After a sudden fever in 1981, Nguyen Hong Ha (pictured) had both legs withered by the after-effects of Agent Orange from his father, a soldier who fought on the battlefields of the south.
With the love of his family, teachers and friends, and his determination to overcome difficulties, in 2000 Ha passed the entrance exam to the English Faculty of Hanoi University of Foreign Languages. After graduating in 2004, Ha went to work at a general manufacturing and trading enterprise for people with disabilities in Thai Binh Province. After a year of working there, he returned to his home village of Yen So Commune, Hoai Duc (Hanoi), where he opened a garment workshop for poor people and people with disabilities in the commune.
Nguyen Hong Ha confided: “When I came up with this idea, my parents and many relatives were very worried for me, because this model had already been tried by many people. But I thought, on a road where many people are walking, I need to think about how to walk steadily”, Ha reasoned.
Opening a garment workshop making export garments, as director he constantly seeks out and expands cooperative relationships with partners of great potential. The export garments made at Nguyen Hong Ha Co., Ltd. always meet the strictest demands of the market and its partners. At the same time, it creates regular and stable jobs for more than 40 workers, more than 50% of whom are people with disabilities, with an average income of 2.5 million VND to 3.5 million VND per person per month.
In 2010, Ha received help from the Vietnam Association for the Protection of Disabled People and Orphans, which provided funding for him to work with Bach Khoa Vocational College to organise industrial sewing skills training for 25 workers with disabilities. After four months Ha had a team of genuinely highly skilled workers.
Having gone through many difficulties, Ha deeply understands the hardships of people with disabilities when they take part in social activities and overcome themselves to take charge of their own lives. That is why Ha always wishes to do even more to help people in the same situation as himself. In 2013, once again, Ha received funding from the Central Committee of the Vietnam Association for the Protection of Disabled People and Orphans under the Government’s Project 1019 to support people with disabilities, for the period 2012–2020. Twenty-six people with disabilities in the locality received support to learn industrial sewing and now all have solid skills.
Nguyen Hong Ha hopes that in the coming time, after taking over more than 4,000 sq m of project land in Hoai Duc District, he will build a vocational training centre, a workshop for making export garments and a showroom to display and introduce products, attracting more than 150 workers with disabilities. This director greatly needs the support and contributions of benefactors at home and abroad, and of non-governmental social organisations, in funding and creating conditions for many people with disabilities to rise up in life.
Phuong Thao – http://www.nhandan.org.vn/