New Home Supports Family and Fulfills Wish of Great-Grandmother
After a month of construction, Kids Promise and its supporters celebrated a new home for the family of Ms. Le Thi Hai in Tien Giang province, Vietnam. The home represents a new beginning for the children and their education, as well as a long-time wish of Ms. Hai’s elderly mother.
Ms. Hai has lived on the property since she was a child and eventually inherited the 120m2 (about 1,292 ft2) piece of land from her parents. Her mother is still living at the age of 88, but was afflicted with a serious illness that left her with only minimal responsiveness and awareness of her surroundings. Ms. Hai, at age 60, is her mother’s caregiver; Ms. Hai sells rice paper and earns about 50,000 VND per day to also support herself, her mother, and to help raise four of her grandchildren.
Because of their extreme poverty, most of the grandchildren are not allowed to attend school. Only the youngest, a girl named Van, can attend. She recently graduated from the third grade and ranked at a good level. During the summer, Van works as a babysitter to earn income for the family and pay for her studies in the upcoming school year. Local government officials are very sympathetic to Van’s situation and often prioritize her to receive support when other charity groups come to the area to help.
Ms. Hai’s mother, before she became very sick, yearned to have a good, stable home. Ms. Hai herself dreamed of a solid house and hoped that her mother would have the chance to live in one before she passed away, but Ms. Hai did not assume that dream would ever become reality.
The family’s charity home is a 48m2 building solidly constructed with a concrete base and columns, a cool tin roof and an enameled tile floor. The family members are thrilled with their new home because they no longer have to worry about staying safe and dry during rain storms; and they are especially thankful that Ms. Hai’s mother will live in better conditions. The family also promised to work hard to earn more money to cover all of the children’s school fees.
On behalf of all of us at Kids Promise, we would like to send a sincere thanks to the sponsors of this project for their continued support!
