Viet Nam News By Lam Ngọc HCM CITY – During the school year, Đinh Thị Cẩm Tú, 16, lives with her aunt in her family’s hometown. Every day, she sees her aunt and cousins together as a family and misses her mother, who has worked inHCM City since Tú was small. Only when summer comes can she go to the City to meet her mother during her vacation from school. But this visit is not a typical summer holiday: The teenager helps her mother search for scrap around construction sites, and keeps the money she makes from selling the scrap to pay for her school fees. “Now I want to stay here, and not return to my hometown anymore. I grow up and can support myself. If I live beside my mother, I can stand all hard work,” Tú told Thanh Niên (Young People) newspaper. Tú’s mother, Phùng Thị Nga, 47, is a construction worker in District 2. Nga said that on sunny days, she asked Tú to stay at home to rest, but Tú always refuses, saying that she wants to give her mother a hand. “Some days ago, I sold scrap for VNĐ1.2 million (US$53) and told Tú to use a little to buy new textbooks. But she said that she would buy several important books, and the remainder she would borrow from friends to save money,” said Nga. As schooling inHCM City is costly, and Tú doesn’t like living with her step-father, she must return to her hometown. “Like many other women,… [Read full story]
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