Vietnam newspapers feature AIT student�s inspiring story

Pursuing the Asian Institute of Technology with crutches

By Mr. Nguyen Dai Anh Tuan

Translated by Ms. Nguyen Thi Quy Linh

Born in 1977, Huynh Ngoc Hong Nhung had suffered from being paralyzed in her legs when she was 10 months old. Despite this, she managed to obtain two bachelor’s degrees from two universities in Vietnam, thanks to the love from her dear mother and her extraordinary will.

Not only that, she continues with the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT, Bangkok), one of the most prestigious technological institutes of higher study in Asia, to pursue her master’s degree in Regional and Rural Development Planning.

Winning through destiny

I wanted to offer help when I saw a girl with crutches and wheelchair at staircase of AIT academic building. She just gently thanked me and managed by herself.

Having seen me follow my eyes on her, Dr. Dietrich Schmidt-Vogt, a faculty member of AIT said: “That is Nhung, one of the most impressive Vietnamese students with her will to overcome difficulties.”

Later on, I got more chances to learn about Nhung through meetings with Vietnamese students in AIT.

Born and grown up in Bac Lieu province, Nhung’s childhood was taken care by her mother’s beautiful lullabies about immense waterways. What is in her memory recalled about the people with hard lives in her home place.

How Nhung could be able to earn her living was the only wish of her hard working mother. For Nhung, her simple thought was to gain knowledge to help the poor farmers in her home place, especially those who share the same plight.

Nhung shared: “As a small kid, I felt most painful when I saw friends playing. The poor conditions of my family and the love from my mother have fueled me, so that I could continue my study. Since primary till high school I had been shifted in 3-4 different schools due to my mother’s job here and there.”

The childhood that was often on move did not stop the fierce will from this disabled girl. Eventually, she became a student of Can Tho University. Study in university is already hard for an ordinary person; then it should be an ocean of difficulties for such a person like Nhung.

Hard working days of university life were left over, Nhung graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor of Education in English. However, she continued to face new challenges: employment.

At that time, she went anyplace with vacancies, but got home hopeless. Then, as her fate, she joined a club for disabled people in Can Tho City, where she found a real warm family.

After some years of participation, Nhung was nominated as vice president of the club. Currently, this club involves in job training and manufacturing of arts and handicrafts for export, beside implementation of projects sponsored by NGOs.

Nhung acts as a bridge bringing the arts and handicraft items to various places. Her club receives supports from different donors such as World Bank (Canada Fund) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Future is ahead

She started her second university study for a BBA at the Department of Finance and Accounting, Economic University in Ho Chi Minh City in 2001. Then she received a scholarship from Ford Foundation, “the most difficult sponsor” for master’s study in AIT when she was in her fourth year.

High English proficiency has helped Nhung a lot for her study in AIT. She plies to and fro to take her courses (students in AIT pursue their study with credits, and they are allowed to take courses from any school upon the required number of credits per semester and approval from advisors).

She was seen in Natural Resources Management class now and in the library or Economic Management class a little later. It was wondering how she found energy for such a high tension of study. That is why she gives very good impression of Vietnamese fondness for learning to faculty members and students from other countries in AIT.

I visited Nhung one weekend in a comfortable room that AIT favored her with. Nhung received me while she was searching documents from the Internet and preparing her meal at the same time.

When I asked about her wish, Nhung replied me with a smile. She was sincere: “Please don’t write much about me. I am really more lucky than many others”.

I understood that her luck, if any, started from her tireless efforts to catch opportunities to live, to study and to make her dreams come true. It is right when she said destination could not be reached without footsteps, even though her footsteps are much harder than others’.

I believe that Nhung will reach destination of her wishes, as the lyrics of a song she sang in a meeting with Vietnamese students in AIT: “...Why not be green seeds of generous Mother-Earth. Why not be rich alluvium for flowers. Why not be birds to invite dawn. Why not be the sun sowing happy lights...” .

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