The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
Written by Mai Anh D.
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
Once upon a time, in a far far away country, in a
peaceful farmhouse, and not far of under some great
burdock leaves, sat a duck waiting for her eggs to
hatch.
At last one shell broke and then
another, and a living creature
came out of each crying “Peep,
peep”. Duck mother happily
welcomed them to the world.
But there was the largest egg
not hatched.
Duck mother decided to sit on it a
little longer. At last the largest egg
cracked and out came the young
one. It was very big and very ugly.
It had a pale color and looked so
different from other ducklings.
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
hose children are strange from other
children .
Just like the “ugly duckling”,
they was born with that difference.
Just like the “ugly duckling” cannot choose its color,
They have no choice to decide their fate
And, just like any “duckling”, they need love, care
and protection.
Hardly you realize the fact that they are HIV-
positive children.
T
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
There are 20 HIV children in Mai Hoa Nursing
House. The oldest is 15 and the youngest is 2 years
old. Some have lived there for a long time since
they were just a baby. Some have just come.
Some still remembered the very first day they
came to Mai Hoa, and why they lived here. But,
most of children don’t know how they lived in this
place, they just know that they have been brouhgt
up here since a very very long time ago.
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
And as day by day went on, the
ugly duckling was driven about
by everyone because he was so
ugly, and even his brothers and
sisters said they was sorry he had
even been born. “Stay away from
him!”, other ducklings said, “He
is so ugly, he could not belong to
our family”.
Even others: the old chicken,
talkative turkeys, selfish cows
and dogs felt annoyed that
he was ugly. They tried to
keep their children away
from the ugly duckling .
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
oday, we have chance to visit Mai Hoa
Nursing House. From Saigon, it takes us
about 2 hours travelling by bus . Arriving at 2 PM,
really hot and exhausted, we find something to
drink.
Enjoying cold and fresh Coke together, we ask
the man come here with us: “How far is it from
here to Mai Hoa?”. “About 1 km. We can walk”, he
said confidently as he has come Mai Hoa many
times before and understand this special nursing
house so well. “How is the kids?”, someone wonders.
“Wonderful! They are very cute!”, he smiles. “Do
they go to school? Can they read and write?”,
T
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
taking a sip of coke
we ask. “Of course,
some volunteers come
and tutor them!”, he
pauses a little and
continues , “you
know that…They
can’t go to schools for
normal children”.
With a sad
expression , he tells us: “They have spent most of
their childhood and they nearly never go
outside…”.
“Is it safe to us when we
play with them?”, a girl
worries. Some others seems
quite stressful, they are a bit
scary. “What happen if some
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
accidents occur when we play with them?”, a boy
confused.
Yes, even some of us -
who volunteer to visit
this nursing house, who
have studied very well
about HIV, who have
read from many sources
that HIV can’t pass from
one person to others easily as flu – still worry when
interact with HIV children. But, it is reasonable.
To most of us, this is the first time we meet HIV
children. We just read information in book or
internet, or someone told us before.
The matter is that even us who have a very
good knowledge about HIV feel a little scary when
interacting with them. So, what about other
people? What about the attitude of them to HIV
children? We always say that we should help them
HIV can’t spread easily as flu
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
and treat them as any normal children. However,
we can’t deny that there is still a space between
our community and them. And, it is not easy to
erase that gap.
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
One day, Duck mother took her
ducklings to the pond and taught
them swimming. The ducklings
were taken down to the water,
and one by one the young ones
jumped in after Duck mother and
swam about quite easily.
They looked back and realized that the ugly
duckling had not jumped down the water
yet. “Haha…Look! He’s so ugly to swim!”
“Be brave, duckling!”, Duck mother
said. Being encouraged, the ugly
duckling jumped. The water
supported him. Soon, he felt
comfortable and waved his legs. The
ugly duckling was swimming. Duck
mother smiled proudly: “Maybe
you’re ugly but you’re very brave. You
can do anything”
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
Finally, we place our first steps over the big
gate of Mai Hoa Nursing House.
The hot sun makes everything
melt, but inside Mai Hoa
garden, it is cool and
comfortable as there is a shadow
of very big trees. The atmosphere
is so peaceful and fresh.
As very familiar
background in fairy tales,
behind the trees, many
colorful and beautiful houses
appears. That’s where our angels living.
Welcome us is the cheerful
sound of many children. The
angels wave hands and smile
at us.
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
In this lovely Sunday, we will have wonderful
time with four wonderful children: Chau, Thanh,
Danh and Tai.
