Nguyen Thi Cam Nhung was born in 1982 and grew up in Nam Dan district in Nghe An province. The spinal cord inflammation caused her to become paralytic when she turned six years old. Since then, her life has been attached to the wheelchair. 

Nhung’s parents were soldiers in the anti-American resistance war. After being discharged from the army, they tilled rice. Despite poor financial capability, they brought Nhung to hospital to seek medical examination. However, after 10 years of treatment, they had no choice but to accept her condition.

The biggest challenge for Nhung in her childhood was learning to accept the disability and face the inquisitive looks from other people. She once got bogged down in distress.

But Nhung was still eager to go to school so she could find joy in life.

At first, her idea of going to school was not applauded, but she took every opportunity to learn and collect knowledge from many different sources.

When she was at high school, she heard about an informatics training course for the disabled and she decided to leave Nghe An for Hanoi to attend the course and pursue her dream.

She realized that she wanted to make a breakthrough and live life to the fullest. She wanted to develop herself, to continue learning to improve the knowledge she had received in school and practice social skills.

Nhung was well aware of what she would have to face when she lived away from home, but she did not give up, because she wanted to find a job to avoid becoming a burden on the family and society.

With her iron will and support from teachers and friends, she could settle down. She studied and worked to get money to cover her basic needs. She went to the training course in the daytime and made artificial flowers and paper boxes, sewed buttons and did other work to get money to fund her study.

Recycling 

After finishing school, Nhung returned to her hometown, but could not find a job. She came back to Hanoi and participated in activities for the disabled. She joined arts club, made flowers and recycled things from plastic waste.

Because of her disability, in childhood, Nhung managed to make handicrafts. Gradually, she developed the habit of reusing and recycling old, outdated clothes into useful items.

The work helped her save money, and also brought her joy.

In Hanoi, Nhung had the opportunity to join the Disabled Women's Club and the Crochet House. She and her friends carried out a project to donate old clothes. The club members recycled old clothes into useful, attractive products, which not only reduces waste and protects the environment, but also offers income and joy to the disabled.

Participating in media campaigns, she drew paintings, took pictures, wrote articles, made flowers and shot films about environmental protection. Understanding the impact of pollution on human health, she collected wool and scraps of fabric to recycle into valuable products.

However, fate still challenged her. In August 2022, Nhung was informed that she had breast cancer stage 3. In early 2023, Nhung’s mother was also diagnosed with cancer. 

When she was in hospital, she realized that many cancer patients contracted diseases because of pollution. Therefore, she decided to set up ‘Cham Sang Tao Xanh’ (Green Creative Touch), calling on people to pay attention to protect the environment and reduce plastic waste, one of the reasons behind human diseases, including cancer.

Nhung now receives treatment at the Hanoi University of Medicine. Despite her poor health, she and the members of the Ha Dong District Disabled Women's Club have helped to create a model for making handicrafts with cotton fibers, recovered wool and scraps of fabric, to create valuable recycled products with high applicability.

She hopes she can have enough money to continue receiving treatment and develop a project to make flowers from discarded things.

Hanh Nguyen