The miserable fates of people in the "collective poverty" neighborhood in Ho Chi Minh City

Overseas workers

"Are you going home for the holiday? I don't know if I can go home yet. Let's see how much money I can make tonight. I don't have any money now, I just miss home," the early morning calls of several women living in a dormitory in alley 17 Co Giang (District 1, HCMC) made others feel sad.

Ms. L. in a communal boarding house (Photo: Nguyen Vy).

At 5am, Ms. L. (40 years old) woke up with less than 3 hours of sleep. Last night, she had to carry rice paper to sell all over the city, and didn't come back until 2am. Every day, her life goes by like that, and in the blink of an eye, 9 years have passed, enough to exhaust the strength of this woman with 2 children.

Ms. L. works as a rice paper vendor and lives in a rented house in alley 17 Co Giang. Living in a communal house, Ms. L. always has to wake up early every day to take care of her personal hygiene, because the rented house only has 2 bathrooms.

Every day, at 7am, the boarding house becomes bustling. Women who sell rice paper like Ms. L. are also awake, each doing their own thing, busily preparing their goods to sell.

The women in the boarding house wake up early every morning to prepare goods (Photo: Nguyen Vy).

They are not related by blood, but they consider each other as sisters. They see each other for a few hours in the morning and evening, and the rest of the time they go out to make a living, so they only have time to ask each other a few questions each day.

Sitting frying garlic in an old pan, Ms. L. suddenly grimaced when hot oil splashed on her hand. She said that this job is only hard, not fun. But to earn money to send home to her family, Ms. L. accepts sleeping only a few hours a day, enduring dust, sun and rain on the streets.

"Sometimes I was so tired that I fell asleep sitting on the street. When regular customers came, they would feel sorry for me and mix the rice paper themselves, paying for it without me even realizing it. Sometimes I couldn't stand it anymore, so I got sick and stayed home. I was sick but I only stayed home for a day, then had to try to go sell the next day," Ms. L. said with a smile.

Working in the morning and coming home at night, Ms. L. sleeps on the floor with 3-4 other people. The room is cramped, dark, and hot, but Ms. L. endures it, trying to sleep and wait for the morning to come quickly.

The dormitory has two floors. The floors are divided into rooms for men and women. The second floor is a dormitory for women who sell rice paper on the street (Photo: Nguyen Vy).

When she was still in her hometown of Binh Dinh, she grew up in a large family with a farming tradition. Growing up, Ms. L. was worried that the money she earned would not be enough to eat, so she decided to leave her children with her grandparents and follow her fellow countrymen to Ho Chi Minh City to make a living.

On the bus leaving her hometown, Ms. L. felt sad thinking that from now on, she would have to leave her children and go to a strange place alone to earn a living. In the city, every day was equally hard, Ms. L. wondered when this hardship would end.

Life does not dare to dream

Around noon, looking at the women living in the same boarding house busy preparing to go out to sell, Ms. Huynh Thi Le (66 years old) sat pensively in a corner, holding a stack of 60 lottery tickets, half of which were not sold.

Ms. Le was born and raised in the city. Her parents used to sell vegetables at Cau Muoi market (District 1), and she and her siblings also did odd jobs to earn money for food.

Talking about her situation, Ms. Le suddenly became pensive (Photo: Nguyen Vy).

Decades later, the family was still stuck in poverty without any improvement. To the point that when her parents and siblings passed away, Mrs. Le did not even have a house to live in.

Thinking that her fate was miserable enough, Mrs. Le suddenly became even sadder when her marriage was not complete, she had to raise her blind daughter alone and live in a dormitory until now.

Mrs. Le sells lottery tickets, while her son begs. Every day, she earns about 60,000 VND, enough to provide food for the two of them. On rainy days, when she is sick and cannot sell, Mrs. Le tries to beg for charity rice or just eats a simple meal of rice mixed with soy sauce.

Collective housing in the middle of the busiest district 1 in Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: Nguyen Vy).

Seeing her blind daughter wandering around begging for money from passersby, Mrs. Le was heartbroken, but there was no other way. Every day her daughter came home late, Mrs. Le could not sit still.

"Many times I lie down and cry, blaming myself for having such a miserable life. But after crying, I stop, because I have to learn to accept it. If I keep complaining, my life will not change," she confided.

When talking about their dreams, both Ms. L. and Ms. Le just smiled and said: "Now we just have to take it as it comes. Having money to live day by day and take care of the family is more than enough."

Poor workers live in cramped rented rooms in the city center (Photo: Nguyen Vy).

Ms. L.’s wish seems simple, but it is the desire of most of the poor workers living in this collective housing. Decades ago, they dreamed of buying a house or having enough money to travel. But now, their biggest dream is to have enough money to buy food and get by.

According to Mrs. Nguyen Thi Chin (79 years old), the landlord, there are more than 10 people living here. Mrs. Chin confided that her family is not well off. Sympathizing with the poor workers, Mrs. Chin and her husband reluctantly rented the entire house in the alley of Co Giang Street, renting it to them for 20,000 VND/day.

Ms. Chin said that the tenants are all poor workers, doing all kinds of jobs to make a living (Photo: Nguyen Vy).

Mrs. Chin also opened a vegetable and fruit shop downstairs, saving money to live on.

"Here we are not related by blood, not from the same hometown, but we have one thing in common: poverty. Even though we don't have much money, if anyone is in trouble, there is someone to help. Simply giving each other a bowl of rice or a piece of meat is enough to comfort us," said Mrs. Chin.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/an-sinh/nhung-phan-nguoi-khon-kho-o-xom-ngheo-tap-the-tai-tphcm-20240428184114646.htm