Despite his unlucky family background and disability, teacher Truong Tan Dung inspires those around him, especially disabled children, with his hard-work and great dedication.

Teacher Truong Tan Dung instructing a student to correctly colour the picture. Photo: baodanang.vn

Don't surrender to fate

Truong Tan Dung, 41, hailing from Quang Nam Province’s Dai Loc District is currently a teacher at the Care Centre for Victims of Agent Orange and Unfortunate Children in Da Nang’s Thanh Khe District.

At the centre, he is not only the teacher of a class with serious cases of the facility, but he is also in charge of maintaining and managing its equipment and computers.

At the age of three, Dung suffered from polio causing paralysis in his lower body and sensory paralysis in an arm.

The misfortune of his childhood continued as his mother soon passed away and his father left when he was 10, so the disabled boy grew up with his grandmother.

However, due to difficult life, Dung’s grandmother could only afford to send his two healthy younger siblings to school.

“This was my most difficult time. At the age of 10, I was still too young to imagine the difficulties and challenges I would face. However, I never thought I would surrender to fate. I always try my best to live well every day and look forward to positive things in the future", Dung recalled.

Dung believed that when hands and feet cannot work, only knowledge can help make life less difficult. Therefore, he never gave up the opportunity to learn.

Luckily, local official knew his difficult family circumstance story and encouraged him to participate in a literacy campaign for the community.

After graduating high school, he worked many jobs to earn money to pursue his passion for informatics such as selling lottery tickets or souvenirs at tourist attractions and museums instead of sitting in a university entrance exam.

Having saved a small amount of money, he signed up for a basic informatics course at a centre in Da Nang.

After finishing the course, he continued to spend the remaining money on buying an old computer for home to learn basic computer design and programming knowledge.

In 2008, the page of his life was turned to a fresh chapter when a leader of the Care Centre for Victims of Agent Orange and Unfortunate Children learned about his strong-willed story and recruited him to work at the centre as a computer technician.

Besides computer science, he also teaches drawing and singing to children infected with Agent Orange.

Inspirational person

When visiting the centre on Nguyen Van Hue Street on the morning of the first day of the week, we can easily see Dung attentively guiding AO children how to hold the pens properly and how to correctly colour the pictures.

Despite the children’s abnormal mental conditions, Dung still patiently and meticulously guided until the vivid colour streaks drawn by them appeared on the white page.

For more than 15 years, every day, the crippled teacher has been diligently in a wheelchair, traveling nearly ten kilometers to inspire unfortunate children.

At the centre, each child has a different situation and story. Most of the children have problems with communication and health, and their behaviour is not yet perfect, so teaching and caring for them is very difficult.

“Most of the children have intellectual disabilities and are slow to learn, so we have to be patient. As a disabled person myself, I clearly understand the disadvantages of people in the same situation. Therefore, I always want everyone to accompany, support and help each other to rise in life. When love is shared, life becomes much better and more meaningful" Dung confided.

In spite of his hard work, Dung has no intention of giving up. He gets married and lives with his wife and children in a house on Pham Nhu Xuong Street.

In the future, he wishes to continue to be close to his unfortunate students. He wants to inspire not only his students, but all people with disabilities to get rid of an inferiority complex and confidently rise up without depending too much on their families.

Talking about Dung, Mrs. Vo Thi Thu, Deputy Director of the Centre, expressed her admiration that Dung is a special, dedicated and enthusiastic teacher. He knows how to overcome difficulties and misfortunes and share with children in the same situation. He is a shining example of "damaged but not useless" for everyone to follow.

​Reporting by THANH DANH - Translating by M.DUNG