Rays of Hope

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Written by Ngo Cong Thanh – Phuoc Son ADP Manager
Photo by Le Thiem Xuan - Communications Officer

“I don’t want to remember my life in the past,” revealed Khanh, 15, who lives with his 12-year-old sister in Phuoc Son district in the central province of Quang Nam.

“My father died of AIDS in 2007 and my mother left my young sister and me in February last year after struggling with HIV for seven years,” he continued. “We didn’t know what to do without our parents.”

For a period of time, Khanh and his sister dropped out from school because they were ashamed of their late father’s condition and no one wanted to be friends with them either at school or in the wider community.

When informed about the two children’s situation, staff of World Vision’s Phuoc Son Area Development Programme (ADP) cooperated with their schoolteachers to visit them to assess their needs and understand their difficulties.

Necessities, such as rice, clothes and study items, were provided to the two children and alongside the short-term assistance, the ADP staff and teachers talked with their relatives and persuaded their grandparents to look after them.

World Vision employees also talked with the children about studying and encouraged them to return school. To build their confidence and outlook for the future, their teachers told the two to join the school’s children’s club, which is supported by the Phuoc Son ADP. There, they have learnt about life skills and values and participated in a variety of extra-curricula activities, which have helped them to get on well with their classmates.

“Everyone faces problems in their lives, but I think that if they try their best, they can overcome them,” Khanh said.

“We’re really happy and touched due to the help we’ve received from World Vision and our teachers,” he continued. “They’ve given us things we can use and also listened to and comforted us.”

“Thanks to their encouragement, my sister and I were able to go back to school and settle down and I now feel more confident about life even though our parents are not beside us,” said Khanh.

“I see the World Vision staff and my teachers as parents who supported us during our hard time and I promise that we will finish high school,” Khanh concluded before mentioning that both he and his sister had achieved improved results at school in their first semester.