Huyen Dieu, aged 19

Dieu is 21, and lives at home with her family in Dien An commune. Her dream is to become a businesswoman so she can find a good job to help her family as much as possible. Dieu faces more barriers than most in trying to reach her dream.
When Dieu was five months of age she developed a cough and fever. Her diagnosing doctor said that she had a congenital cardiac problem. When she was three years old, a local charity organisation East Meets West Foundation helped her to go to Hue hospital to have her surgery, but the doctor said that due to severe pulmonary hypertension and she could not have the surgery at that time. When she was 14 years old she had surgery for her ventricular septal defect, after which she felt well without using medication for one year. However, at 15 years old a re-examination showed that she had pulmonary hypertension again. No further medical treatment is available for Dieu. The only option for her to stay well is to take Sildenafil everyday.
Dieu’s family is very poor and Dieu has two young siblings who are 7 years old and 14 years old. Her father is a teacher. As her mother has both asthma and heart disease she often stays in hospital for long periods. Although she is often sick she still works hard to support her children. Dieu has sound understanding about her family situation and she studies hard to go to university so that she will be able to support her family in the future. Dieu is studying at Duy Tan university in Da Nang and will graduate next year.