"Bright eyes" of blind parents enter the lecture hall

Nhu Uyen helps her father arrange the street vendor cart to prepare for his trip - Photo: TU TRUNG

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Phung, her husband - Uyen's father, heard that there were guests at home and immediately called a taxi to come home early. His friend who drove him by motorbike every day brought along a cart full of toothbrushes, bath sponges, dishwashing sponges, pot scrubbers, glass washers... and a guitar. His world was not pure black but a white mist with flickering human figures.

"We met each other through blind people's activities, fell in love with each other because of our shared situation, then got married and moved into the same rented room. When selling lottery tickets, we had to go alone, with someone in the morning, otherwise all the tickets would be snatched away every day. With a wife and children, in the morning I sold lottery tickets and groceries, and in the evening I took my guitar and sang at restaurants. It's been like that for so many years, now my health is poor, and the shops are very empty..."

To this day, Xuan's mother still hasn't seen Uyen's face, only hearing people say that her daughter looks a lot like her father. When she was born, her grandmother came to help take care of her, and when she learned to crawl, she put a bell on her foot so her parents could feel around to look after her. Xuan said: "I heard that children at the age of 3 are often naughty, but little Nhu Uyen, at the age of 3, already knew how to be her parents' eyes. We relied on her to pick up a shoe, a bowl, a glass... for everything."

Uyen gradually grew up and had a younger brother. The two sisters tried to take care of their studies and housework, making up for their disadvantages. Uyen loved studying and knew that only studying could help her overcome the darkness that was already too much in her family. She was an excellent student every year, but in 2020, after only two months in 11th grade, Uyen decided to drop out of school.

Uyen explained clearly: "My father was sick in the hospital, and after he was discharged, he couldn't go to work because of the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic. The school required online learning, but I didn't have the conditions to go online. The coffee shop I helped sell was also closed. The whole family had no source of income other than a few bags of charity rice. Everyone in the rental house was worried about getting sick, and my parents were worried about every bowl of rice and every day's rent. I couldn't sit there and add to the burden. At that time, only delivery people had regular jobs and income...".

Uyen dropped out of school and became a delivery person, delivering pre-ordered food. Working hard on each order, she supported her family through the entire pandemic.

She had earned money but her desire to study was still there. Uyen watched her friends graduate and go to university one by one and shed tears. Feeling inferior, she closed her personal social networking site, focused on her job, saved some money and secretly nurtured a plan.

In 2022, Uyen made a bolder decision than her decision to drop out of school: to re-register for grade 11 in the cultural supplementary program.

For evening classes, Uyen asked to cut down on her work hours, signing up to deliver from 8am to 1pm every day so that she could go home in the early afternoon, rest and prepare for her classes from 6pm to 10pm.

For two years, Uyen became an excellent student again, winning third prize in Literature in the city-wide excellent student competition.

Uyen chose the Marketing department of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry to apply for: "Receiving food and drink orders, interacting with shops and users, I realized that I could be suitable for creative work in the market, connecting products and customers. The University of Industry is close to my house, close to the area where I go to work every day, so I can take advantage of running orders after school."

Having said that, Uyen's university entrance is still a difficult problem for the whole family. Her younger brother admitted that he was not good at studying, so he dropped out of school to work to give his sister the chance to go to school. Every day, her father still worked hard with his goods in the morning and his guitar in the afternoon and evening, but his singing and selling business, which relied on the kindness of others, gradually faded away along with the general decline in business of shops during the difficult economic times.

Her mother calculated: each month, the "dead association" has two expenses, one is the rent of 8.5 million - I have shared a room with a blind friend so that he can pay for the electricity and water bills, the other is the car and gas expenses for the friend who takes him to work every day. Rice is usually donated by charity groups in batches such as Tet, April, July, October, and then saved for the whole year; whatever is left over is used for fish sauce, vegetables, fish, and living expenses.

Uyen and her sister go to work, pay for their own gas, personal expenses, and help their mother with the house and grocery bills. They have been calculating for a long time but have not come up with an amount to pay for Uyen's university tuition, or an amount to make up for the time Uyen has to cut back on work in the coming days.

However, Uyen is still optimistic as she wanders between orders. For a food delivery order, Uyen is paid 13,500 VND, and each session she can do 10-15 orders. Working hard for a few months before starting school, Uyen boasts that in addition to helping her parents, she has saved 3 million VND and bought herself a new pair of sandals to prepare for school.

"But the first semester tuition fee at school is 18 million, so I have to borrow money...", Uyen sighed for the first time in her story. Her mother's friends who are also blind and also in difficult circumstances - each one a little - pooled together to lend her money when they heard Uyen was going to university. Uyen is carrying on her shoulders the dream of light not only for herself and her family, but also for many others.

On the first week of school, Uyen took a day off from work, excitedly went to the lecture hall, meticulously took notes of the timetable of 7 subjects, and struggled to calculate each hour to find a shift to work. She whispered: "I read somewhere: The universe will listen to strong hearts. If I receive the scholarship to support the school, that lucky amount will be used to pay off my tuition debt. If the scholarship is for someone with more difficulties, I will still be happy and will try to take care of myself. I have never given up and will never give up...".