The world of Tzu Chi March-April 2022 (Vol.140)

2022 • 04 40 By Kan Sou Fong Translated by Lee Hui Yieng ouching Life Story You Will Never Walk Alone Ngo Thi My Tai, a Vietnamese, lost her Malaysian husband to cancer in 2011, and was thrust onto a tumultuous journey where she found herself alone with her two children in a foreign land. Beginning a new chapter would have been immensely scary and challenging had it not been for the comforting presence and support of Tzu Chi volunteers. T wo weeks after her husband’s demise, Ngo Thi My Tai returned to her home in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, along with her daughter and son, aged four and two, respectively. Then a month later, they returned to her late husband’s hometown in Titi, a small township in the Jelebu district of Negeri Sembilan, after considering better options for her children’s education and herself. The local church offered her a job as a kitchen helper, and her children free education, at the kindergarten. However, with her meagre income, she had struggled to fend for her family. In July 2012, the village head shared My Tai’s plight with Tzu Chi. After a preliminary home visit and assessment, Tzu Volunteer Siew Nyuk Man accompanied Kiew Pei Shi to Hospital Kuala Lumpur for a knee tumour biopsy. [Photo courtesy of Siew Nyuk Man]