Becoming Close to my Daughter

September 30, 2015 • Vietnam
The Story of Pai

Through Samaritan’s Purse, I learned to listen to my blind daughter

Bui Thi Lan has a 15-year-old daughter, Linh, who attends Nguyen Dinh Chieu School for the Blind. She and Linh live with her parents in Hanoi City.

Linh was born with normal, healthy eyesight. But by 4 years old, her eyesight had grown weak and blurry. The doctor couldn’t identify the cause. Despite many financial difficulties, our family tried to get her treatment. And our efforts paid off when Linh later got her vision back for seven years.

Becoming Close to my Daughter

Lan and Linh have learned to communicate better through Samaritan’s Purse programming.

However, after that, she lost her vision again and this time could not get it back. Our family felt so much pain when seeing her in her blindness. Linh often asked, “Mom, will I be able to see again one day?” I didn’t know how to answer her, so my heart filled with sorrow.

I earn around 2 million Vietnam dong [around 100 USD] by selling vegetables, which makes it hard for me to cover all the daily expenses of my family. That’s why a scholarship from Samaritan’s Purse brought great joy to us. This is not only a gift of material value but also a considerable encouragement to us. The love and care of Samaritan’s Purse wrapped in this gift is meaningful to us.

Every month, Linh receives 300,000 VND [around 14.30 USD]. This money is used to pay for meals at school. In the months that I can manage to pay for her meals, I use the money to buy her other necessary things. I often tell my daughter that she is blessed to receive the scholarship and encourage her to study hard.

Samaritan’s Purse not only gives a scholarship to my daughter, but it also provides me with a training course on parenting skills. This course helps me improve my skills in looking after my daughter. Through some of the training sessions, I found myself needing to change to help my daughter become more confident to optimize her potentials. I try to create good conditions for her to develop holistically.

Before the training, I often imposed my ideas on my daughter. I told her to do things a certain way rather than leting her do it her own creative way. But after the training, I want to become my daughter’s companion to help her with the difficulties in life. I want to listen to her more. I want to put my feet in her shoes to understand why she has a certain behavior or attitude, so that I can sympathize with her and love her more. Many thanks to Samaritan’s Purse for helping me become closer to my daughter.

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