A change for the better
Every morning, Thao and her sister wake up at five when their mother lights a fire to cook for their pigs. The kitchen is always warm enough for the two sisters to start the day in their mountain village.
Thao’s task is to boil water for drinking, while her older sister Giang, who is 13 and in grade eight, fills the family’s cement water tank with gravity-fed stream water.
The 11-year-old was born to a farming family belonging to Vietnam’s Red H’mong ethnic minority in the mountainous district of Muong Cha in the nation’s north-west. Like his two daughters, 39-year-old Dua can read and write. His wife, 32-year-old Pang, is illiterate, however.
Thao heps her mother to cook mash for pigs.
Traditionally, local parents allowed boys to go to school if the family had enough rice to eat, but kept girls, such as Thao’s mother, at home to help with domestic chores and agricultural work.
World Vision began work with Thao’s community six years ago, when she was six and had just started the first grade of primary school. Hillside rice, cassava and corn farming were her parents’ only livelihood bar amateurish attempts at animal husbandry.
Like other villagers, the couple let their pigs and ducks roam freely, which was ineffective and spread disease as the livestock fouled the environment.
“Like most people in our community then, we were worried about how to get by and our children’s education,” Dua admits.
Pang says: “My husband and I have been busier since World Vision came to our village. We’ve joined farming groups for training on raising animals to earn money. We learned how to make pens for them and share breeding animals in groups.”
Thao’s mother now rears three sows, with their piglets providing an annual income of around five million dong (235 US dollars), part of which she has invested in a 35-strong flush of ducks for another source of earnings.
Thao helps her mother to feed their ducks at their poultry yard.
She says: “I’m happy to see my daughters going to school every day. It’s worth working hard to afford their clothing and school fees.
“They’re good at learning and join in with all the performances at children’s events. We never saw our kids doing such interesting things at school and in the village before.”
Her younger daughter is equally enthusiastic. “I want to be a singer when I grow up,” Thao says, “so I can sing for all the children and other villagers in my community.”
Thao’s evenings are filled with song, dance and laughter because her sister, who leads the local performing troupe, often invites the team’s members to the family’s house for rehearsals.
Their father says: “Boys and girls are all children. We want them to go on to higher education and be the people they dream of being. We’re grateful to our [World Vision] sponsors from Japan for helping us guarantee our children’s future.”
Having never missed a class or skimped on her homework, despite her morning chores, Thao adds: “I love school. I’m always happy there because I can play and learn with my friends. It would be a shame if I was late for school as it’s only a 15-minute walk from my home.”
More about Thao and her family:
Thao helps her mother to feed their pigs.
Thao and her sister help her mother to dry paddy rice that their parents harvested from their hilly farmland.
Thao has lunch with her sister and parents. Today they have plain rice, the main food, with fried and boiled cabbage, rattan shoot soup and some fish sauce.
Thao and her sister prepare homework for tomorrow class. The lamps were gifts from World Vision to encourage them to study hard for excellent results.