VietNamNet Bridge – On December 27, the audience met with 1500 delegates who were honored at the 8^th in Hanoi.

Mrs. Pham Thi Huan.

At the meeting, delegates told their stories, which touched the heart of the attendants.

Mrs. Pham Thi Huan from the southwestern region recalled her thorny career. At the age of 12, Huan followed her parents to purchase duck eggs from farmers to sell at markets. At the age of 17, she became the pillar of her family by replacing her mother’s position as an egg seller.

After the country’s reunification in 1975, Mrs. Huan joined a state-owned commercial company. She collected broken eggs to sell in order to feed her younger brothers and sisters.

After a while, she opened her own company Ba Huan Co., Ltd., providing eggs to the market.

In 2003, the egg market was in trouble because of the bird flu epidemic. Many egg traders went bankrupt. Egg breeders were in hardship.

“To improve my and other egg breeders’ situation, I went abroad to see how they dealt with the epidemic. I was very lucky to find a company that supplied egg treatment equipment in the Netherlands,” Huan recalled.

But an egg processing line costs up to VND30 billion ($2 million). Mrs. Huan sold her warehouses and assets and borrowed money from relatives, friends and banks to import this equipment.

“That was a daring decision and a turning-point in my life and the lives of duck breeders. We have bought the second line and processed eggs of my company account for 50 percent of HCM City’s market,” she said proudly to the applause of attendants at the My Dinh National Convention Hall.

From the northern mountainous region, Labor Hero Nguyen Van Nhi, the leader of a construction team of the Song Da Company No. 6, devoted his life to create electricity.

Nhi’s mother died when he was 2 years old. At the age of six, he lost his father. Nhi had a hard life as  a boy. For the last 10 years, his wife – Dang Thi Tu – has had to send their two children to the maternal grandparents to follow her husband.

Tu said that as her husband was very busy at work, they often had lunch at 1-2pm and dinner at 10pm, much later than most families

She said her husband was very eager for work so he didn’t have holidays and often worked at night. Nhi tried to increase productivity and work effectiveness to raise salary for his workers. His team is always a united and effectively working group.

Lieutenant Colonel Tran Huu Luu, a Hero of the People’s Armed Forces, has spent 28 years in Laos to search for the remains of his comrades. His wife, Nguyen Thi Vien, said her two children always asked “When will Dad come home?”

The two children are infected with toxic chemicals from their father. Mrs. Vien is not very healthy but Luu always encouraged his wife: “Our family is in difficulties but many martyrs are still in Laos. They need me”.

Vien has taken care of her family alone for many years. “I’m healthy now. I can still take care of my children. But I don’t know what will happen with them when we pass away,” she said.

A short clip was screened, showing the happiness of a family in the central province of Ha Tinh when they received the remains of their family members founded by Lieutenant colonel Luu and his co-workers in Laos.

The audience asked Luu about her the most memorable event in 28 years searching for remains. Luu said that in 2000, Lao people informed his team about a place with the remains of Vietnamese soldiers. Luu and his team had to walk for three days. Immediately after finding the remains, a fire broke in the forest, surrounding the team.

“I discovered a bomb crater containing water. I told the whole team to hold the remains and jump into the crater to not be burnt. That is the memory that I will never forget!”

PV