“I still help the poor until being exhausted”

People in Phong Nam Hamlet (Hoa Chau Commune) are familiar with the images of women villagers who are always busy with shipments of the fabric and garment accessories business owned by Ms Ngo Thi Hong.

Ms Hong’s business has been operating in Phong Nam Hamlet for nearly 15 years. After her retirement, being concerned about the fates of women living in the countryside where she was born and grew up, therefore she was bothered about the way to earn income herself and create jobs for many other local women as well.

Having knowledge of sewing, she opened a workshop to buy and select scraps and redundant but reusable fabric of garment companies o­n site and neighboring provinces for selling them to businesses making clothes, hats, face masks etc.

Travelling all central provinces to look for the businesses with reasonable prices, she continued to connect and introduce them to other buyers and producers in Quang Nam and Da Nang. At present, she got stable consumers for her goods all over the country, from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. More than 30 tons of goods such as quilted blankets, cushions, face masks, doormats etc were sold to consumers by her businesses each month.

The special thing in her sewing workshop is that her employees are women in difficulty, unemployment and families of social policies etc.

Among them, Ms o­ng Thi Nen, a deaf woman working in the workshop for more than 10 years with a salary of 3 million VND per month, which helped her to overcome the inferiority of being a family burden.

Ms Hong’s sewing workshop is a reliable address for poor women in this area. Most of them are provided with vocational trainings and jobs. Up to now, her workshop employs nearly 30 women working permanently with a stable monthly salary of 3 million VND.

Making plan for the future, Ms Hong pointed to the winter coat o­n the table and said: “After Tet Holiday, I am going to hire more workers to make coats so as to raise more income for women”.

Ms Tran Thi Ngoc Oanh, Vice President of Hoa Chau Commune People’s Council praised: “It is very kind of Ms Hong for her heart and for what she has done for women in this commune. Being a nearly 40-year-old Party member, she becomes a typical example of kindness, human and compassionate actions and works so far”.

Ms Oanh also unveiled that whenever Ms Hong got to know about someone affected by serious illness in her village, she would visit and give them some money to encourage them overcoming difficulty…

During the historical flood in October 2016, she has mobilized local people to collect tons of clothes to make 700 blankets to support victims affected by flood in Quang Binh province. She also joined in many charity works for the poor in general.

Ms Hong shared: “In my mind, I always admire Uncle Ho’s example of doing good things for the country and people. Thus, I want to make efforts and contributions to help the poor who are less lucky than me. I still help the poor until being exhausted”

With her great contributions to the society, Ms Ngo Thi Hong had honor to be awarded Certificate of merits by the Prime Minister for her achievements in following Uncle Ho’s example in the 2011 – 2015 period.

She was being also o­ne of ten outstanding individuals from Da Nang City attending in the 9^th National Patriotic Emulation Congress in Hanoi in 2015.

Ms Hong prepares food for the poor.