Money of love helps the unfortunate

If you type the keyword "Lam Dai Loc" on Google, you will see the first article appearing in Thanh Nien Newspaper with the title: Good student from Yen Bai may have to drop out of school because of Covid-19: 'I'm very confused'! (April 20, 2020).

From this article, a poor Tay ethnic male student who almost had to drop out of school has now become a leading student of the Political University (also known as the Political Officer School). The story of Lam Dai Loc in Lang Chieng village (Ngoi A commune, Van Yen district, Yen Bai) who had a turning point in his life, is thanks to the kindness of Thanh Nien Newspaper readers.

In April 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, many schools had to close and switch to online learning, causing many students in mountainous areas to struggle because they had no means to study. Lam Dai Loc, one of the excellent students at Yen Bai Province Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities, fell into a deadlock due to his family's poverty. His father died early, Loc's mother became seriously ill (stage 4 heart failure), and he had to live with his older brother, whom his mother had raised since he was a child, so he had no money to buy a phone to study. Because he had to stop studying while studying for the high school graduation exam, Loc was very confused about whether he could continue. At times, he thought about dropping out of school to work to earn money to help his brother support his mother.

Lam Dai Loc's dilapidated house and the new house built with support money from Thanh Nien Newspaper readers

Knowing this situation,   Thanh Nien newspaper published an article about him, calling on the community to join hands to help. After the newspaper published it, an anonymous sponsor donated 50 million VND to Loc so that he could finish grade 12 without having to drop out of school to earn a living. The writer also raised money from friends to buy Loc a phone that can connect to the internet to help him study online. Notably, readers from all over the country and some from abroad such as the US and South Korea sent gifts and words of encouragement to his family. A reader from the US, when returning to Vietnam (after Covid-19), visited Loc at home.

Thanks to this support, Loc continued to study and was admitted to the Political Officer School with a very high score (29.75 points). However, Loc's constant worry is that his mother is often sick and he has to live in a dilapidated house that could collapse at any time. Thanh Nien newspaper has an article titled "Poor Yen Bai student almost had to drop out of school due to Covid-19 with extremely high exam scores" (August 28, 2020), hoping that the community will join hands to help this poor, filial and studious student build a small house for his mother before going to the lowlands to study at university.

From the article, a philanthropist continued to donate 50 million VND to the family to build a house. "Perhaps, this is a turning point event, opening a new page in my life, a more colorful and meaningful page...", Loc emotionally shared.

A Thanh Nien Newspaper reader and his wife in the US visited Lam Dai Loc's family during their visit to Vietnam.

To date, Loc has entered his fourth year at the Political Officer School. During his time studying here, Loc has achieved many achievements. At the end of his first year, Loc excellently won the title of "Advanced Soldier", and was trusted and loved by his commander, comrades and teammates. With his constant efforts, at the end of 2021, Loc was honored to be in the ranks of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

For two consecutive years, Loc has been an excellent student, with the titles of "Basic Emulation Fighter", "Party Member with Excellent Mission Completion", and "Outstanding Youth Union Member". In addition, Loc has participated in many competitions organized by the unit and school and achieved high results, such as the Olympic competition on Marxist-Leninist sciences and socio-political awareness, and the Uncle Ho storytelling competition.

Besides studying and training hard, the poor boy also worked as the Secretary of the Youth Union of Battalion 10, Political Officer School, passionate, dedicated and dynamic. In the 2022-2023 school year, Loc was honored to receive the title "Outstanding Young Face" from the school principal...

Lam Dai Loc is currently an excellent student of the Political Officer School.

"I am extremely grateful for the attention, help and support of Thanh Nien Newspaper readers, which have given me wings to realize my dream. During the past time studying and training in the military environment, I have constantly tried, made efforts and matured every day.

In particular, I have never forgotten the affection that my brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, and readers of Thanh Nien Newspaper have given me and take that as encouragement and motivation to push me to progress and become more successful," the future political officer confided.

In the past 20 years, among the characters I have written about, there are many young people who have lost both parents, only worked for money to study, and now have graduated and have stable jobs. What is impressive is that Thanh Nien Newspaper readers have helped the characters in the articles not only in the country but also many readers abroad.

I still remember the story of orphaned student Le Thi Thanh Tam (12A5 student at Quoc Oai High School, Quoc Oai District, Hanoi) who lost both her parents when she was young. Tam had a very difficult life because her parents died early, from the time Tam was in 7th grade, Tam and her sister had to work for money to study. The older sister, who was 2 years older than her, had to drop out of school in 10th grade to work to support her younger sister. Tam also studied and worked for money with the dream of going to university.

In 2017, Tam passed the entrance exam to the University of Foreign Languages ​​(Hanoi National University), but her dream seemed to have ended when the annual tuition fee was more than 10 million VND and she had to spend a lot of money on studying away from home.

A reader in the US returned to Vietnam to give a gift to Le Thi Thanh Tam, the character in the article published in Thanh Nien Newspaper.

After Thanh Nien Newspaper published the article “Orphaned girl with no money to go to college” (September 5, 2018), many readers sent money to help Tam. Notably, a reader in the US returned to Vietnam to donate money to support her. The touching thing is that 3 months after the article was published, the author received an email from a reader asking about Tam’s situation and expressing his desire to help.

Readers said that he is an overseas Vietnamese who has lived and worked in the US for more than 40 years, retired for nearly ten years but still saves his pension to do charity work. On this occasion, he returned to Vietnam and wanted to go there in person, hand-delivering his gift to support Tam.

I made an appointment and took him to the school where Tam was studying. The conversation was very short, he just asked Tam how much tuition she needed to pay each month, then handed her an envelope. When she returned to her place, the female student opened it and found out that the amount was enough for her to pay for a year of tuition.

The author and Vietnamese American readers came to give gifts to Le Thi Thanh Tam at the University of Foreign Languages ​​(Vietnam National University, Hanoi)

In addition, the money contributed by readers nationwide has helped Tam pay for all 4 years of university tuition. She studied and worked hard as a tutor to earn an extra 800,000 VND per month to pay for rent. Tam's sister saved her 5 million VND/month salary as a worker to give her 2 million VND for school. Now, Tam has graduated and is working as an English lecturer with a high salary in Hanoi.

Sharing about the support from Thanh Nien Newspaper readers through the published article, Tam emotionally said: "That was very timely, practical and meaningful help, which helped me turn a new page in my life."

Through the support of readers not only in the country but also many readers abroad, it shows the wide influence of Thanh Nien Newspaper. Only as an electronic newspaper, Thanh Nien can be so agile and have such a far-reaching reach. From that, many fates, many people have the chance to change their lives like that.

Thanhnien.vn