When Duong Bang Trinh, 38, left Saigon for Cambodia 18 years ago, she worked in a café in Ho Lung, not far from the Vietnamese border.
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| Duong Bang Trinh (C, sitting) and her pupils in Cambodia |
There she spent all day cleaning, cooking, and washing to earn a living.
Sympathising with the poor, illiterate immigrants in that area, she began to teach them Vietnamese for free when they came to the café for a drink.
Due to her enthusiasm and interesting lessons, more and more poor people began to come to the shop. But her employer would have none of it.
Trinh left for the capital Phnom Penh and continued with her teaching.
She did many jobs and integrated into the Vietnamese community to understand her compatriots and what they needed to learn.
But life was hard and there were several misfortunes -- she was injured in a motorbike accident, a fire broke out and burned down everything she had including her books and a diary she had maintained faithfully.
It was the encouragement she received from Vietnamese immigrants that gave her the strength to survive the hard times.
“When I recovered, I continued teaching. I considered it as my life’s mission, and it made my life more meaningful,” she said.
She was always trying to get to more and more illiterate people to her class though she does not remember how many she has taught.
Many people sent their children to Trinh’s classes. Some merely wished their children could help them write letters to their family in Vietnam, others hoped their children would become literate and have a better life than themselves.
Some girls learnt to speak their mother tongue before leaving for home with their husband.
Duong Bang Trinh
Poor area
Trinh lives in an impoverished village called “spinach hamlet” in a suburb of Phnom Penh (Dang Kao District) along with some 40 families, all of them poor. They earn a living mainly by growing vegetables.
This year she started three classes in the district’s Lung Kon Tha, Kalot, and spinach hamlets to teach 57 poor children.
Some kind-hearted people allow her to use their houses for the purpose. The Vietnamese association has supported her with books, tables, and chairs. Trinh herself bought 10 chairs and tables with her tiny savings.
Every day Trinh teaches for a few hours in the evening. In her classes, children learn to dance and sing, mostly Vietnamese verses and folk songs that all children learn in her native country.
She teaches them about their motherland, about Uncle Ho, and Vietnamese voluntary soldiers.
For her, teaching all this helps “bittersweet feelings of nostalgia in my heart subside.”
Even on cold rainy days, the students listen dutifully to their teacher.
“I am moved during those moments. In this poor hamlet, parents do not have the time to teach their children about the outside world.”
Trinh also teaches embroidering to girl students. She asks them to talk about their dreams and embroider them on a handkerchief.
Besides lessons, she also teaches the children how to become good people, encourages them to dream of a better life, and try hard to make it come true.
When Vu Phuong, a naughty student in her class, says he will never forget her if his dream comes true, her eyes sudden fill up with tears.
After 18 years of teaching poor people, Trinh does not think of being repaid; she thinks of it as her contribution to society.
