Dream Wings Scholarship: Just hoping for a less bumpy path to school

Ngo Van Trung and his disabled father - Photo: HTGIAU

Life is hard, poverty surrounds, worries about food and money are already a daily burden, so the cost of education and books makes parents' shoulders even heavier.

Dream of studying information technology

Ngo Van Trung has just finished 7th grade at Truong Tan Lap Secondary School. Trung's house is in Hamlet 2, Vinh Vien Town, Long My District ( Hau Giang Province). It is called a house but in fact, the father and his children are staying with their aunt's family (father's sister).

Trung has never known about traveling or going out in the summer. Because he still has to worry about money for food every day, the dream of going to the beach in the summer is too much of a luxury. There are days when Trung always looks pensive in class, sometimes he even falls asleep on the table because he is so tired. Although Trung has just finished 7th grade and is a good student, he is still not sure whether he will be able to go to class next year.

Father Trung - Mr. Ngo Van Mien - has just overcome a cerebral infarction. That terrible disease took away the strength of the 41-year-old man, making him almost unable to work.

Trung has a younger brother in third grade. Previously, his parents had to leave their two children in the countryside and go to work far away from home. But since his father fell ill and had to return to the countryside, the burden of feeding a family of four has fallen on his mother's shoulders. There is money for food, medicine for her husband, and the education of her two sons.

Mother worked far away, father lost his ability to work, so after school every day, people often saw Trung's father catching snails, picking vegetables, and setting nets to improve meals for the three of them. The family's difficult situation became more difficult as the two children grew up every day, the cost of education also increased, and mother's job decreased, facing the risk of losing her job.

Trung is a good boy, enthusiastic about class activities. When asked about his dream, he said he really likes to study information technology and work with computers. Sometimes when he sees many friends who have their own computers and secretly dream of it, but their families are too poor, he honestly says: "I don't know if my dream can come true!"

Chau Thi Kim Thao (left) discusses lessons with classmates - Photo: HONG NI

I want to go to school, I want to change my life. What I need is an opportunity and I hope everyone will give me an opportunity so that I can have more faith and try to change for the better.

Chau Thi Kim Thao

The arduous journey to find letters

Three years ago, Chau Thi Kim Thao - a 6A7 student at Hoa Lac Secondary School (Phu Tan District, An Giang Province) - lost her father. Due to difficulties, her mother had to decide to let Thao and her brother drop out of school and the three of them moved to Binh Duong to find a way to make a living. For Thao, the news of having to drop out of school came suddenly, and was bad news that made her cry a lot. Everything in front of her at that time seemed like a bleak future.

Coming to Binh Duong, the girl applied for a job as a maid at a coffee shop. She was slim, only a little taller than the table, serving and cleaning every day to earn money to help her mother pay for her living expenses. Many times looking out on the street, she saw friends her age in school uniforms, she felt sorry for herself, thinking about her fate, tears just kept flowing.

One year, two years seemed so long in Thao’s silent childhood memories beside the pile of cups and glasses that you had to clean every day. There was only one desire that always burned in her: to go to school!

Thao took a risk and asked her mother to let her go back to school. Her mother felt sorry for her daughter and had tears in her eyes. Her brother added: "Please let her go back to school. It's so pitiful to make her quit because she loves studying so much!"

So the girl was able to return to her hometown, to go back to school to continue her dream. Homeless, Thao and her grandmother relied on each other in a temporary rented house with an open front and back. Many meals, the grains of rice and vegetables were also shared by the neighbors. But no matter how hard it was, for Thao, being able to go to school was a miracle that lit up hope in her life.

Thao did not have a bicycle, so her classmates came to pick her up. She did not have any books or uniforms, so the teachers at school immediately supported her. She studied hard, was very serious and tried hard when talking about her future dreams. Not only did she achieve the title of excellent student and top of the class, Kim Thao also won first prize in the district's excellent team leadership competition last school year.

She believes that the difficulties ahead can only be overcome by her own efforts and studying. Thus, Thao's steps on the way to school become more and more steady, more confident in the love and care of the people around her when her dreams are given wings.

Like a gift of magic

Two teachers sent articles introducing their students to the Wings of Dreams scholarship program and said that the scholarship will be like a miracle that will extend the wings of their dreams to fly far.

Teacher Hong Ni wrote: "My heart was filled with indescribable love when I looked at my little student. I sent the article to the program, hoping to share with the community an example of overcoming difficulties, wanting to motivate him to study and move forward in life." And she comforted her student: "No one will abandon you!"

Meanwhile, teacher Huynh Thi Giau hopes that among the scholarships that the program gives to students in 13 provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta region, there will be a portion for her student.

This gift is likened by the teacher to a miracle so that after the difficulties have passed, the student will be given wings, enough strength to fly to the sky of dreams for those who never give up, always strive to find a brighter future.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/hoc-bong-chap-canh-uoc-mo-chi-mong-duong-hoc-bot-chong-chenh-20240618093236754.htm