An old woman in Yen Bai Province is struggling to support three small grandchildren after their parents abandoned them.

Trieu Thi Khu

Trieu Thi Khu, 80, is living with her three grandchildren in a dilapidated house that looks like it could collapse at any time.

"My oldest grandson is in second grade. He doesn't have a father and his mother wanders around. I haven't seen her for a long time. The other kids are six and four years old. Their mother has gone to another province to find work and I haven't heard from her. Their father is a drug addict and he already left," Khu said.

Khu and her children

Khu is too old to work in the fields so she often goes to the forest to find gravel which she sells for VND10,000 per kilo. They rarely have rice and are only able to afford some tofu. Some days, when Khu can’t sell gravel, they would starve together.

Pham Quang Dung, headmaster of Sai Luong Primary School said the children often went to school without eating anything.

Their dilapidated house

Khu is determined to let her grandchildren go to school. "Without an education they would continue to face hunger and poverty," she said.