Vietnam - Children enter universities; parents join the hired worker market

Thousands of parents have left their home villages for big cities. As their children now to go to universities, they have to look for the jobs in cities to earn money to fund the children’s studies.

Only if parents work hard, can children go to school

Chu Thi Men, 36, from Hung Yen province, said she was so happy on the day when hearing that her son passed the entrance exams to the Hanoi University of Technology. She decided on that day that she would look for a temporary job in Hanoi, from which she would earn money to fund the son’s study at the prestigious school.

In the daytime, Men works as a scrap iron dealer, who goes to every corner of the city to collect scraps for reselling for profit. In the evening, she goes to the Long Bien fruit wholesale market to work as a porter. Men earns 5000-10,000 dong for carrying one pack of goods weighing 50 kilos. After the night working shift from 10 pm to 5 am, she can earn 100,000 dong.

“In my home village, I have no job to do after I finish the crop. There are five mouths to feed, and we have been relying on the rice field,” she said. “Meanwhile, the money needed for my son’s study alone is equal to the sum of money my family spends for several months. Therefore, I have to take extra job…”.

Nguyen Van Chung from Hai Duong province is the main bread earner of a family with six mouths. Chung has to arrange money to fund the study of the four children and to buy food for daily meals.

Every time when finishing the crops, Chung and some other men in the same commune leave for Hanoi to look for jobs.

Like Men, Chung also works at night as a porter at the Long Bien Market, the job that can bring 100,000-120,000 dong a day. In the daytime, Chung takes any jobs he can find.

“I have to work hard all the day, but I have no other choice. I need to work to earn money for myself and for children,” he said. “In my home village, all the parents have to go working as hired laborers, if they have children going to universities.”

The woman with an austere face seen sitting next to the Ha Dong Park, said that she is from Thanh Hoa province, and that she has to take extra jobs to earn more money to feed the two children, both are university students.

In fact, her husband has been living in Hanoi for the last two years already. He has to work to earn money to fund the study of the son, who is going to the Open University. However, her family needs more money, because the daughter has entered the Hanoi National University, and the money earned by the man is not big enough to grow both the children. Therefore, she also has to work in Hanoi.

“I hope that the income from both my husband and me can fund their study,” she said, adding that she would take any jobs she can to sure that the children can go to school. Only the university knowledge can help the children lead the better lives than hers.

Where the immigrant parents live?

Nhan Chinh ward in Thanh Xuan district has been well known as the “land of boarding houses for poor people”.

Here one can see ten of people sharing the same room with the area of 20 square meters. The boarding houses here mostly gather immigrant workers, who are scrap iron dealers, house maids, porters and vendors. They come to every corner of the city from early in the morning to late evening to earn money to fund their children’s study. They only return to the boarding houses late in the evening and have the dinners worth just 2000 dong.

Nguyen Thi Lien, 38, from Nam Dinh City, said that she has been living in the rent room for one month, since the day her daughter began going to school.

“I know that it would be very costly to fund the study at university, therefore, I have to take a job in Hanoi,” she said, adding that all the people sharing the same room with her have children going to universities or junior colleges.

Lien said that she shares the same room with men as well. Both men and women are living the same room. “We are from the same village, and we understand each other. We have to share the same room in order to save our money,” she explained.

Source: VTC/ VNN

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