Nguyen Viet Banh (Father) and Nguyen Thi Chuong (Mother)
http://www.advocacynet.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Picture-41.png
Nguyen Thi Chuong with her two daughters: Huyen Thi Chuong and Bong Thi Chuong. Both are AO victims.
2013 Profile by Peace Fellow Kelly Howell
Nguyen Thi Chuong was born in 1949. In 1971, she joined the Youth Union in Quang Trih province, near the Vietnam-Laos border. She lived on the border for one year, working in whatever capacity she was directed. Usually, this meant rice delivery and rebuilding of roads and trails. She states that she saw many dying copses of trees and vegetation. At the time, she didn’t understand what was happening.
Her husband, who she married in 1972, never fought in the war, but was in the Youth Union like herself. He worked at the border for a period of a year, and in 1976, he went to the Vietnam-Laos border to work building dams. According to his wife, he worked on four dams over a period of 8 years. She saw him one or two times a month throughout that period. He returned in 1984 due to an inexplicable illness. He suffered from itchy skin, headaches, and became partially paralyzed, but recovered over the course of a year.
They both believe that they were exposed to AO and that their children have been affected. The first child they had, born in 1973, died at the age of 2 due to severe birth defects. Their second child, a girl called Bich, was born in 1975 and suffers from deformities of the heart and spine. She can walk, but it is difficult for her to get around.
 Bong Thi Chuong, a victim of Agent Orange, tending her pigs-AEPD provided her with a small loan to start her own business. |
The third child is Bong, another daughter. Born in 1978, Bong suffers from a disease that appears to be similar to Growth Hormone Deficiency caused by a defunct Pituitary Gland. She is 35 years old, but only three and a half feet tall, and weighs little. She is normally built, but has the appearance of a child, and states that her bones are very weak. She has normal intelligence and she is highly communicative, and attended school until the 9th grade. This is when the discrimination that she faced became too much, and her mother began to keep her at home.
The fourth and fifth children were normal, but Huyen, the sixth and last child, was born with the same disease as Bong. She is 21 years of age, but appears to be much younger, at around three feet tall. Bong suffers from some developmental delays as well, and never attended school. Her mother states that she faces more challenges than Bong, and so she kept her home, teaching her to read and write herself.
When asked about the challenges she faces, Bong says that because of her disease, she has always been very shy, and stays at home most of the time. One of the things that AEPD helped her achieve was to join a self-help group and obtain peer-support. At the self-help group, she has been taking classes in economics, business management, life skills, writing skills, and climate change awareness. Bong told me that she has gained a lot of confidence working with others with disabilities and seeing how much they are achieving in their lives, as well as made some friends.
She hopes to start a small business soon, one that she can manage without the help of her parents. She says that because she has little strength, it will need to be something such as raising Ducks for eggs to sell. She is very grateful for the support that she, her sister, and her family have received from AEPD.
AEPD has helped Bong’s mother Nguyen by granting her a micro-loan, through which she began a business of raising pigs and selling them for meat. This allows her to have a job that she can manage from home, while still able to help her two daughters manage their daily lives.
One concern that Nguyen has for her children is their lack of access to medical care. The disabled children seem to get sick more often than her other, grown children. As they live in a rural area, there is but one community clinic, and as mentioned above, it is poorly staffed and serves thousands of people. Having only a bicycle for transportation, Nguyen cannot easily bring her children to the clinic. She can bring only one at a time, and the clinic is far from her home. One of her hopes is that soon there will be a way for her to bring her children to the doctor when they are ill, and at a price she can afford to pay.
This family lives in the Duy Ninh district of QuangBinh province, which is 8km square, with a population of 3, 500. The outreach worker believes that there may be as many as 62 households here that contain AO victims.
