Last fall, Nicholas Kristof wrote about a Vietnamese girl, Dao Ngoc Phung, and her family. Her story inspired readers of The New York Times to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to support Room to Read's work around the globe, to support other children like Phung in achieving their dreams. This past month on a trip to Vietnam, John Wood had a chance to visit Phung and her family in the Mekong Delta to check on her progress and hear about what she has planned in the future.
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For Phung and her family, life continues to present challenges, and yet they remain optimistic and resilient.
Her father, Mr. Hiep, has realized his dream of running a small furniture assembly business close to home. This means that he is no longer working in Ho Chi Minh City, and is now able to be with his family seven nights a week. A neighbor loaned him a small piece of land, and he borrowed $2,000 from a relative and from the local veteran’s committee. He showed us his shop, where currently he is building a bed frame for a local newlywed couple along with a large cabinet for their living area. The work pays as well as a day’s labor in Ho Chi Minh City, so he is very happy. If he had more capital he could hire an assistant and do even more, but for now he is content.
His four children are all so delighted to have their father home. Phung said that she feels more secure and added that she is no longer the one responsible for the morning wake up call for her younger siblings. “My father now wakes me up each morning.”
Mr. Hiep wakes up at 1:00 am to begin his day’s labor, having gone to bed between 6:00 pm and 9:00 pm most nights. There is a hammock in his work shed, leading me to believe that he must supplement his sleep with an afternoon siesta. I hope so, as he still has lingering effects from malaria contracted during the Vietnam War.
Phung is fantastic. Her face lit up when I told her that as a result of the Times’ story about her, Room to Read raised enough funding to send an additional 3,000 girls to school. I told her this number rather than raw dollars raised, as I just don’t think she can contemplate a number like $750,000 (or, for that matter, 15 billion dong). Mr. Hiep chimed in to say that he is so proud that through the family’s story, “other girls in Vietnam and beyond” are being helped.
This year, Phung’s class sits for two exams: one to pass 9th grade and another to enter 10th grade. Phung already passed the former, as did the 144 girls in the Room to Read program who sat for the same test. I asked Phung if she thinks she’ll do well on the 10th grade entrance exam, which affects where she will attend upper secondary school. “Yes, of course,” she said, without hesitation. She described her physics homework as “easy.” I told her that I did terribly in physics class in school, which elicited a small smile.
Both of her younger siblings are also in school and doing well. During our conversation, they upgraded themselves to the main table with the adults, rather than sitting off to the side as they did when I visited in November. They paid attention the whole time and did not fidget at all despite a long conversation. They seem to be gaining self-confidence from their sister.
Mr. Hiep said that he still attends all the parent-teacher meetings and tries to encourage other parents to do the same. “If I were to give my children land, they could sell it and spend the money,” he said, adding: “But if I give them education, they will always have that.”
As for her future, Phung is most definitely on track to make it to university and said that is very much her plan. And thanks to Times’ readers, there is now money available to help make that dream a reality.
This blog post was originally featured on Nicholas Kristof's blog from The New York Times, On the Ground.
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