Waste scrap collectors provide help to orphans

09:08' 15/06/2007 (GMT+7)

Waste-scrap collectors are queuing to register as fund members on June 6. VietNamNet Bridge - Those who have the chance to drop by the Que Huong Charity Center will see many waste-scrap collectors holding infants in their arms or loading up charitable wares for the center. The waste-scrap collectors, most of who are young women aged between 23 and 30, looked like mothers to the children they were nursing in their arms at the Que Huong (Motherland) Charity Center in Tan Phu district on the morning of Saturday June 6. Huynh Tieu Huong, founder of the center, said almost 1,000 had registered as members of the recently set up fund “Waste Scrap Mothers” to support hundreds of orphans, raised at Ho Chi Minh City-based Que Huong Charity Center, from their meager earnings. On Saturday, the scrap collectors parked their bicycles, a popular means of transportation amongst the women, in front of the orphanage and queued up to register as fund members. Waste scrap collectors, among the lowest income earners in society, pick up any leftovers they can sell – nylon bags, bottles, papers etc. The majority comes from poor families in the distant countryside regions such as the central province of Quang Ngai or the northern provinces of Bac Ninh, Vinh Phuc and Bac Giang, coming to Ho Chi Minh City to become waste-scrap collectors to make money to support their families. Nguyen Thi Man, one of the fund’s founders, said that the idea of setting up the fund had come when she came to the center daily to buy scrap and was distressed by the plight of the hundreds of children living there without a mother’s love. Some collectors have to leave their children at home in order to earn a living and love the orphans like one of their own. Ms. Nguyen Thi Tue, 50, the oldest in the group, said that although they did not have much money, they will offer love instead. Ms. Do Thi Thu Thuy from Nghia Hanh Disctrict in Quang Ngai Province said that she would go without a drink in the morning and work harder to earn more for the fund. She would also take her youngest son, 11, to visit the center and befriend the orphans this summer so that “he will know he is still lucky to receive care from parents and relatives.” (Source: SGGP, TN)