She has a gentle, graceful beauty in her fifties, with refined taste in dress. At some point, I silently thanked the desk drawer that hid the wheelchair she was sitting in. It helped me hide my lack of confidence throughout my conversation with the woman from Hanoi, graceful and full of confidence. She is Nguyen Hong Ha, Director of the Hanoi Independent Living Centre project.
As if sensing my initial awkwardness, Ms Ha began talking very naturally: “I was lucky to be born into a family with a grandmother who was very skilled in housework. My mother was the headmistress of a secondary school, and my father was an army officer. When I was born, I was not like other children, but no member of my family ever treated me or saw me as a person with a disability. So I never felt different from the other members of my family”. Ms Ha continued: “When I was small, there were activities with friends my own age that I could not join. To spare me any feeling of disadvantage, my grandmother taught me housework, my mother equipped me with knowledge of aesthetics and taste in dress, and my father taught me literature and art. All three guided me towards living independently from an early age”. Three levels of schooling passed peacefully, with the devoted efforts of her family members, until the day Ms Ha sat the university entrance exam and was refused. With encouragement from her family, she sent a letter expressing her wishes to the Minister of Education at the time, Nguyen Dinh Tu. She became the first person to open the way for people with disabilities to enter university lecture halls in 1974. When she became a student at the University of Foreign Languages, her awareness of fighting for the equal rights of people with disabilities began to form.
In the late 1980s, a group of former students of the National University of General Studies and Hanoi University of Foreign Languages set up an organisation of people with disabilities in Hanoi, which created a social impact. Ms Ha was one of its pioneering members. But it was not until the 2000s, when she was chosen as coordinator of the Disability Forum Programme, run by an international non-governmental organisation in Viet Nam, that Ms Ha truly had the chance to fulfil her wishes. After working there, she understood ever more deeply the difficulties and barriers people with disabilities face in integrating into the community. From then on, she researched and put forward projects that benefit people with disabilities, such as “Friendly schools for people with disabilities” and “Road safety for people with disabilities”.. In 2009, she was again a pioneer in bringing the first Independent Living Centre model into operation in Viet Nam, funded by the Nippon Foundation through the Asia-Pacific organisation of people with disabilities. The Centre now works very effectively. Ms Ha and her colleagues are now working hard to expand the model to four major cities: Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, Da Nang and Can Tho, with the Independent Living Programme supporting people with severe disabilities in taking their first steps and piloting the provision of personal assistant services…
Mrs Nguyen Hong Ha and members of the Independent Living Centre.
When I asked what energy and strength enabled her to do a workload that not every non-disabled person could manage, Ms Ha said firmly:” Never compare me to a model of someone rising above fate. As human beings, everyone wants to overcome difficulties and challenges with their own will, not only people with disabilities”. Because, for her, besides her own knowledge and learning, the sympathy, understanding and help of her family, colleagues and friends have made her an ever more confident woman. She said: When people have knowledge, they become valuable and confident and self-respecting. Self-respect shows in every action, deed and word. With self-respect, there will be right thoughts and actions. But to achieve this, a process of self-training, learning and constant striving is needed. Ms Ha’s daily schedule is always packed; she works with the whole-hearted belief that she will bring happiness to many people. Occasionally, with a little free time, she shows off her cooking skills, treating everyone in the family to new dishes… For her, those moments are a chance to give joy to her loved ones and strengthen the love between every member of the family. “Just a little more, sister?”, I asked tentatively. Ms Ha smiled brightly: “We also have a heart to love, like everyone else. It is just that many people, because of their inferiority complex, have refused the opportunity and then lost happiness. They blame it on fate. As for me, although objective conditions do not allow it, the love inside me is always burning. We come together, love each other, sympathise with and cherish each other. For me, that is enough”.
Photos in this article were provided by the Independent Living Centre.
DANG THANH HA – http://www.nhandan.org.vn