The provincial People’s Committee awarded My Duy Thanh a certificate of merit

Mr Le Mai Thanh – Deputy Head of Department of Internal Affairs and Head of emulation, commendation and reward handed My Duy Thanh’s certificate of merit over to his family

    My Duy Thanh is the second oldest child of a poor farming family in Ngoc Dinh commune of Dinh Quan district. His home is approximately one and a half kilometer from Cay Si waterfall. At noon on February 22, 2009 – a bunch of his classmates went to Cay Si waterfall and asked him to go with. Cay Si is a branch of Ba Gioi waterfall in Dong Nai river, which is about 30 meters long, rocky and has a strong flow of water. While they were playing, one of his classmates – Nguyen Lam Tuan Kiet unluckily slipped over and fell into the waterfall. After hearing everybody scream for help, My Duy Thanh didn’t fear danger and was courageous enough to take the plunge into the violent waterfall to help his classmate. Living near it and knowing how dangerous it is, Thanh used his body as a shield to protect his classmate from the impact of the water in the hope of rescuing him. After a while fighting with the fall for life, Kiet told Thanh to let go of him and swim to the bank or both of them would be in danger. Then, though he got injured and exhausted, he kept trying to hold Kiet because Kiet couldn’t swim. He attempted to find how to help his classmate. When he was dragging Kiet over to somewhere near the bank, a spinning current of water suddenly came and separated Kiet from him. That afternoon, all of Thanh’s classmates couldn’t forget seeing him being washed away while keeping crying for someone’s helping Kiet. A fisherman nearby heard his cries, ran there and saved Kiet whereas Thanh had disappeared. His remain was not able to find until the following day.

Mr Le Minh Hoang – Head of Department of Education and Training and Mr Le Mai Thanh burned incense for Thanh in his home

    My Duy Thanh’s passing away is a great loss for his family, friends and teachers at Dinh Quan semi-public high school. In his teachers' eyes, he is a studious student, an active member of the Youth Union and an example that has overcome difficulties in study. In his friends’ eyes, he is an easy-going, jovial and sociable friend who has treated friends with all his heart. In his family’s eyes, he is a child with piety, a responsible younger brother and an exemplary brother who has loved his younger sister so much. His neighbor can’t forget seeing a poor student riding an old bike the tires of which were worn out over 20 kilometers to school every day and taking his mother to hospital and his sister to school. He has gone but his dreams haven’t come true. “My father is always sick. My mother has a bad heart problem. Although my family is very poor, I will try to go to school and then go to work so that I will be able to earn money to help my mother have a heart surgery and my father get medical treatment” once said he.

    Making a speech at the ceremony to award Thanh a certificate of merit, Mr Le Minh Hoang – Head of Department of Education and Training said that his passing away left us silence and his act of bravery to save his classmate’s life but not to think of his was a good example for each student who was going to school and reminded that it was also a lesson for all students to pay attention to preventing accidents and limiting tragic consequences to protect themselves and even people around.

(Reported by N. Le, Translated by Duy Minh)