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
Sitting in a round at a comfortable corner of
their daily classroom, we ask them: “Do you know
the tales about the ugly duckling?”. They shake
their head. “Do you want to listen to this story?”.
They nod.
We bring out the draper puppets
we have prepared. Children are
very excited, they are attracted by
the tiny duckling puppets.
“Will you take part in our
performance today?”, we
ask. “Yes, of course”, Chau
answers cheerfully while
Thanh laughs happily.
Danh smiles but he is too
shy to say anything. Tai
doesn’t ever smile and
doesn’t say anything too.
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
Chau vonlunteers to be the teller. She is very
confident cause she is very good at reading classes
and can read the script we prepared excellent.
Danh and Thanh look forward to be the lovely
yellow ducklings. Finally, we turn to Tai: “Ok. Tai.
Can you play the role of the ugly duckling?”
And, we start the story about “the ugly
duckling”, but it isn’t the orginal version of
Andersen. The story about “the ugly duckling”
today is retold by us,
with different details
and different ending.
The ugly duckling is not
lonely in his adventure
anymore. There are
many others support
him. At the end, the ugly
duckling doesn’t become
the swan. But, he doesn’t have to become a swan to
be loved. Still be the ugly duckling, he defines
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
himself by never giving up, always trying his best
and others begin loving the ugly duckling
because of his beautiful personalities. About the
dream of being a swan, it is still a question of
future. Who knows the ugly duckling can become
the swan or not?? Just believe, everything can
come true.
Chau reads the script
very well. Her voice is really
emotional and clearly.
Danh and Thanh play the
role of duckling excellent.
They say: “Peep…peep” as
lovely ducklings and move
the puppets in their tiny
fingers.
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
The most surprise is that the ugly duckling of
Tai is perfect. His voice is low and silent but
perfectly matches with the ugly duckling. At first,
we must help him at some lines. After that, he does
great! Together, we have a wonderful
performance.
The children are very happy that our
performance is successful. And, the moment we
give each other a high-five to congratulate is
unforgettable. Just simply fanstastic. We and the
children are a perfect team!
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
Now, the children are able to tell the story
about the ugly duckling. We
give the puppets for them.
Chau promises that she,
together Thanh, Danh and
Tai, will practice and
organize the play
themselves. They will have their own wonderful
performances for other children at Mai Hoa. So
that, every children here will hear the story about
the brave ugly duckling.
Through the story, we told the children:
“Always believe and try your best. No matters who
you are, the happy ending always exist for you”.
And now, also through the same story, but
different perfomers, the children will told that to
other children.
After that, we
come outside the
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
garden. The children want
to draw. We’ve bought some
color pencils for children,
so we give to Chau. She
thanks us and run inside
and put our gifts into a
small wardrobe. She says: “I place here so other
brothers and sisters can share together”. That
makes us think about love. The love among those
small children is so touching.
Thanh draws a lovely duck in the white paper
and shows us: “The ugly duckling”. She smiles
sweetly. Danh and Tai also love drawing. After
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
finishing their wonderful work, they turn to play
with colorful clay.
Children have played and
shared with us about their
lives, their daily schedule. Every
day they do so many useful
things: sweeping the yard,
cleaning the floor… They told
us about their classes and
meals…It seems that they are
having a
happy time together. They also
sang “ Vọng cổ teen” – a very famous teen song at
this time. They might be brought up carefully and
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
have chances to learn many things like: singing
(they know many kids songs, also Christmas and
new year songs) and dancing (they have teacher
teach them how to dance and they’ve been to
many places to perform ). They sing some songs for
us. The last person to come and sing is Tai. He’s so
quiet that we even thought that he wouldn’t sing
for us as other. However, he stands up and sing
The butterflies song.
So grateful that those children have a peace
place to grow up, to learn, to live , to love and be
loved.
Before going there, many people told us that
HIV children are full of sadness, they are aware of
their fate and close to other people. We usually
read so many sad stories about them. So today, we
want to show you a new side of their life: a
brighter and more positive side. Those angels are
totally cheerful and carefree. They’re so brave that
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
in spite of their fate, they can do many things and
do very well.
They may consider this
life as a toy, and they play
with it in their own way,
which make them feel
comfortable and have a
better look about this life.
We think so, and i believe it!
They make me a little bit ashamed. We were
sometimes depressed and had negative thinking,
complained about our situation while we are far
lucky than a lot of people. They make me think
about happiness. Happiness is just simple that
when we’re satisfied with our life, we’re happy.
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
One day, the ugly duckling
stood beside the pond. Suddenly,
he realized his reflection on the
water surface.
