Now six years and five months old, Nguyen Thi Kim Ly weighs four kilos.

Ly is her family’s third child. Her siblings have developed normally.

But Ly’s life has been anything but normal.

“When I brought her out on the street, people would mistake her for a monkey,” said Ly’s grandmother, Nguyen Thi Ha, the child’s main caregiver.

Ly has symptoms similar to those suffering from primordial dwarfism, a condition made famous by Canadian Kenadie Jourdin-Bromley, born at two pounds, eight ounces and now considered the world’s smallest person. The condition affects only dozens of people around the world.

Ly still runs around with friends in her Mekong Delta province village. Like most kids at her age, she’s sometimes mischievous but always polite to adults.

“She always says thanks,” said Ha.

Ha said Ly nursed very little during her first days and moved very little.

“Many doubted she would live.”

She also said it had not been easy to raise Ly.

“I had to lull her to sleep on my palms. I whispered the songs as her tiny ears couldn’t bear loud sound. We had to grind her cooking as fine as possible.”

At age four, doctors in Ho Chi Minh City diagnosed Ly with a heart condition but refused to operate on her, saying the small body wouldn’t make it through surgery.

Ha said she never leaves Ly alone, fearful that the small child cannot handle things on her own.

Last September Ha sent Ly to nursery school but took her out after several days.

“Her classmates just wanted to pick her up and carry her around all day. It exhausted Ly,” Ha explained.

“But I want to go to school to learn how to read and count money,” said Ly.

“When I grow up, I want to be a circus performer to support grandma.”

Reported by Thanh Dung