A fatherless Vietnamese girl has been hopping to school for the last nine years, despite nearly losing her entire right leg in a fire accident.

That courageous student is Ho Thi Dom, who is now in the ninth grade at Phuoc Thanh Combined Primary and Secondary School in Phuoc Son District, located in the central province of Quang Nam.

At dawn, Phuoc Son’s mountains and forests are covered with a thick, white floating fog.

The “2 in 1” Phuoc Thanh School is nestled on a hill hiding behind pure green forests.

In this faraway school, the name Ho Thi Dom is both familiar and extraordinary to teachers and students.

According to Ho Thi Kien, who has been Dom’s homeroom teacher since her first class, the girl has been hopping to school on her left leg every day, passing immense forests and tortuously high hills at the same speed as normal students.

Every day at exactly 6:45 am, the drumbeat marks the start of a 15-minute period. While other students are scurrying toward the steps in front of the school gate, Dom quickly hops to the classroom.

For many years, Dom has been the first person to show up in class.

Loosening the backpack straps on her dirty shoulders, Dom cheerfully says: “I have to tighten up my backpack straps so as not to drop it when moving, because my body is usually unbalanced on the hill slopes.”

“My house is 4km from school, but ¾ of the route are hill slopes,” she said.

“That’s why I have to get up early and hop quickly to school in order not to be late.”

So during the last nine years, she has hopped through forests in the pursuit of knowledge.

Her fortitude is engraved in the minds of teachers and students in Phuoc Thanh School.

Everyone admires her spirit for studying and she has set a “record” of never being late or absent.

“She is always in the top three and among the best students at school,” teacher Kien proudly said of the “role model” of her class.

“No matter how far and craggy the route is, rain or shine, she never skips any class.”

Nourishing the dream of being a teacher

Leaving the lovely school of the diligent girl, at dusk a Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper correspondent joined Dom on her trip to her house.

Rain suddenly fell and the long dirty road up to the hill soon became muddy.

Despite the slippery road, Dom carefully hopped along.

Stopping at the hill base, Dom rolled up her pants, took the worn sandal from her left leg and tightened it around her waist. She then rapidly conquered the crooked road that has long been her way to school.

Following her for the first 100m, the Tuoi Tre reporter was then left behind. She moved so fast that he could not catch up with her.

Following the direction of people living along the hill, at nightfall Dom arrived at the tumbledown house situated unstably on a hill.

In an area of less than 20m² for studying and sleeping, Dom made a fire to cook dinner.

Picking up grass pieces from vegetables, Dom said she has to find vegetables and melons in the backyard to eat as early as 5:00 am every day, and cook on her own.

“I’m usually home alone,” she told the Tuoi Tre reporter while preparing vegetables for dinner.

Her mom works far away from home and only returns twice a month, while her dad passed away when she was only a baby.

When Dom first started hopping to school in the first grade, she would fall a lot because “[she] was not skillful enough,” she recalled.

Dom would arrive late in class with a dirty face and wet clothes, until she moved to the second grade, when she “got used to obstacles on the way to school,” and no longer found it difficult to pass.

Next to the stove, her voice choked with emotion, Dom explained how she lost nearly her entire right leg because of a fire when she was two months old.

She fell into the fire while her mother was hired for land clearing.

The older Dom gets, the more she studies in the hope of a brighter future thanks to her knowledge.

Dom is determined to study hard to enter university to fulfill her lifelong dream of being a a teacher.

“After my graduation I will bring knowledge to the poor children of my homeland,” she said.

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