Dong Hanh organized a Scholarship Selection meeting in November for the first half of the 2013-2014 academic year. We are pleased to share with you below some extracts from application letters, which will hopefully allow you to better understand the lives of students in Vietnam.

When my brother was in college, I was still in high school. Living with my parents, I witnessed and resented how hard they worked to cover his tuition fees. Our agricultural resources were not sufficient for the price of his tuition, so they had to borrow money through a student loan program. My brother finished his studies and graduated to become a teacher. This was a great joy for the whole family, but it was broken abruptly by violent monsoons that tore through the village in September. My brother, accompanied by my father, was on the way to submit his application for a teaching position when both of them were swept away in the floods. Residents were able to save the life of my father, but not my brother…

Vo Thi Loan (University of Liberal Arts – Da Nang)

…I lost my mother when I was 8 years old. She died of cancer. My father, who was a worker, suffered from a mental illness and had to retire quite young. Today he is still in a bad state of health and is unable to work. I had an older brother who was born in 1991. He was the person who was in charge of taking care of the whole family. Unfortunately, my brother also died in a motorcycle accident when he was in his second year at the International Finance Institute in Hanoi. We experienced very hard times. Currently, I live in Hanoi with a daily budget of 5000 VND, which is the equivalent of 20 cents. This allows me to save money to help my family and pay for college. Today, my family is still indebted to a bank, and since my brother is dead, I am the sole person who bears the burdens of life for my family…

Do Oanh Thanh (Polytechnic School of Hanoi)

….In my family, 5 people have lived together for 20 years in an old wooden house which was built by my grandfather. My parents don’t have stable employment and their very low salary only allows us to live day to day. Due to this reality, my brothers and I did not have many ways to get to school. I had done a year of study at the University of Ton Duc Thang, but I had to stop in the second year for lack of money. In 2012 I decided to work to earn money and at the same time I trained to pass the entrance exam to the University of Natural Sciences in Ho Chi Minh City. I was admitted in 2013. It is a joy for me, but a heavier burden on my parents, who must also handle the education of my two brothers. In my family I am the eldest and I did not want to ask my parents to take care of all the registration fees for university. I found part of the solution by working as a laborer in a foreign company in Vietnam to cover my living expenses…

Le Thanh Hieu (University of Sciences of Ho Chi Minh City)

My father died when I was in elementary school. My brother is disabled, partly due to a dioxin in Agent Orange. My mother raised my brother and me alone. Our only financial resource comes from agriculture. When I passed the entrance examination to university, in order to pay my tuition we had to borrow money from the bank. As for my daily expenses, they are covered thanks to a part time student job. After graduating, my only goal is to get a stable job to rebuild our miserable little house and to provide a better life for my mother. I have strong convictions that a successful education is the only path to a successful life.

Nguyen Thi Hien (University of Liberal Arts – Da Nang)