Below is an interview with Nhanh, a 17 year old boy participating in our vocational training program in Vietnam.

Describe your life in the countryside.  Can you think of a specific memory when circumstances were particularly hard in the countryside? 

My name is Ly Nhanh. I am 17 years old, and I am from Tap Phuoc, Dai Chanh, Dai Loc, Quang Nam province. I have three sisters and one brother, and I’m the youngest brother. My older brother is 22 and he stopped school when he was in the 9^th grade. Now he has unstable work. My sister is 20 years old; she also stopped school when she was in the 9^th grade. Because my family was very poor, my brother and my sister could not go school. Now my sister is washing dishes at a restaurant in Da Nang city, and my mother is a farmer. Her health is very bad, so she can’t work very much.  I stopped school in the 10^th grade because I had throat cancer. My worst memory in my life was when I was 13 years old and my father died of throat cancer. My family used almost all the money we had saved to treat my father. It made our circumstances difficult and very poor Continue Reading »