In-life fairy tale
Cao Thi Ly – Bien Hoa Branch
Her little house lived in a shantytown, which a few years ago was almost isolated from the outside world, even though it was located right in the city center because people called it “the leper town”. Most of the people here made a living by begging, selling lottery tickets, and working as hired laborers for a living. And Ms. Tran Thi Tuyet Nga was one of them.
She was born into a poor family. At the age of 21, she got married, and her life was like the image of “a thatched hut with two golden hearts”. Every day she worked as a hired worker, her husband worked in construction and had small children, but life was very happy. Just thinking that the family of vegetables and porridge went by like that, it didn’t take long for her husband to die in an accident. Life seemed to collapse at her feet, then the first child was only 6 years old, and the twins were just over a year old. Looking at the children wearing mourning scarves, she was dumbfounded because of the great pain and an uncertain future ahead. She was 27 years old at that time. It seemed that the woman had given up on her fate.
But no, when she thought of the young children who needed to continue living and had to live differently from their parents, she wiped her tears and stood up. Every day, she sent her children to her grandmother’s house and worked as a hired worker at a bakery from 3 am to late at night. She did whatever she can to earn money to feed her children three meals a day. The difficulty did not stop there when the youngest daughter fall ill with heart disease. Once again, she felt like she was about to fall. Difficulties pile up difficulties, in addition to food and clothing, now that the children were of school age, she had many other expenses to cover and take care of. Could her simple dream of giving her children a full education come true? How do I get money for my children’s education with the little money I earn every day? Those questions kept spinning in her head…
Then one day, she was introduced to CEP. At first, she thought that CEP was like any other lender. But gradually she realized that was not the case. She got a loan without having to mortgage any assets, she also did not have to worry about external fees for anyone, and the special thing was that the application was very simple. She did not expect that a poor person like her, with no valuable assets in her family, could still borrow such a safe source of capital (which she previously thought was only having to borrow from “black credit”). The first time she took a loan, she only dared to borrow 3 million dongs to pay for her children’s school fees, she was enthusiastically advised by CEP staff that the loan amount could still be used for the purpose of consumption but still suitable for her income. Because her situation was quite special, whenever working near her house, CEP credit officers often visited to ask for encouragement. Since then, she gained more faith in life. Over time, she worked as a factory worker, her income was low, but she became more stable and she dared to borrow higher loans, buy computers, buy bicycles for her children to go to school, and repair the house, and money for medical treatment… her house also had more household items from there. Thanks to this program, she was able to work with peace of mind while still taking care of her children’s education. Besides, every year when Tet came, she received gifts from CEP. Tet gifts were just cooking oil, fish sauce, sugar, monosodium glutamate, and rice. But she knew it was human love, the golden heart of CEP; helping her family’s Tet more warm and full. Every year, her youngest daughter received a scholarship from CEP, a small amount but enough for her to buy clothes and books for the new school year, which was a spiritual gift to encourage her to strive every year to study in order to be successful and be rewarded the Certificate of Merit.
The poor woman did not surrender to fate. With her will and energy, she wrote an idyllic fairy tale that was rich in meaning in the midst of everyday life.
Time has gone by, and with many tears, and hard work, the eldest child is now a third-year student in the finance sector. The two children are in 11th grade. Although now she is carrying many serious diseases such as brain tumors, and diabetes, when looking at their children growing up, being obedient, and studying hard, she smiles. For her, sending her children to school and studying successfully is the biggest dream of her life. How many times has her eldest daughter wanted to quit school to work to foster 2 little sisters when she saw her mother working so hard. But she firmly disagreed, just wanted the children to see her struggling more and more trying to rise. Her dream is one day to become a credit officer wearing a uniform bearing the words CEP so that she can go to help those in need and award dreams.
