Literature teacher living with HIV for 25 years

There have been many generations of students who have grown up under the guidance of Ms. Hoan, many of whom have become successful and are always grateful for her dedication and love in helping them to grow. Ms. Hoan is also the teacher with the most “adopted children” at the remote Mo Trang High School.

Overcome adversity to live

With a beautiful face, a bright smile, full of energy and enthusiasm for her students, no one would have thought that teacher Hoan had been suffering from an incurable disease for the past 25 years. Born in the countryside of Tan Yen (old Bac Giang ), since childhood, the pretty-faced girl Nguyen Thi Hoan dreamed of becoming a Literature teacher.

Although her family was poor, Hoan always tried hard in her studies. After finishing high school, the young girl made her dream come true when she passed the entrance exam to Hanoi Pedagogical University 2. In 2000, graduating with honors, the female student was assigned to work as a Literature teacher at Mo Trang High School.

According to Ms. Hoan, the school is 40km from Bac Giang city, with 60% of the students being ethnic minorities. Although she missed home in the first days of teaching here, her love for the job helped her overcome everything. It was also in this land that she met and fell in love with a boy her age whom she had known since high school and that was the beginning of her life's tragedy.

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Ms. Hoan is happy with her students.

Teacher Hoan recalled that at the end of 2000, after teaching for a while, while taking her students to an excellent student competition, she accidentally met her boyfriend from high school. Once, when taking a ferry to a friend's wedding in Luong Tai district (formerly Bac Ninh ), the boy grabbed her hand and helped her from falling when the ferry was rocking. That thoughtful gesture made the young teacher fall in love with the boy.

Gradually, love blossomed between the two. When preparing for the wedding, some friends told the young teacher that “her fiancé was a drug addict”, but she did not believe it. Perhaps love had overcome the worries, anxieties, and doubts of the girl just entering the threshold of life.

The wedding took place in 2001, before she could fully enjoy her happiness, Hoan discovered that her husband was a drug addict. Shocked and stunned, she believed that with her intense love, she would be able to influence him to quit his addiction. In the meantime, Hoan received the good news that she was pregnant. The life growing day by day was the motivation for her to forget the difficulties and move on.

Teacher Hoan gave birth to a baby girl, but the baby girl was born weak, and it was the coldest time in the North, so the baby got pneumonia and had to be hospitalized. Before she could enjoy the happiness of being a mother, Hoan received the shocking news that her daughter was HIV positive, infected from her mother. Receiving the "death sentence", she was stunned, shocked, and in pain, thinking that she and her child would not live much longer.

At first, she was disoriented, only knowing how to hold her child and cry silently at night. In the early 2000s, HIV was a fear and obsession for everyone. Not only did people receive discrimination, but they were also shunned, making them live even more introverted. Despite her best efforts, her baby only lived with her for 4 months before passing away forever.

On the brink of despair, Hoan encouraged her husband to go to rehab because as long as there is life, there is hope. During the two years her husband was rehabbed in Phu Tho, whenever she had free time, the young teacher would pack up and visit him. When his term ended, he returned home, and she was hopeful that this time he would start his life over. But just one month later, he got back together with his drug addict friends. Five months after his relapse, her husband passed away. “The day before, my younger brother also died of an incurable disease. In four years, I lost three of my dearest loved ones,” teacher Hoan said sadly.

Every night when she woke up, the young teacher could not sleep anymore, lying awake, painful images and memories appeared, pressing and choking her heart. In that extreme pain, she thought, she had to live, had to rise from this painful land, live a useful life for the life of her little daughter who had not yet enjoyed the bright sunshine of life. “If I died, it would be too easy, but the living would suffer so much. My mother has worked so hard, if I leave too, she will not be able to bear it,” Hoan shared.

Compassion nurtures student love

Loving the teaching profession and loving the students in the highlands, teacher Hoan overcame the difficult days of her life, tried many times harder to access new knowledge, and used all her passion and accumulated experience to pass on her love of Literature to generations of students.

Thanks to the encouragement of the young teacher, the students in her class loved and were passionate about Literature. With the losses in her life, she loved her students even more, especially those in difficult circumstances. Despite having an incurable disease, sometimes feeling sick and tired, teacher Hoan tried to train her health to have the best physical strength to devote to the profession of educating people.

In 2007, Hoan was fortunate to have access to ARV antiviral drugs. “At first, taking the drugs was very tiring. I always felt dizzy, like my stomach was being scratched, my head was spinning, and I had insomnia, but I still tried to overcome it and still went to class regularly. Many people could not stand the strong side effects of the drugs and gave up, but I was lucky to respond better to the drugs. Gradually, the new generation of ARV drugs also had fewer side effects. For the past two years, I have been taking the new drugs very well, feeling as light as if I were not taking any drugs,” said teacher Hoan.

Having been using ARV drugs since 2007, teacher Hoan’s health quickly stabilized. “At that time, I was very grateful. Luckily, I had the medication, thanks to which my health was maintained well, and I could work two or three times more than usual,” Hoan recalled.

With her tireless efforts and burning passion for her career, teacher Hoan became the Head of the Literature Department of Mo Trang High School, an excellent teacher of Literature at the provincial level for 3 cycles, a 6-time emulation fighter, and a judge in the provincial excellent teacher competition for 2 cycles.

What was the motivation for a person who was once on the brink of despair to grow up to be who he is today? “Teaching and imparting knowledge to students has always been my burning passion. When I haven’t been to school for a long time, I miss my students. Every year, our students win prizes in the provincial Literature competition, the highest being second prize,” Ms. Hoan proudly said.

Not only has she guided generations of students to become talented and win high prizes at the provincial Literature competition, Ms. Hoan has also adopted students from difficult circumstances. Although she lives alone with her mother and sister, Ms. Hoan has 6 adopted children who are all former students, the first of whom she adopted when she was in 10th grade. After graduating from Medical College, she got married and had a happy life. Because the new education program requires more knowledge and skills to be imparted, Ms. Hoan always updates information technology to adapt to teaching in the digital transformation period.

In addition to her professional duties, Ms. Hoan also writes articles to share her own life's story of perseverance; participates in several seminars on HIV/AIDS prevention and control programs and is one of the examples of perseverance of people with "H" to rise strongly in life. Moreover, Ms. Hoan also has a passion for writing poetry, poems of life, poems of support, healing and inspiration.

Source: https://cand.com.vn/doi-song/co-giao-day-van-25-nam-song-chung-voi-hiv-nghi-luc-kien-cuong-truyen-cam-hung--i786506/