As the Orange Walk passed through our province, we visit the Nguyen Thach family. Quyen and Van, lay seemingly unaware on a straw mat on the floor. Occasionally you feel like you have made a connection and are seeing and being seen by someone behind those eyes, but normally their eyes are half rolled up into their heads and quivering uncontrollably. They are tiny and warm to hold, like sleepy, droopy babies, but they are 6 and 4 years old. Their withered limbs attest to their lack of mobility and their necks are bent backward like unsupported infants. The girls have trouble sleeping at night. Each parent holds one, the dad in the bed and the mom in a hammock, keeping them warm and physically trying to close their eyelids with their hands.
There is a picture of Quyen, the older girl, at age one month, seemingly a normal, healthy infant, but there are no pictures of Van. The parents explained that when Quyen’s health declined, friends and relatives told them it was because they had taken photographs of the infant too early. So out of fear of damaging their second child, they avoided taking any pictures. Their learning that they had not caused Quyen’s problems was, to say the least, hollow comfort when Van showed signs of the same problems.
Their mother, Pham Thi Suong (34), works mornings in the market, buying produce from neighbors and selling it at whatever small profit she can achieve. The father, Thach (37), stays home all day with the two girls. The family lives on the 60 cents to $1 dollar a day that the mom brings home from the market and a stipend of $13.50 per month from the government. Both grandfathers were in the war (on the ARVN or Southern side, not that it matters). Whether the Agent Orange entered the family through that route or through direct exposure to residual dioxin from the many sprayings in the province cannot be known. In spite of the significant importance of an heir in Vietnamese culture, Thach and Suong are afraid to have another child for obvious reasons.
Their house is adequate and clean, but could use a coat of paint to brighten it up. They have draped a colorful cloth across the ceiling, whether for the benefit of the girls who stare up at all day long or for general aesthetic considerations. It is located right on route 1A, the national highway, directly across from a beautiful bay. There is no running water because of solid rock beneath the property, a problem shared with all of the neighbors on the west side of the highway. The family pays about $3.50 twice a month to have a big pot filled with water. They conserve it carefully to make it last two weeks. In the rainy season they collect water from the roof and from a stream coming off the nearby mountain.
The mom and dad, although they seem to take excellent care of the girls, appear depressed and beaten down, especially the dad, who has no job or gainful outside life. We didn’t have enough time for an adequate screening, but Orangehelpers plans to visit this family again soon, to evaluate how we might assist them in a sustainable way to improve the lot of the entire family. Preliminary thoughts include:
· Seeing if there is a way to improve the mom’s existing income from the market. Before she was married, the mom had a job in a family business in the next town. It is a rice milling business and she would buy rice and resell it to various businesses and households. Their dream, if they had a few hundred dollars, would be for her to invest in that enterprise and take on that job again. It would have the potential to increase their daily income several fold.
· We thought about helping the dad find some gainful employment, but it was explained that he is really attuned to the girls and their needs and the mom is much more effective outside the home.
· Finding a solution to the water problem. This might be no small matter, but might also help a number of neighboring families, too.
We would welcome any ideas or contributions to assist this family. If you are interested please contact us or visit our website www.orangehelpers.org.
More pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/orangehelpers/sets/72157617778975950/
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