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Girl sells her hair to start school
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VietNamNet Bridge – A poor girl in Da Nang city had to sell her four-year hair for VND500,000 ($25) to pay fees for starting high school.

Vo Nguyen Hoang Chi, 15, in An Khe Ward, Thanh Khe district, Da Nang, returned home from the first school day on September 5 with her sad face. “My friends asked me why I cut my beautiful hair,” she told her mother. They looked at each others by tearful eyes.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hue, 50, said: “My family is poor. Chi loves me so she decided to sell her hair to pay school fees to enter the 10th class of the Thanh Khe district education center. She looked normal on the day she sold her hair but she cried at night.”

Graduating from the secondary school, Chi took an exam to Nguyen Thuong Hien high school but she failed. She has to move to Thanh Khe district education center. However, she was informed to pay four months of school fees in advance.

Chi had consulted her mother before she sold her hair for VND500,000. She paid VND325,000 of school fees and spent the remaining money in buying books and studying tools for herself and her younger brother, a 5th grade student.

Chi’s mother works for a banh beo (rice cake) restaurant while her father is a xe om (motorbike taxi driver). They work very hard but they cannot escape from poverty. Chi and her brother went to school by an old bicycle. Chi took her brother to his school in the morning. The boy came back home on foot on the afternoon.

Two months ago, Chi’s father committed assets appropriation and was arrested for four months for investigation. The family is in bigger trouble.

Knowing that Chi sold her hair to pay the school fee, the local women’s association asked the ward government to recognize Chi’s family as poor so they would enjoy social welfare. However, the family does not meet criteria to be considered as a poor household. The local administration gave Chi VND500,000 to prepare for the new school year. It also asked the schools where Chi and her brother study to exempt or reduce school fees for them.

Chi said she was not sad because her hair would grow longer. “I will seek an extra job to help my mum,” she said.

Compiled by L. Ha