Vu Thi Duyen


13-year-old Vu Trung Kien and her 9-year-old brother Vu Thi Duyen help out with the daily chores at home as well as help to care for their old grandmother everyday after school because their mother, Nguyen Thi Chinh, the sole breadwinner of their small family is out in the fields, earning their keep.

3 years ago, Chinh was working in a plastics factory when a freak accident caused her to badly injure her right arm. She was quickly sent to the hospital to receive treatment. However, that meant that she was not at home to care for her mentally and physically ill husband when another freak accident caused him to fall into a pond and drowned.

Each month, the family receives a donation of rice from the Humanitarian Services for Children of Vietnam (HSCV), and both children are recipients of the educational scholarship which greatly helps their mother in keeping them in school. The family also receives a monthly medical insurance card from the local People’s Committee due to the huge amount for medical bill that they need to pay.

For the past 5 years, HSCV has been in close contact with the family and providing them with assistance. As a result, the dire situations that the family faces have been slowly improving. The educational scholarships help the children stay in school and in turn the family is able to save some money for their daily necessities.

Chinh’s right arm still has not fully recovered from the accident, yet she remains the sole breadwinner for the family supporting the children, her old mother and her medical bills. Chinh is finding it increasingly hard to work in the fields with one arm, and she would like to start raising poultry in her home compound so that she can make more money to feed her malnourished children.

Without sponsorship, it will be impossible for the family to continue receiving the month rice donations as part of the Rice Distribution programme. As it is, even with the rice donations, the children are already malnourished; this family desperately needs a sponsor so that they can continue receiving rice.

• The cost to sponsor a family for a year’s worth of Rice Distribution is $320.