10YO Boy Lives Alone & Grows Vegetables For Food After Grandma & Father Passed Away

Before we begin, allow me to pose you one simple question:

What were you doing when you were 10 years old?

Was it something productive?

Was it something fun?

Or gawd forbid, was it something akin to what children do in warring states?

Well, no matter what it was, here’s the thing;

The 10-year-old you and me might’ve been living a normal childhood like everyone else, but elsewhere in the world, there are children who aren’t afforded that luxury.

Children like this particular 10-year-old, who’s hard at work eking out a living at such a tender age.

10YO Boy Lives Alone & Grows Vegetables For Food After Grandma & Father Passes Away

Usually, children will be rather lost when they lose the only living relatives they’ve ever known. Stranded and alone, they’ll more often than not find themselves weeping their hearts out, and nobody would think it out of the ordinary.

But not this 10-year-old boy. Nope.

According to China Press, the boy’s name is Dang Van Khuyen, and he resides in a village in Vietnam with his grandmother and goes to school every day. His mother passed away when he was much younger, and his father, a construction worker, lives separately from them.

Although Dang and his grandmother did not have a lot of money, they led a simple and fulfilling life. They do, however, get support from the boy’s father who remits money back to them.

But life’s an erratic one, and things happen. The boy’s grandmother eventually passed away due to old age, and to make things worse, his father died in an accident at work not long after.

Stranded and alone, Dang Van Khuyen has been dealt the harshest blow Life has to offer. He could cry and weep alone in his room, cuddling himself as he wallows in self-pity, and nobody could blame him.

He had every right to do that.

But he didn’t.

This boy, despite his tender age, refused to give up.

Despite being forced to live and survive on his own, the boy never backed down, and continuously took care of himself, studying hard and making it a point to never miss school.

Backed into a corner, this boy refused to give in.

And Then Help Arrived

First, his school and the local government learnt about his living condition and tried to find the boy a foster family, but he did the unthinkable:

He insisted on living alone.

The body of a child, but the valiance of a man. #respect

At the same time, his school teacher took leave from work and incurred a fee of around 10 million dong (~SGD$600), in order to bring the body of the boy’s father home where he was buried in the land.

Also, the teacher posted the boy’s story on the Internet and garnered the concern of many well-meaning Netizens. Some even expressed wishes to adopt him, but the boy steadfastly refused to vacate his home.

Instead, he chose to continue living independently, going to school every single day without fail and growing his own vegetables. No matter what happened, big or small, he took it.

With the maturity of a man thrice his age.

Granted, people have concerns about his welfare and whether he’ll be able to make ends meet until 18. But to his credit…

I would say that the boy has done well. Very well.

You can watch a short video detailing the boy’s trials and tribulations here: