A truly special teacher
She may have no hands and only one foot, but that has not stopped a Vietnamese teacher from fulfilling her dream.
BEING a teacher standing in front of a blackboard was Huynh Thi Xam’s childhood dream but she thought it was impossible to achieve due to her disabilities.
But with lots of effort, Xam has become a teacher and is now helping people like her.
The 41-year-old librarian at Ho Chi Minh (HCM) City Vocational Centre for People with Disabilities and Orphans was born with both hands and one foot paralysed, to a poor farmer family with six children in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Hau Giang. She can only move the four toes on her other foot.
Xam could not do anything by herself, even personal things, for a long time. Every day, when her siblings went to school, all she could do was drag her body around the house.
“Seeing piles of books and textbooks of my siblings at that time even brought tears to my eyes,” she said.
To make sure she wasn’t a burden to her family, Xam learned and tried to do things herself with her four movable toes. And she did.
When Xam was 14, her father died. His death made her even more determined to go to school.
And she loved every minute inside the classroom.
Like many residents in the Mekong Delta, Xam went to school by boat, waking up early each morning to make the journey.
The journey from her home to school was more than a dozen kilometres with lots of canals but she was rarely late or absent from class.
So at age 15, Xam began her lessons, writing letters by foot.
“At first, I learned the alphabet, then I used the pen to write,” she said, recalling the first time she tried to write. The gap between her toes bled and ached when she tried to hold a pen.
Xam did not give up and in just three months she was able to read and write better
With extraordinary strength, she finished high school at the age of 27.
With the help of local authorities, in 2006, Xam left Hau Giang to study at HCM City Vocational Centre for People with Disabilities and Orphans in Hoc Mon District’s Xuan Thoi Thuong Commune.
“When Xam first arrived at the centre, I felt very sorry for her, seeing the condition of her hands and foot,” recalled Dinh Thi Hoi, director of the vocational centre.
“Despite many years of experience in counselling disabled students, I could not afford to give a short education to a student like Xam.
“But when looking at her profile and study results from high school, I knew this was a girl with extraordinary strength," Hoi said.
Seeing her passion and great potential in her studies, the centre sent her to study at HCM City Open University.
“When I wore my graduation robe, moving in my wheelchair to get my diploma, my emotions are so hard to describe because I never thought I’d achieve this in my life,” she said of her Graduation Day in 2013.
Returning to the vocational centre, Xam started her job of managing the library and guiding students with disabilities to read books.
During her free time, she learned Braille and sign language for the hearing-impaired. Noticing that many learners with disabilities at the centre, even older ones, were illiterate, Xam proposed to the centre leaders to open a free night class to teach the students.
Now, her class has an average of 20 students, who are studying in the vocational centre, with ages ranging from 15-35. The students learn how to read and calculate.
Thuy Kieu, a 20-year-old mobility-impaired student from Tay Ninh Province, said she loved to learn at Xam’s class.
“Teacher Xam is very humorous and friendly. She encourages us to learn to be literate and take vocational class to become helpful to society,” Kieu said.
Xam never saw herself as a teacher. But when Vietnamese Teacher’s Day comes around each year on Nov 20, Xam gets the credit she deserves.
“Those are the real motivations for me to continue my job here, despite the hardship and difficulties,” she said. – Viet Nam News/ Asia News Network