Some young mothers leave their babies at garbage dumps or in front of convents for Catholic nuns to raise them
Ho Thi Buoi (left) from the Pako ethnic community waits for a medical check-up with her baby at a public health center in Thua Thien Hue province on April 6. (Photo: UCA News)
Ho Thi Buoi had to cease her studies after the 15-year-old became pregnant last year. She now looks after her eight-month-old daughter, fathered by her 19-year-old husband.
Their families, belonging to the Pako ethnic community in Vietnam, arranged a quiet wedding party as both of them were minors at the time of marriage.
“Now, we are at my parents’ house and live on my husband’s salary,” the girl with long black hair and sparkling eyes said.
She hails from A Luoi district of the south-central province of Thua Thien Hue. Her husband now works as a laborer at construction sites in the southern province of Binh Duong, and sends her two million dong (US$85) per month.
“We lost opportunities to study for a better future,” she said.
Buoi said local nuns provide her daughter with milk and rice per month as she lacks adequate nourishment.
Ho Van Hua from the Pako ethnic community works at rubber plantations to support his four-member family. The 19-year-old father of two said his undernourished children are given healthcare services by Nam Dong Parish and Caritas workers in Thua Thien who also helped him repair his house.
Kan Nhu belonging to the Van Kieu ethnic group married when she was 14 years old in 2019. Both she and her husband were ninth graders from Huong Hoa district of the neighboring province of Quang Tri at the time of marriage.
Their parents offered them a calf and 50 kilograms of corn so that they could grow crops and live independently in mountainous areas.
However, her husband beat her brutally after getting drunk. He is currently in jail on charges of domestic violence.
“Now, we live with my parents and receive rice and 500,000 dong (US$21) from Catholic nuns who support my child,” said the 17-year-old mother.
She also grows bananas and raises goats for a living.
The south-central province of Thua Thien Hue and its neighboring Quang Tri province are home to over 50,000 Pako ethnic people who have been staying there for hundreds of years, according to government statistics.
Most often the community lives in the forest and remote areas, where they have little contact with outsiders and access to modern life.
In 2019, Vietnam’s 53 ethnic minority groups accounted for 15 percent of the country’s population of 96 million.
Thua Thien Hue province recorded 350 child marriages among local ethnic groups between 2017 and 2021. But by the country's law, men have to complete 20 years and women 18 to get married.
Ho Ngat, who has three of his four children married at a tender age, said child marriage is an age-old custom among the Pako ethnic people who reclaim forests to convert them into farmland.
By tradition, boys marry at the age of 15 and girls at 13. It is difficult for a girl to find a match if she crosses 15, Ngat, 53, warned.
"We have a small population so we try to have more children to maintain our identity and to ensure a future labor force,” he said.
Ngat’s eldest son married a girl aged 16 when he was 17 years old. He gave them a part of his farm to cultivate.
Ngat admitted that youngsters are not given proper training to look after children and maintain a decent family life. Because of this, couples often suffer from domestic violence, and in some cases end in divorce.
Ngat said local government associations asked “us to immediately abandon the child marriage custom, but it fell on deaf ears.
Sister Nguyen Thi Ngoc Lan from the Daughters of Mary of the Immaculate Conception said the nuns regularly visit and offer medical check-ups and medicines to ethnic villagers in remote areas.
Sister Lan said ethnic teenagers are not taught about parental responsibility. Many fail to look after their pregnancies, suffer miscarriages and give premature birth.
She said some young mothers leave their babies at garbage dumps or in front of convents for the nuns to raise them.
Nguyen Thi Sang, who is in charge of a Church-run home for pregnant women left by their boyfriends and families, said the home founded in 2014 now provides free accommodation, food, and medical care to 12 women, including six girls from the Pako and Van Kieu ethnic groups.
“They are offered gifts and flowers on their birthdays and feasts as a way to respect their dignity and encourage them to live a better life,” Sang said.
Father Paul Duong Quoc Minh, pastor of Khe Sanh in A Luoi district, said most local ethnic Catholics avoid child marriage since they are educated in Church regulations and are aware of the grave problems caused by the custom.
They also refuse to attend wedding parties of teenage couples as a way of protest against the custom, the priest added.
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