That is the name local people in Hue gave to the vocational training and job creation centre for people with disabilities and disadvantaged children, Hy Vong (Hope) (short for the Hy Vong Centre, at 20 Nhat Le Street, Hue City).
The Hy Vong Centre was founded by two close friends from their school days, Nguyen Thi Hong and Le Thi Huong – the latter now head of the Thuan Thanh Trading and Services Cooperative – in 1999. It is now a place that shelters, trains and provides stable work for more than 100 unfortunate lives.
Empathy and sharing
Deaf children concentrating on their work
“When I was small, my family was very poor, and my parents had to save every dong to send us children to school. My family also had a nephew who was born with paralysis caused by Agent Orange. So I understood very well the hard life of children with disabilities, and the idea of founding the Centre came to me, to help the children find stable work, ease their physical pain a little, and light up their faith in a bright future” – Nguyen Thi Hong, Director of the Centre, began her story with us.
When the idea of founding the Centre was first born, the two women faced many difficulties and had to run around borrowing money everywhere. Fortunately, they were helped by friends, family and volunteers, in particular the Association for the Protection of People with Disabilities of Thua Thien Hue Province, which lent them 20 million VND.
When the Centre was founded, it had only a few sewing machines brought in voluntarily by volunteers, and with a tight budget it had to borrow a few empty rooms at the Hue City Radio Station as its premises. The hardest thing was persuading each child with a disability to come to the Centre. The first course, with great difficulty, had only 18 pupils, mostly people from Hue. After a while, once the Centre had developed steadily and become well known, more and more learners came to it. Many children from Quang Tri, Quang Binh, Ha Tinh, Quang Ngai… also applied to learn a trade at the Centre.
Mrs Hong patiently instructs the learners
A place that lights up the future
After 14 years of activity, the Centre has now run 27 vocational training courses for more than 800 learners. Today, the Hy Vong Centre is the shared home of nearly 100 children with disabilities, children in especially difficult circumstances, ethnic minority people and 30 children affected by Agent Orange. Children entering the centre are given places to sleep, eat and play, and in particular are taught English free of charge. The Centre also has a vocational training base for Zeng weaving, lacquerware, handicrafts, ceramics… in A Luoi Town (A Luoi District, Thua Thien Hue), to create jobs for ethnic minority people, people in difficult circumstances and children with disabilities in the area.
The products the children make both meet the needs of the tourism industry in Thua Thien Hue and are loved by foreign visitors, who order them and turn them into valuable export goods sold to the US, Japan, Hong Kong… Depending on the product, each child receives different wages of VND 1–3 million a month. Nguyen Van Hau (29, Hue City), who was born deaf but is intelligent and hard-working, has now become a teacher of handicrafts at the Centre, with a salary of 3 million VND a month.
Learners who come to the Centre are not only trained in a trade, but also get to play with people in the same situation, helping to dispel feelings of low self-esteem and inferiority, and to integrate well into the community. Many learners who work and live at the Centre have fallen in love and married, like Nguyen Van Phap and Tran Thi Nguyet, both from Quang Binh and both born deaf, who married 2 months ago.
When many visitors come to the Centre and see with their own eyes the learners with disabilities making ceramics, handicrafts, garments and souvenirs…, they are amazed and utter words of admiration for the children’s efforts and perseverance.
The Hy Vong Centre has helped to ease some of the pain and self-consciousness, and to light the flame of hope, for unfortunate people.
Nhu Quynh – http://giaoducthoidai.vn