Mrs. Chinh is old and raising 3 orphaned grandchildren with her sick husband.

In Dong hamlet, Song Dong village, when mentioning the family of Mr. Pham Khac Khi (born in 1956) and Mrs. Pham Thi Chinh (born in 1955), many people sympathize with their situation. Mrs. Chinh, her husband and their children live in a cramped, old house, built in 1988, now in disrepair. When we visited, Mrs. Chinh was helping her husband breathe oxygen.

Ms. Chinh said: "My husband has had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for a long time. He has to use oxygen several times a day. In mid-2024, he went to the Hai Duong Provincial General Hospital for emergency treatment and the doctors prescribed surgery, which cost more than 10 million VND. Currently, my husband's medicine alone costs about 2 million VND per month."

Mr. Khi was sick, did not receive regular nutrition, and ate poorly, so his health became increasingly weaker. He just stayed around the house and could not help his wife with anything. He was constantly sick, so Mrs. Chinh had to always be by her husband's side to take care of him and help with his personal hygiene.

When talking about her three grandchildren, Mrs. Chinh tearfully said that before, her son worked as a motorbike repairman, although he was not well off, he still had enough money to support his children's education. But more than a year ago, the terrible disease of pancreatic cancer took her son away. Since then, she has had to bear the financial burden, educate her three grandchildren and take care of her sick husband. Her daughter-in-law has disappeared.

Her three grandchildren include: Pham Thi Thanh Huyen (grade 11 at Ha Dong High School), Pham Khac Minh (grade 4) and Pham Khac Hoang (grade 2), all at Tan An Primary School.

Despite her old age and many illnesses, so that her grandchildren have rice to eat and meals with meat and fish, Mrs. Chinh works hard to grow vegetables to sell. Every month, she earns from 700,000 to 800,000 VND. Meals with meat can be counted on the fingers of one hand. That is why Mrs. Chinh's 3 grandchildren are weak, especially Pham Khac Minh, who is in 4th grade but weighs less than 25 kg. "The grandchildren are still young, sometimes they want to eat candy or buy toys but I don't dare to buy them because I have to save up to buy medicine for my grandfather and send them to school," Mrs. Chinh said.

Mrs. Chinh herself is often sick.

Ms. Pham Thi Nhuan, President of the Women's Union of Tan An Commune, said: "Mrs. Chinh is a member of the women's union in difficult circumstances. Her husband and wife are old and sick, and now they can only rely on their two daughters who are married in the commune. One of them is also disabled and from a poor household. The other daughter's family is also in difficult circumstances."

Because the family is a poor household in the commune, the children are exempted from or have their tuition fees reduced according to regulations. On holidays and Tet, the local authorities and departments and organizations visit, give gifts to encourage and support the family. The commune Women's Union has connected with an individual to support Ms. Chinh's two children with 500,000 VND/month.

Mrs. Chinh worriedly said: "My husband and I are both old, weak, and sick. We don't know how long we can last, so we are very worried about the future of our three children."

All support please send to Ms. Pham Thi Chinh, Dong hamlet, Song Dong village, Tan An commune (Thanh Ha district, Hai Duong province), phone number: 0368 698 818 or Ms. Pham Thi Nhuan, Chairwoman of Tan An commune Women's Union, account number: 46310000048688, Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), phone number: 0965 780 339.