An elderly woman has run a modest mom-and-pop restaurant selling affordable meals for over half a decade and transformed part of her house into a clinic, in order to help poor people in a countryside area of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region.

Huynh Thi Lil earns a good reputation for her kindness amongst residents on an islet formed by alluvial deposits along a river in Ke Sach District of Soc Trang Province.

The 58-year-old, assisted by her son and daughter-in-law, has provided inexpensive vegetarian food of various types to poor students and laborers for more than five years.

The restaurant, at the front of her house, receives at least 80 customers daily for breakfast and lunch, and charges only VND1,000 ($0.04), which patrons are expected to pay on a voluntary basis.

Each meal is followed by free iced sugary tea.

Several students who are regular visitors to Lil’s restaurant said the cheapest meals at other eateries on the island cost at least eight times higher, while their parents only give them VND5,000 ($0.2) as daily pocket money.

Nguyen Hai Dang, a local sixth grader, said he and his classmates pedal to Lil’s house nearly every day from their school to enjoy the delicious food and drinks here.

Whenever she was free from the eatery work, Lil would talk with them and encourage them to study harder and show respect to teachers and parents, values fostered in Vietnamese culture, Dang said.

Nguyen Thi Xuan, a 70-year-old food vendor, said since Lil is unwilling to accept payments larger than the price, many patrons wishing to support the eatery financially ask it to deliver food to their home and they pay VND6,000-8,000 ($0.26-0.3) to cover travel expenses.  

Lil said she founded the eatery to ease the hardship of those living in poverty on the island, who make up nearly ten percent of the total households here.

The elderly woman also used part of the house where she lives as a clinic that offers gratis traditional medical treatment.

The facility obtained permission from local health authorities and has between five and ten visits by patients coming from far and wide every day.

The figure may reach 30 on the weekend, when doctors from hospitals usually arrive at the clinic to give medical treatment.

Lil said to offset the restaurant’s losses she has to spend VND4-5 million ($172-215) each month, most of which comes from donations by rich local households.

She needs to find more donors if the eatery has more customers, but for now the current price is enough to maintain its survival, she said.

“I’m very happy because the people here are happy,” she added.

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