In Vietnam, 11-year-old boy grows, sells vegetables to support struggling family

The boy has 'started his own business' with a patch of vegetables grown behind their rented shack, hoping to ease his mother’s burden and help raise his younger sister.

Every morning, he travels about three kilometers to a location on 30/4 Street in the provincial city of Thu Dau Mot.

Sitting quietly behind three large baskets filled with neatly arranged homegrown greens such as mustard, amaranth, squash, and gourds, Duy greets passersby with a soft pitch: “Please buy some vegetables. They’re clean, we grow them ourselves.”

At 5:00 am daily, his mother Nguyen Thi De, 32, uses a flashlight to prepare for the day.

In their tiny, electricity-free shack, Duy carefully sorts and weighs the vegetables.

He sells part of the harvest while his mother takes the rest to a local market five kilometers away.

Duy handles everything on his own, from setting up the display, talking to customers to counting change.

On sunny days, he finds shade under a power pole.

On rainy mornings, he still shows up, sitting patiently with his baskets.

When his mother has to go farther to sell vegetables, he brings his little sister along, feeding her and keeping her close while selling.

“He takes care of the garden too,” said his mother. 

“He knows how to plant, water, and harvest all on his own. 

"I used to work as a laborer, but it was too hard. 

"So I rented a plot of land to grow vegetables. 

"Duy came along and learned everything. Now, when I’m busy, he can manage on his own.”

Duy’s education was cut short after grade five.

“I saw how hard it was for mom, so I decided to stop going to school,” he said simply.

His mother expressed her deep regrets about that decision, saying, “I wanted him to study. But things haven’t been easy.”

“He saw all of this and gave up school too.”

The mother previously left her hometown at a young age to find work in Binh Duong, where she raised Duy alone after a brief and broken relationship.

Despite the hardship, she tries to keep Duy connected to learning.

Every evening, under the glow of a solar lamp, she sits with Duy, helping him read and do math.

“I didn’t get much schooling myself, so I can’t teach him much. But next school year, I plan to send him to a charity class nearby. We’ll try our best.”

Having grown up without his father, Duy as a baby slept on his mother’s back while she sold vegetables to get by.

Life has not changed much since.

When Duy turned three, his mother remarried, but the family continues to rely on selling vegetables.

They live in a makeshift home on rented land, without access to clean water or electricity.

Kind neighbors let them use more land for farming.

Despite his small frame, Duy knows how to till soil, scatter seeds, build trellises, and water crops.

“I want to have more land someday to grow more vegetables and sell at a proper stall, not on the sidewalk,” Duy said of his dream.

Locals who know Duy often avoid bargaining, touched by the sight of a young boy spoon-feeding his sister while minding the vegetable stall.

The family earns just VND100,000-200,000 (US$4-8) per day from selling vegetables, forcing them to tighten their belts, De said.

Tran Van Ty, a kind neighbor who rents the family the land, has been touched by their resilience. 

"The land’s not good for long-term crops, so I let them use it at a cheap rate. They take care of it well,” he said.

Ty recently helped De find a free community class about 10 kilometers away.

When the new term starts, he plans to take Duy there, giving the boy a chance to return to learning.