A teacher who has just turned 18 and has a hearing impairment is teaching at the Thuy Bieu Centre for Children with Disabilities in Hue City. It is a very special but very beautiful story about Le Thi Thao Phuong, who has risen above fate to become a useful person for the community.
The young teacher Thao Phuong teaching drawing to children with hearing impairments at the Thuy Bieu Centre for Children with Disabilities.
Phuong is the second eldest daughter in a family of three sisters. Less fortunate than her two sisters, from the moment she was born Phuong has had a congenital hearing impairment (from in the womb). From then on, the little girl had to go through extremely difficult days in silence.
Phuong’s mother – Ms Nguyen Thi Kim Huong still remembers clearly the fateful day her little daughter was born 18 years ago. It seemed a mother’s intuition made Ms Huong feel uneasy and worried, more than the joy of becoming a mother.
The family quickly took her for a check-up, but a harsh truth fell upon Ms Huong’s small family when the doctor announced that her child had been born deaf and non-speaking. Recalling that heartbreaking moment, Ms Huong’s voice choked with tears: “I almost completely broke down when I heard the doctor announce that terrible news; at that time I almost did not want to believe the truth that my daughter was deaf and non-speaking. When I got home, I closed the door of my room and prayed day and night to the Buddha for a miracle to happen, that tomorrow my child would return to normal”.
And to this day, Ms Huong still cannot stop regretting and blaming herself, because the main cause of Phuong’s condition was her prolonged fever while she was pregnant with her.
Being unable to communicate normally like other children made little Phuong become withdrawn, knowing only how to hide in a corner of her room, not wanting to meet or talk to anyone. This made her family, especially her mother, extremely distressed. “When I saw my child depressed, with resentment in her heart that she could not express, I felt my heart tighten. I could not stay at home all day beside my child to soothe her pain”.
When little Phuong was six, Ms Huong took her to the Vinh Ninh Centre for Children with Disabilities to help her meet people more and avoid becoming withdrawn.
It was at the Vinh Ninh Centre for Children with Disabilities that Phuong’s talent for painting was nurtured and began to blossom. Little Phuong found “sunlight” through her drawings, however naive and simple they were. “Phuong loves drawing so much; she can draw at any time and anywhere. Phuong draws very beautifully; all the teachers at school praise her highly. When she was still studying at the Vinh Ninh Centre, Phuong won second prize at provincial level for drawing” – Ms Huong said proudly of her daughter.
Phuong’s drawings are a language of their own that helps this girl communicate with people and with life. Through Phuong’s drawings, people will understand what Phuong wants to say. Not only does she draw beautifully, Phuong is also very keen to learn, intelligent at arithmetic, and uses computers.
Meeting Phuong for the first time, no one could think she has a hearing impairment: a small figure with an “angelic” face, a bright smile always on her lips as Phuong talks. In fact, to understand what Phuong says, we had to go through an interpreter, Deputy Principal Nguyen Thi Ngoc Van, or write our questions down on paper in advance for her to answer. Her eyes, truly bright, looked at us as if trying hard to understand what the other person was saying, then gazed into the distance with a sadness as if lost.
Phuong graduated from the Vinh Ninh School for Children with Hearing Impairments, and because she was intelligent and did well at school, she was taken on by the Thuy Bieu Centre for Children with Disabilities as a teacher for the children there. Strangely, since she came to the Centre in June 2012, Phuong has changed many things for the better.
The pupils with disabilities in the hearing-impairment class taught by the “reluctant” teacher have become better behaved and take in their lessons better. That is easy to understand, because only Phuong – a person in a similar situation – can truly understand the thoughts of these special pupils, and above all, it is the loving heart of the young teacher herself.
At school, teacher Phuong guides the children in writing, simple arithmetic, and especially drawing. Phuong confided that she loves drawing very much and can sit all day drawing, because through those strokes and images is a whole vivid, colourful world. That is also a language for this young girl to communicate with people, and for people to understand her better.
Ms Dieu Van also had to admit that Phuong is very intelligent and draws very beautifully, illustrating very accurately the lesson that this teacher wants to convey to the children – something that other ordinary teachers previously found very difficult. “We hope to find a sponsoring organisation to help Phuong improve her education so she can continue to contribute and help in teaching children with hearing impairments” .
Besides her teaching hours, teacher Phuong joins her pupils in a class weaving bamboo to make lanterns, to earn extra income and support themselves. Because for a special teacher like Phuong, she only receives a modest allowance. That is the image of a girl who refuses to accept fate, knowing how to rise above difficulties and integrate into life.
We said goodbye to the young teacher Le Thi Thao Phuong with emotion and admiration for an example who has risen above a cruel fate, always looking forward to becoming a useful person for society.
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