In front of him, it was the image
of the duckling which looked
totally different from other
brothers and sister. It had a
long, slender neck and ugly
white color. Now, the ugly
duckling knew why everyone
stayed away from him. He felt so
upset and started crying.
However, duck mother came and stand by him: “May
be you’re ugly but you’re a good duckling…”
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
One of our missions is asking them about HIV.
However, when playing with them, we nearly
forget that they’re HIV children so we also forget
that mission. With us, they’re not HIV children.
They’re just simply children: lovely and carefree.
And, you know that: “Nobody ask a normal kid
about HIV”
Even if we remember, when looking into these
innocent eyes, we aren’t brave enough to ask them
about HIV. Fortunately, other groups share with
us some stories about the children that we reveal
that the HIV Children’s world is not only pink!
There is a boy, name Nghia. He is very
thoughtful and mature at his age of 9. He’s aware
of HIV and his positive status. He knows 3 ways HIV
spread and understands deeply how to protect
himself and other people around.
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
Some children tell their past, about the day
their parents left them. They are carefree and
innocent but they still remember and understand
their fate.
About our Tai, he
doesn’t say anything to
us about his sorrow.
However, we can feel
something like sadness
in his eyes. As we say
before, he’s quiet and
never smiles. His face was
like that he nearly shed tears.
When we ask Chau :“What’s wrong with him?”.
She said that: “He’s sad though he’d come here for
a long time”. We don’t want to ask more as we
know the reason why. What is the feeling this a
little boy have to bear? He reminds me of sorrow in
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
this life. Life is colorful and it has dark color also.
It needs bravery to get out of the dark, throw away
the sorrow to live with all our energy. Hope
someday he will become a little sunshine just in
his world and to some other people.
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
The ugly duckling looked further
and saw a couple of swan
swimming. He turned to Duck
mother and asked: “Mom. Who
are they? They’re so beautiful!”
“They’re swans”, Duck mother told
tenderly, ”They’re the most
beautiful in the world”.
“I want to become a swan
someday”, the ugly duckling said.
But, after a pause, he confused:
“But, I’m so ugly. I will never
become a beautiful swan!”.
Duck mother smiled: “Nothing is
impossible, duckling!”
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
“What is your dream?”, we ask
our angels. Chau says cheerfully: “I
want to become CEO”. “And you?”, we
turn to Danh. “I want to become a
pilot”.
So lovely! As any other children,
they have their own dreams. Just
like the dream of the ugly ducklings.
Another group also asks
their boy the same question.
This boy says that he want
to become an engineer,
however he knows it’s hard.
When we hear this story, we
feel really upset for him.
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
Nothing is impossible. Someday the ugly
duckling will become a swan.
Because in the original story
of Andersen, actually the
largest egg in the duck’s nest
is a swan eggs and the ugly
duckling has been a swan
since he was born. Others
didn’t realize that and the ugly duckling needed
time to grow up to become a beautiful swan. We
believe that in the future we will have a CEO, a
pilot and an engineer from Mai Hoa.
Do you believe?
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
Day after day, the ugly duckling is still the ugly duckling.
However, everyone started to love him because he was nice,
hard-working and never gave up
The ugly duckling
didn’t have to become a
beautiful swan to be
beloved. His warm-heart
was much more
beautiful than
anything in the world,
and much more
important than a good
looking appearance.
The ugly duckling had a happy and meaningful life with
his Duck Mother and other brothers, sisters. Nobody knew
if his dream of being a swan became true or not. It’s the
question of future. As long as the ugly duckling believe,
his dream is possible.
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
Time runs so fast and we have to come back
home. We feel a half happy because today we have
a good time with the children, however a half
unsatisfied. We feel that we haven’t done enough
for these wonderful children and we want to do
more.
The children follow us until we reach the big
gate. “Say goodbye, angels”,
we say. Chau smiles when
waving the duckling puppets:
“I will give other children a
wonderful performance…”,
then she calls our names
again, as to say that she will
never forget us.
Thanh and Danh are attracted by many new
toys but they waves at us. Suddenly, we saw Tai
stand silently. “Tai!”, we waved him, “Do you want
to take a picture?”. And, that quiet boy come to us
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children
and smiles - The first time he smiles at us. The
most beautiful smile in the world!
“Now, do you feel scary any more?”, the men
ask the girls and boys who were afraid of at the
beginning. “Not at all”, they say firmly, ”the kids
are so cute and lovely”. “Yes”, someone agrees, “I’ll
come back there next vacation”.
That’s right. The ugly ducklings don’t have to
change their appearance or anything belongs to
them. Just the way they are, people will have to
love them.
The ugly duckling – Or the story about HIV children