Family broken, mother took me away

Since Phat was 8 years old, his father often got drunk. Arguments between his parents often occurred. Phat's mother took her younger brother and left.

The small house in village 7, Thong Nhat commune, Bu Dang district, Binh Phuoc province only has the grandfather who is now over 80 years old and the father left.

The family of freshman Nguyen Tan Phat is in a difficult situation. The land is only about two sao, which is a small source of income, not enough to cover living expenses. Once, when Phat's father was drunk, he had the trees cut down and sold for firewood, so for many years the land has been left fallow without any crops.

Phat was taken in by his aunt and raised at home.

Those years were probably the saddest time in Phat's life. Living with her, during the day after school Phat would help with housework, and at night he would study and then spread out a mat on the floor to sleep.

Although she loves her nephew, her aunt also has many difficulties when she has to take care of her small family, plus Phat, her old and weak grandfather, and her drunken younger brother.

Seeing life as so difficult, Phat wanted to quit school many times to go to work. But then Phat encouraged himself to try harder: "During that time, I fell into a crisis, but then tried to get up, because I knew that only by studying could I escape poverty in the future."

Valedictorian of high school, has no shortage of part-time jobs

In high school, because the school was far away, Phat rented a room near the school for more convenience. During that time, Phat contacted his mother again and was given extra money to go to school.

Phat always studies on his own and doesn't hang out with friends. Thanks to that, Phat is always at the top of the class in terms of grades.

Phat was also the valedictorian of block A00 of Le Quy Don High School in the recent graduation exam.

Having been accustomed to an independent life since childhood, when he moved out to live in a rented house, on weekends, Phat often worked as a construction worker on small projects that the landlord introduced. The sun burned his skin, but Phat did not complain.

Seeing Phat's gentle nature, the landlord hired Phat to pick coffee beans by the kilo during the coffee season. During the long summer vacation, she introduced Phat to work at the durian farm.

The job depends on the product, so Phat works all day and night to earn a little extra money so that in the new year he will have money to pay for rent, buy books and pay tuition.

Sometimes, Mom also buys fruit to visit and cooks rice for Phat. Even though she is busy and lives far away, Mom still tries to attend parent-teacher meetings to help Phat feel less lonely. Seeing her son study well, Mom often encourages him to try harder every day.

When asked about his father, the freshman's face became sad. After a while, Phat confided that the two of them rarely talked because the constant drunkenness was like a wall blocking them.

Understanding the story, in the way he told it, Phat expressed his love and just wished his father would be normal and not get too drunk and harm his health.

New students wait for discount hours to buy meat and vegetables

Phat had moved all his belongings to the rented house, and there was nothing left at home. The rented room was tiny, upstairs, if you walked straight you would bump your head, but it was neat and tidy, located deep in an alley in Thu Duc City (HCMC).

To save money, the new student shares a room with three other students. The rent is divided among four people, about 400,000 VND a month.

Before entering school, Phat went to Ho Chi Minh City early and worked full-time as a waiter at a restaurant. Phat received room and board with a salary of 6 million VND/month. Phat saved the money to pay for tuition for this semester.

Phat "revealed" a way to save money in daily life: he often went to the grocery store in the evening, waiting for the discount hours to buy meat and vegetables to cook.

"Each time I go shopping like that, it costs about 100,000 VND, but all four of us are full, sometimes even enough for two meals. On days when I have a full day of classes, I only eat at the school cafeteria, each meal costs about 25,000 VND." When he's really short on time, Phat eats instant noodles to get by.

When asked about his dream, Phat shared that he wants to become a good programming engineer and work for multinational companies in the future.

Phat happily showed us his admission notice with high scores and a stack of certificates from high school.

In the coming days, Phat will consider studying and finding a part-time job to make ends meet. No matter how difficult it is, Phat will still be strong and persevere.

Phat plans that if he receives the Tuoi Tre Newspaper's Tiep Suc Den Truong scholarship, he will give it to his mother to save for next semester's tuition, and send some to his sick grandfather.