The Disabled Girl's Library

(Baonghean) - Born normally like other children of the same age, but just after finishing 7th grade, Tran Thuy Nga suddenly had symptoms of joint pain in her hands and then spread throughout her body. After many treatments that failed to cure her, the disease caused complications that forced Nga to use a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Refusing to surrender to fate, with the encouragement of friends and relatives, Nga rose up to become a useful person...

Don't surrender to fate

Tran Thuy Nga (born in 1985), in hamlet 6B, Nghia Dong commune, Tan Ky district, is the youngest child in a family of 4 siblings. Throughout her years of schooling, she has always been a good student and is loved by teachers and friends. Nga once dreamed of becoming a good teacher to teach children.

The poor student's small dream was soon extinguished. In 1998, on the last day of 7th grade, Nga suddenly felt severe pain in her finger joints. At first, she thought it was because she was playing tug of war and had sprained her joints. Every night, the severe pain made Nga cry. Not letting it drag on any longer, Nga's mother decided to take her to the district hospital for examination. There, the doctors said she had rheumatic heart disease and "rheumatoid arthritis". The doctors prescribed medication because Nga could not get injections because she was allergic. The joint pain continued to torment her. Out of pity for her child, her mother and eldest brother took Nga everywhere for treatment. But after many treatments, her condition did not improve. Her hands gradually atrophied and she could no longer walk on her own!

Tran Thuy Nga at her library.

Perhaps, Nga's life would have no meaning if it weren't for the words of encouragement from her relatives and friends. In particular, with just one sentence from her mother: "Please cherish the life that gave birth to you. There are many people who are sicker and more miserable than you. Living well is difficult, but ending life is easy." Not being able to go to school with her friends, Nga spent all day getting to know her best friend, a wheelchair and four white walls. However, from here, Nga nurtured the will to learn and seek knowledge through books and television. From there, she learned about many examples of people who overcame disabilities to live well, live beautifully, and be respected by society, such as teacher Nguyen Ngoc Ky, Information Technology Knight Nguyen Cong Hung, friend Phuong Thuy in Phu Tho, blind writer Nguyen Trung Thanh or the extraordinary willpower of the "penguin" Hoa Xuan Tu...

No more days of crying until her eyes were swollen, Nga started to practice drawing, to get used to the computer with her cramped hands. Knowing how to use the computer, Nga started to know more about the outside world, then practiced writing articles, writing student stories, and everyday stories. In her free time or when the pain subsided, Nga would take out her pen and paper to draw. Just like that, Nga now has dozens of paintings with delicate strokes that when looking at them, few people would know that they were drawn by a person with abnormal hands. Another turning point, although very difficult, made Nga determined to do it, was to learn English by herself, even though she had never known it in the school curriculum before. Thanks to the dedicated teaching of her two younger sisters, combined with her diligent self-study, she now has a fair amount of knowledge about English.

Books to help poor students

Nga's older sister, Tran Lan Phuong, who was working as a worker in Ho Chi Minh City at the time, often sent her books to read to relieve her sadness. In addition, Nga also received books from friends everywhere, thanks to which, Nga was able to collect a chest of books. That was around 1999. In the poor commune where Nga was born, reading books was a luxury for students. Many students came to borrow books from Nga to read, some borrowed them but did not return them or lost or damaged them. At this time, her older sister suggested that Nga should rent out those books or write them down in a book so that it would be easier to find the borrower and ask. "Renting is not worth much, but it makes the borrower more responsible and aware of the value of the book. Thinking is doing, I started thinking of the idea of ​​renting for 200 VND/day. I felt very embarrassed about doing this, sometimes I did not take money but still wrote it down in the book. At that time, I had about 200 books," Nga confided.

And Nga wanted to do something useful. She started collecting books to build her own library. Books such as “Seeds of the Soul”, “Gifts of Life”, books on life skills, literature books, and famous people. Nga gave them all to students to read for free. Some entertainment books were rented at low prices, with the aim of adding more books to her library, so that students in the commune could read more. This job helped Nga earn more income, read books that suited her interests, and bring a reading culture to everyone around her. From the few books her sister initially bought, or books her friends gave her, for more than ten years now, Nga has had her own library with more than 3,000 books, with diverse content.

In a room of about 10 square meters is the Russian library. The room is decorated with famous quotes and proverbs about studying, reading and being a good person in the world. Each book is carefully covered and the title is written on the spine. The books are put in locked cabinets, when students borrow a book, they look it up in a notebook, then Nga gives them the key and points them to the cabinet containing the book so they can go get it themselves. Students in the area are very excited to come here to read books for free.

“Nga’s biggest dream is to have more books in the future and build a bigger library so that people who love reading can read for free,” Nga confided. That is also the small joy that Nga wants to give to everyone, which helps Nga have the motivation to live!

Le Quyet