SRD staff went to visit  Mr.Nguyen Ngoc Nguyen, born in 1951 in Ta Huu Tu village, Phong Binh commune, on a hot sunny day of June 2010 at his house. Mr Nguyen is not a member of the Self Help Group itself (through SRD's Supporting People with Disabilties project), but a direct beneficiary from the project. Four years ago had stroke while sleeping at night and that caused him hemiplegia to the left side. After this, he could not either speak or move his left side of the body. He neither could stand nor walk, and had to go to hospital for intensive treatment. Sadly, not much improvement was made, and afterwards he returned home accepting this horrible fact. At that time, I could not do some anything to take care of myself, and needed constant help from my family members", Mr Nguyen recalled.

Mr. Nguyen at his house

When the SRD's project established a rehabilitation team to work with PWD in Phong Binh. Mr Khoi, the leader of Self Help Group, and a member of rehabilitation team, often visited and helped Mr Nguyen with exercises to practice moving the left side of his body. "Mr Khoi comes to see me once or twice a month. He teaches me how to lie down and sit up from the right side, how to work with my hands and fingers. Let me show you". Mr. Nguyen then started lying down and sitting up without any difficulty. He then continued "At first I also used a parallel bar many places in my house to help me with walking but I can do now without it. You see, I took them off, no more parallel bar here. I now can walk a bit inside the house, even out of my house but with a four-wheel walking stick which I got from the project. I feel much better now".        

Mr Nguyen happily shared with us when we met and also expressed the wish of having a functional bicycle to help him practice and exercise his leg muscles. He hopes to walk more confidently out of the house, and even without a walking stick. We felt happy for him as we also believed he would make further improvement with his continuous practice and optimistic spirit.