42 years old, weighing 16kg, Hoa has the shape of a Coconut Skull but has extraordinary energy when it comes to self-study, taking advantage of the power of technology to step out into the outside world and connect with the community.
Life changing sayings
The morning of the day before the holiday April 30 – May 1, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa (born in 1980) wearing a bright yellow dress was carried by a grandmother in a taxi to leave her home in Tu Doi village, Kien Quoc commune. Kien Thuy district goes to the center of Hai Phong city, 20km from the house. She was invited to be a speaker in a sharing session on money management skills and job opportunities in the 4.0 era for disadvantaged groups organized by Caritas (belonging to the Hai Phong Episcopal Palace).
Few people know that the 42-year-old woman in the shape of a 3-year-old child is extremely brave, strong, does not surrender to fate, becomes the leader of a group of disabled people, spreading love. , the will to live to peers.
Sitting in a wheelchair, Ms. Hoa shared how she used to live in self-doubt, boredom, hanging around in bed for 32 years before deciding to step out of the “cocoon”. Ms. Hoa, who was born with osteoporosis, had broken ribs, her heart was outside her chest, was often sick… After a fatal illness when she was born at the age of 3, her body became deformed and did not develop. Okay.
She could only lie and roll over on the bed like Coconut Skull in fairy tales, all travel and personal hygiene had to rely on relatives. In the past, the malicious and harsh words of people when seeing that deformed body made Hoa feel guilty and afraid, always hiding in the blanket whenever guests came to visit her house. She only knows how to be friends with the tabby cat and listen to fairy tales, imagine the outside world through her grandmother’s story.
Attendees sat around listening, endlessly admiring this disabled woman. “The day my grandmother died, an old man who came to burn incense told me a sentence that made me remember forever: “If an ordinary person dies, people will mourn for 3 years, and if a grandchild dies, they will forget after 3 hours. Therefore, we must find a way to go out into the world and assert ourselves,” Hoa said.
At first, she replied that she was disabled, unable to walk, the old man pointed to his head and said “go out with your brain”. That statement became the motivation for her to decide to “makeover”, breaking all her limits. She taught herself to write letters, learn to read Vietnamese and calculate. Being able to read and write, Ms. Hoa became more and more enthusiastic about her training, asking her parents to borrow elementary school textbooks, ask for old newspapers to study every day, and practice writing poems and short stories.
“At that time, I thought that if I wanted to connect with friends outside, I had to have a phone. So I saved up money to ask someone to buy back an old “brick” phone. I called. music gift program, make friends from all over the world on the radio to have the opportunity to interact with new friends”, she shared to the applause of everyone. Many people in the same situation listened and cried.
“Smash the stigma”
Some people came to her house to ask “hiring” Ms. Hoa to sit at festivals and temples to ask for money, but she kicked her out. She gradually has new friends to guide and guide her on how to connect with the outside world through the internet. She learned how to make paper flowers, stone flowers, stone paintings and sold them on Facebook, Zalo.
“I found out about this job quite by accident, when a friend brought baskets of confetti to ask me to sell on Facebook. I didn’t want to take the label of disabled person to pity the community, so I refused. and tinkering with learning how to make a living, reducing the burden on the family,” Hoa said.
Her deformed, soft fingers like vermicelli seemed to be unable to hold the scissors, but she cut and glued them very skillfully and skillfully. With perseverance in practicing how to cut flowers beautifully, how to hold scissors not to fall, many times when her fingers were scratched and bleeding, after a week, she successfully made the first confetti basket.
After that, she continued to learn how to make stone flowers and stone paintings. She gathered disadvantaged people to teach them how to make flowers, rock paintings and find ways to sell products and help everyone in the group earn money to make ends meet.
More and more people know the story of Ms. Hoa’s will to live. Because of her admiration, the owner of a gallery on Van Mieu Street, Hanoi held an exhibition event “Stone Flower”, displaying her products in early 2019 to convey the message “flowers bloom on arid rocks”. “.
Some units invite her to be a speaker for inspirational talks for young people. In the Miss World Vietnam contest 2019, she became the main character in the charity project of Miss Luong Thuy Linh and a group of other contestants.
Currently, Ms. Hoa is the leader of a group called “Weed aspiration” with more than 20 people with disabilities everywhere. “Our group likes this name very much because wild flowers have a strong vitality, even if they are trampled on, storms will still emerge and bloom. This is also the spirit that I want to pass on to the members,” she said. girl “Coconut Skull” shared.
For more than 2 years, the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the sale of flowers and stone paintings, causing a decrease in the income of group members. Ms. Hoa actively goes to “diplomacy” to update new trends, look for job opportunities for the group and bring members closer to the community. On her personal Facebook, she often writes articles calling for benefactors to help disadvantaged people, and her representative visits and gives gifts of encouragement.
The good news spread far and wide, many people with disabilities everywhere texted Ms. Hoa to want to join the group but were still afraid of being discriminated against and her family would not let her go out. “In these cases, I need to do a lot of thought work so that each person can be more confident in themselves before considering work,” she said.
“Fight with yourself, don’t feel guilty, as well as find a way to break the stigma around you so that you can enter society peacefully, without anxiety and fear,” Hoa wrote on Facebook. their own after the exchange trip.
