Vu Minh Troung, 19, KOTO Graduate
Vu Minh Troung, 19 is one of the four trainees from KOTO who received the Project Happy Feet Scholarship.
With his interests in soccer and swimming, 19-year-old Vu Minh Troung looks like your average teenage boy.
Delve a little deeper into his past however, and one will see that his life is anything but average.
His father, a war veteran who suffered wartime injuries, has epilepsy and cannot work. As such, Troung’s mother, a farmer, is the family’s sole breadwinner.
Troung’s two younger sisters attend secondary school.
To help out with the family’s expenses, Troung had to drop out of school.
Initially helping his mother out with farming, Troung went on to work as a bronze caster, and then at a steel workshop. Whatever he earned from his gruelling jobs went to supporting his family.
All that changed in 2009, when Troung heard about KOTO, applied to be enrolled into its programme and was accepted.
Over the 2 years, Truong not only learned front of house skills that now make him a confident waiter, he also has learnt basic English.
Now a graduate, the positive teen hopes that his new-found knowledge and skills can help pave his way to a better future and better life for his family.
