- By Bui Xuan Hoang [pictured right], Mine Action Team Supervisor, MAG Vietnam – Quang Binh project
Working in a mobile team, I’ve had a lot of chances to meet various people in many areas. But I won’t forget the face of Ms Pham Thi Vy, as she told me about losing her husband to an unexploded ordnance accident.
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Unexploded ordnance: a pen marks the hidden danger. |
Forty-three year-old Vy is a poor widow in the remote Village 8 of Quang Thach commune (Quang Trach district, Quang Binh province) where the local residents are living in poverty, but the atmosphere made me still feel warm in my heart.
I met Vy in her plain three-room house on a summer morning. With tears in her eyes, she told me about all the sufferings that she has experienced during the last 12 years.
In an early summer morning of 1997, Vy’s husband (Mr Nguyen Van Thoa, 32 years old) said goodbye to his wife and son to go working in the field as usual. Vy stayed at home and did her housework.
Hours passed by until lunchtime when her husband had not come back yet. Vy thought something bad had happened but she immediately told herself not to think about it.
Mr Thoa had been killed in a bomb accident. Rushing to the site, she could not believe that she had lost her husband; he had hit a BLU [one of the small bomblets released by cluster bombs] while digging the ground.
Her family’s life has become a struggle since that time. At a very young age, Vy became a widow with three children to take care (the oldest was just 13, the youngest four). They were too little to understand the hard situation their family was experiencing. The under-constructed house with heaped-up debts seemed to hurl her down but she was determined to stand up for her children’s sake. She accepted to do anything she could, such as water-carrying and collecting wood, to earn some money.
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A shortage of everything – except big bombsMAG safely removed three big bombs in Quang Binh in the space of just two weeks during August. |
“We were so unlucky. It was the most miserable time in my life,” Vy confessed.
Still, nothing could defeat her will. Ignoring her own private life, Vy has focused on nothing but supporting her children. Her family’s life now has been more stable though she is still working hard to care for her two school-aged children and clear the pending debts.
Listening to Vy’s story, I did not know what to say but just a few words of sympathy. Leaving her house, I was still wondering why there was still such a poor person. She was so admirable for her great will and confidence. She presents typical respected characteristics of Vietnamese women: hard working, considerate, and faithful.
I’m proud to contribute my own in working with MAG to achieve the mission of saving lives and building futures. We have been bringing truly peace to the people. Though our work is dangerous, I do believe that I was right to choose it.
Thinking about Vy and her life all over and over again, I promised myself that I would work even harder. Only by doing so can I help the poor who are very close to me.
You can do all sorts of things to fundraise for MAG... please visit Get Involved for ideas and inspiration!
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