Hanoi Times - E-chip magazine has singled out three computer whiz kids for their work to help disabled people in Vietnam. Du Van Nga reports.

Many Vietnamese remember the lines from a well-known story that says, "Life develops from death; happiness appears from hardship and sacrifice. There are no absolute limitations; there are o­nly boundaries, and the most important thing is to overcome them."

E-chip magazine has discovered three men who have found their way into the field of Information Technology (IT) and embody this idea, acting as knights in a modern world, devoting their lives to charity and proving that there are, in fact, no absolute limitations o­n earth.

IT Knight of 2005, Nguyen Cong Hung, is a self-taught expert in the field of IT and manages a centre in the central province of Nghe An, which trains people in informatics and foreign languages. He is also congenitally disabled with almost no capacity for motion, and must rely o­n his cousin to help him with even minor physical tasks.

IT Knight of 2006, 30-year-old Trinh Cong Thanh runs a website, manages the self-created Rong Viet Company and volunteers extensively. He also happens to be an amputee suffering from a two-year battle with bone cancer.

Born the same year as Hung, Khuc Hai Van and another 2006 IT Knight, has launched a website, co-founded the Tia Sang Information Technology Centre, volunteered widely, attended college and taught. Van has been blind since age seven.

The common thread that ties the three men together is their commitment to humanitarian action, their perseverance and the overwhelming obstacles they have surmounted to achieve such things.

Paving the way

Born to a farming family in 1982, both Hung and his younger sister suffer from incurable disabilities, despite the wholehearted efforts of their parents and medical professionals alike.

Hung’s condition forced him to leave school in the seventh grade, but through television, he began to learn about computers and decided to pursue technology further.

"Purchasing o­ne of the first computers cost the equivalent of a huge amount of property, and my parents had to sell their wedding rings and many other valuables in our house. That drove me to excel," Hung said.

Excel he did. He built the website www.conghung.com to provide information o­n the internet, entertainment, music, charity activities and informatics and to field queries relating to IT.

More notably still, he became the first handicapped manager in Viet Nam, gearing his centre toward reaching the disabled and orphans, contributing to their intellectual betterment and helping them gain employment.

Once there, those involved help research and apply progressive IT technologies, receive vocational training, supply domain-hosting and design websites.

Hung and his family also welcome handicapped and victims of agent Orange-dioxin into their home, raising and educating these children for free. He confided, "I always wanted to prove that all disabled people deserve to be treated equally. They have the right to live, learn and work like other normal people. In actuality, many of them can make a living from brain power alone, and their accomplishments are worth admiring."

Overcoming loss

Like Hung, Thanh’s challenges have not prevented him from helping create a level playing field for the disabled and to change the way the world sees them.

Thanh was not born disabled. In early 2002, after graduating from Hanoi Law University, he was diagnosed with bone cancer and began experiencing violent, painful spasms. Two weeks later, his leg was amputated.

"I lived in pain for nearly o­ne year, constantly plagued by the idea of death as I watched with my own eyes so many patients near my room in K hospital die. I had done nothing to repay my parents, to help my family or fulfill my duties, which was the main reason I feared dying," Thanh said.

"To forget the pain and disease, I concentrated o­n learning informatics and put my faith in a bright future. This helped me to leave the hospital," he continued.

In 2003, Thanh began volunteering with the Viet Nam Disability Forum and built www.nguoikhuyettat.org, to create a shared space for the ideas and emotions of the disabled.

This year, Thanh also participated in the final round of The Viet Nam Creative Day contest organized by the World Bank. The project, named Ha Noi for Everybody: Tourism without Barriers, campaigned to create handicapped ramps in tourist areas, hotels and restaurants.

"If I want to help others, I first have to help myself, and that’s the reason I submitted an application to Hi-Tek Corporation. Some years later, I decided to establish my own company providing software and designing websites and advertisements for tourism companies," he said. "I am willing to welcome any disabled person who wants to work in Rong Viet Company."

Thanh together with his wife, Miss Disabled 2005, hope to build Hai Ba Trung District’s disability association over time.

Seeing it through

Even as a child, the startling shift into blindness did not deter Van from finishing school at Nguyen Dinh Chieu. He also became an active participant in charity and social programs, joined the Young Volunteer Club organized by the Viet Nam Student newspaper and became part of the Dong Da Association of the Blind.

"Despite the difficulties I’ve had with my eyes, I participated in the entrance exam to university. At that time, if I used a typewriter, I could not keep track of what I typed. Combined with the problem of speed, this forced me to learn informatics three weeks before the exam. I considered that incredibly slow computer a priceless gift from my family," Van said.

"Unfortunately, I needed o­ne and a half marks to pass and didn’t. I decided to concentrate o­n informatics. Sometimes, I felt powerless because the software was very complicated, but those initial plodding steps passed with the help of my friend-Pham Son Ha, who received the 2005 Informatics Knight award."

Van and his friends formed their centre which has opened doors for over 60 blind learners via information technology. He and his friends also designed an informatics training syllabus for the blind using sound and converted it to an e-book with Daisy Book technology.

Not o­nly is Van sophomore at the Hanoi Social Science and Humanities University but also an IT teacher of the Tia Sang Centre.

Van has ventured to the northern provinces of Vinh Phuc and Bac Ninh and launched the website www.tiasangonline.org to help the blind.

He and his friends hope to form a job-support company for the handicapped this year.

"I hope for strong health, so I can live and help others suffering, so I will never regret what I have done."

Though by no means are they rescuing maidens in distress, e-Chip’s designated "knights" do not fall short in their lists of honorable deeds and are finding countless ways to help those in need.