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2013 Profile by Peace Fellow Kelly Howell<\/span><\/h4>\n
\n\n
Nguyen Thi Chuong was born in 1949. In 1971, she joined the Youth Union in Quang Trih province, near the Vietnam-Laos border. She lived on the border for one year, working in whatever capacity she was directed. Usually, this meant rice delivery and rebuilding of roads and trails. She states that she saw many dying copses of trees and vegetation. At the time, she didn\u2019t understand what was happening. <\/span><\/p>\n\n
Her husband, who she married in 1972, never fought in the war, but was in the Youth Union like herself. He worked at the border for a period of a year, and in 1976, he went to the Vietnam-Laos border to work building dams. According to his wife, he worked on four dams over a period of 8 years. She saw him one or two times a month throughout that period. He returned in 1984 due to an inexplicable illness. He suffered from itchy skin, headaches, and became partially paralyzed, but recovered over the course of a year.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
They both believe that they were exposed to AO and that their children have been affected. The first child they had, born in 1973, died at the age of 2 due to severe birth defects. Their second child, a girl called Bich, was born in 1975 and suffers from deformities of the heart and spine. She can walk, but it is difficult for her to get around.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.advocacynet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Bong-Thi-Chuong.png\")
\nBong Thi Chuong, a victim of Agent Orange, tending her pigs-AEPD provided her with a small loan to start her own business.<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/td>\n\t<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n
The third child is Bong, another daughter. Born in 1978, Bong suffers from a disease that appears to be similar to Growth Hormone Deficiency caused by a defunct Pituitary Gland. She is 35 years old, but only three and a half feet tall, and weighs little. She is normally built, but has the appearance of a child, and states that her bones are very weak. She has normal intelligence and she is highly communicative, and attended school until the 9th<\/sup> grade. This is when the discrimination that she faced became too much, and her mother began to keep her at home.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
The fourth and fifth children were normal, but Huyen, the sixth and last child, was born with the same disease as Bong. She is 21 years of age, but appears to be much younger, at around three feet tall. Bong suffers from some developmental delays as well, and never attended school. Her mother states that she faces more challenges than Bong, and so she kept her home, teaching her to read and write herself. <\/span><\/p>\n\n
When asked about the challenges she faces, Bong says that because of her disease, she has always been very shy, and stays at home most of the time. One of the things that AEPD helped her achieve was to join a self-help group and obtain peer-support. At the self-help group, she has been taking classes in economics, business management, life skills, writing skills, and climate change awareness. Bong told me that she has gained a lot of confidence working with others with disabilities and seeing how much they are achieving in their lives, as well as made some friends. <\/span><\/p>\n\n
She hopes to start a small business soon, one that she can manage without the help of her parents. She says that because she has little strength, it will need to be something such as raising Ducks for eggs to sell. She is very grateful for the support that she, her sister, and her family have received from AEPD. <\/span><\/p>\n\n
AEPD has helped Bong\u2019s mother Nguyen by granting her a micro-loan, through which she began a business of raising pigs and selling them for meat. This allows her to have a job that she can manage from home, while still able to help her two daughters manage their daily lives.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
One concern that Nguyen has for her children is their lack of access to medical care. The disabled children seem to get sick more often than her other, grown children. As they live in a rural area, there is but one community clinic, and as mentioned above, it is poorly staffed and serves thousands of people. Having only a bicycle for transportation, Nguyen cannot easily bring her children to the clinic. She can bring only one at a time, and the clinic is far from her home. One of her hopes is that soon there will be a way for her to bring her children to the doctor when they are ill, and at a price she can afford to pay. <\/span><\/p>\n\n
This family lives in the Duy Ninh district of QuangBinh province, which is 8km square, with a population of 3, 500. The outreach worker believes that there may be as many as 62 households here that contain AO victims.<\/span><\/b><\/p>“,”class”:””},{“id”:”11″,”block”:”divider”}]}]}[/content-builder]
\nBong Thi Chuong, a victim of Agent Orange, tending her pigs-AEPD provided her with a small loan to start her own business.<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/td>\n\t<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n
The third child is Bong, another daughter. Born in 1978, Bong suffers from a disease that appears to be similar to Growth Hormone Deficiency caused by a defunct Pituitary Gland. She is 35 years old, but only three and a half feet tall, and weighs little. She is normally built, but has the appearance of a child, and states that her bones are very weak. She has normal intelligence and she is highly communicative, and attended school until the 9th<\/sup> grade. This is when the discrimination that she faced became too much, and her mother began to keep her at home.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
The fourth and fifth children were normal, but Huyen, the sixth and last child, was born with the same disease as Bong. She is 21 years of age, but appears to be much younger, at around three feet tall. Bong suffers from some developmental delays as well, and never attended school. Her mother states that she faces more challenges than Bong, and so she kept her home, teaching her to read and write herself. <\/span><\/p>\n\n
When asked about the challenges she faces, Bong says that because of her disease, she has always been very shy, and stays at home most of the time. One of the things that AEPD helped her achieve was to join a self-help group and obtain peer-support. At the self-help group, she has been taking classes in economics, business management, life skills, writing skills, and climate change awareness. Bong told me that she has gained a lot of confidence working with others with disabilities and seeing how much they are achieving in their lives, as well as made some friends. <\/span><\/p>\n\n
She hopes to start a small business soon, one that she can manage without the help of her parents. She says that because she has little strength, it will need to be something such as raising Ducks for eggs to sell. She is very grateful for the support that she, her sister, and her family have received from AEPD. <\/span><\/p>\n\n
AEPD has helped Bong\u2019s mother Nguyen by granting her a micro-loan, through which she began a business of raising pigs and selling them for meat. This allows her to have a job that she can manage from home, while still able to help her two daughters manage their daily lives.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
One concern that Nguyen has for her children is their lack of access to medical care. The disabled children seem to get sick more often than her other, grown children. As they live in a rural area, there is but one community clinic, and as mentioned above, it is poorly staffed and serves thousands of people. Having only a bicycle for transportation, Nguyen cannot easily bring her children to the clinic. She can bring only one at a time, and the clinic is far from her home. One of her hopes is that soon there will be a way for her to bring her children to the doctor when they are ill, and at a price she can afford to pay. <\/span><\/p>\n\n
This family lives in the Duy Ninh district of QuangBinh province, which is 8km square, with a population of 3, 500. The outreach worker believes that there may be as many as 62 households here that contain AO victims.<\/span><\/b><\/p>“,”class”:””},{“id”:”11″,”block”:”divider”}]}]}[/content-builder]