone and the uncertain future ahead. However, she simply thought, “It is very difficult for a disabled person like me to get married. If I have a child, I consider myself lucky, to make up for some of my shortcomings”…
During the years of raising her child alone, she struggled with various jobs to make a living, from selling fruits at wholesale markets to working for hire. In the midst of hardship and misfortune, she turned to tailoring, although at first she only worked for hire doing simple jobs such as patching, repairing old clothes and sewing for small traders. She still remembers how happy she was when she received her first salary because she knew she could work to raise her child, pay rent, and support the two of them.
From a worker, Ms. Hoa later became attached to the sewing profession as her career. When she first started her career, she rented a small kiosk on Phong Dinh Cang Street to both serve as a place for her and her child to stay and also run a tailor shop to make a living. Choosing the sewing profession, she also realized her talent because the more she worked, the more passionate she became, the designs she sewed herself were well received by many customers.
When she started to get used to customers and work, she accepted to help women in need, most of whom were disabled or disadvantaged like her. After working for about 10 years, she realized that a small kiosk would be difficult to expand production, and it would also be difficult to meet the increasing number of employees, so she decided to move to the Vinh City Association for the Disabled on Hai Thuong Lan Ong Street. Her sewing workshop, named Nhu Hoa, was just a small booth, located next to the stalls of many people in the same situation. But the "headquarters" was located in a row of level 4 houses behind, with at least 5 workers working every day. In addition, there were 5 other people who, due to difficulty in traveling, took on additional work at home.
“Rising strong” was the theme of the meeting that Ms. Tran Thi Nhu Hoa had just attended. From Vinh city, to prepare for this 3-day trip, Ms. Hoa was quite busy because she had just organized the launching ceremony of Sen Vang Cooperative (fashion business design) of which she was both the director and the Chairman of the Board of Directors. That woman also had to rearrange her work, make plans for nearly 10 workers at her sewing workshop located at the Vinh City Association for the Disabled, and participate in teaching a vocational training class. While busy, she still took the time to sew on the buttons for the vest to deliver the goods on time, check the stitches for each completed product…
Currently, Ms. Hoa is also the Vice President of the Disabled Women and Girls Club of Nghe An province. Although her life is busy, her face always exudes confidence and optimism because there she finds joy and sharing with everyone.
Talking about her current job, Ms. Hoa shared that it is not easy to pay salaries for 10 workers each month (from 6 to 7 million VND/month, from 12 to 13 million VND/person/month) every month. When asked about the output of garment products, Ms. Hoa also said that when she first started her "business", in order to sell her products, she went to each clothing store in Vinh to introduce and ask to send products for sale. Many times, the goods were brought out and then a few months later, she received them back and could not recover the capital. Later, in order to sell products of better quality and fashion, she decided to improve her skills at the Paris Fashion Institute in Hanoi and constantly innovated designs and quality. Thanks to that, now, in addition to regular orders, she can also receive uniforms for schools and offices and has created a reputation in the market. Earlier this year, Unilever ordered her to sew 200 bags as gifts for customers.
Starting a sewing business and raising her children, Ms. Hoa worries a lot about her colleagues and people in the same situation. In 2020, she launched a startup project to introduce products for people with disabilities and the project won 3 awards in the "Women's Entrepreneurship 2020" contest organized by the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union, including: Best Clip Award, Golden Swallow Award and Technology Application Award to adapt and protect the environment. In addition, she was also honored to be a guest to inspire and share experiences at a number of major forums organized by the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union.
At the end of the 2020 Startup Competition, she was also supported by the sponsor with 100 million VND, which is an important source of capital for her to continue investing in expanding her business activities. Continuing her successes, in 2022, she launched a recycled product startup project and was recently awarded an excellent prize by the Vinh City Women's Union and was one of three projects selected to participate in the provincial women's startup. Talking about this project, she is full of optimism because even though it has just started, hundreds of handmade products from recycled materials such as handbags, souvenirs, recycled items, and teaching aids in schools have been "made and sold as soon as they are made". Moreover, the project is feasible because she makes use of all the surplus materials in the production process of fashion items while still ensuring uniqueness, aesthetics, safety and suitability for many customers.
Her bigger dream is that if the project is successful, it will create more jobs for people with disabilities, helping them to earn income and gain confidence to control themselves and their lives. To her, women are to be loved and are like flowers, to confidently shine and spread fragrance to life...