VietNamNet Bridge – Five kids gleaned cashew nuts together. One unfortunately fell into a deep canal. The others jumped down to save their friend but all of them died.



On the morning of May 12, four children of Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hoang, including Nguyen Thi Thao Vy, 11, Nguyen Thi Yen Nhi, 8, Nguyen Trung Hau, 7, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh, 3, called for two children of Mr. Pham Duc Hoa – Pham Thi Phuong Uyen, 11 and Pham Tuan Hiep, 8 – to glean cashew nuts together.

At around 10am, Anh returned home to inform their parents that other kids felt down to a canal around 800m from home.

The 3-year-old kid said that she saw Vy fell into the canal first. Other kids jumped down to the canal but all of them disappeared.

Local police officers said that perhaps one fell to the canal and the remaining tried to save her, but all of them drowned.

This canal was dug by a local man named Do Van Minh, to have soil to raise the level of his low field. The canal is nearly 3 meters deep and around 2 meters wide. The bank is easy to crumble.



On May 13, next to his children’s coffins, Mr. Hoa cried and said that his family was poor but he did not ask his children to do work hard. That day was Saturday, the kids did not go to school so they gleaned cashew to assist their parents.

“That was also the birthday of Uyen,” the father said in tears.

Ms. Le Thi Hang, headmaster of Dinh Tien Hoang Primary School, where five children studied, said that all of the kids studied well. Hiep was very good at math and computer. He was selected as the school’s representative at online math competition of Dong Nai province.

According to local authorities, both families are poor. Local government and Mr. Minh, who dug the canal, visited the two families and gave them financial support.

Mai Linh