The Photographers
Lam
My father died before I was born, fighting in Cambodia, so I grew up with my mother and grandmother. When my grandmother died, my mother remarried and I had to live with my stepfather. There was no room for me in this new family: I was in danger of being abused. Luckily I was helped to leave my family and entered a home for children with a similar background. A few years later I was really surprised to be given the opportunity to take photographs - it had always been my dream - to hold a camera in my hand and take photographs.
Lam began to learn photography in 1998. She now teaches the younger students on the Street Vision course. In 2001 Lam's work featured in a professional exhibition in Switzerland and she has worked on a fashion magazine in Saigon.
Lam, 16 years
Long
By the time I was thirteen I had had three stepfathers. I couldn't stand living with them because they treated me badly. I left for Saigon and lived the life of a street child, earning my living as a shoeshine boy and collecting trash and selling lottery tickets. After two years I joined the Green Bamboo Home and started to learn photography. I like it very much and want to express all my thoughts and hopes for street children in my photographs.
Long, 17 years
Tan
I was born into a poor family. My father had to work all day while my mother stayed at home due to an illness. I thought finishing the fifth grade was enough so I left school to go to work in a street restaurant. My mother had an operation, but died. My father and grandfather had to sell all their rice fields to pay for the hospital costs. Some time later, my father broke his back under a falling coconut tree. To earn money for my father I went to Ho Chi Minh City to sell lottery tickets. At night I slept in the park, but one evening all my money was stolen. I was so hungry that I stole a bicycle but was caught by the police and held in a detention centre for one year. After that I decided to start a new life. I was referred to the Green Bamboo Shelter, where I am loved and taken care of by the educators.
Tan, 16 years
Thang
I had to stop going to school when I was 12 so I could earn money selling ice-cream. My father was beating me very badly. But his death caused so many problems for my family that I wanted to die to forget everything. I couldn't live with my mother. I went to the bus station and started begging, then I worked as a porter but in the end I followed the wrong friends and began to break the law. After a while the police separated our group. Some of us were imprisoned, others were sent home. I decided to go to Saigon to earn a living polishing shoes. At night I used to sleep in a cyclo in front of the Green Bamboo Shelter. One morning Mr Hai, manager of the shelter, asked about my situation and allowed me to live in the shelter so I could take part in their activities.
Thang is now married and has a baby. He works in a professional photography studio to which he invites the younger Street Vision students to learn how to shoot studio portraits.
Thang, 19 years
Trang
I was born in Ho Chi Minh city, but spent most of my childhood in another place far away from home and relatives: my family moved to a small village. We worked hard on the farm and lived on crops such as beans, corn, tomatoes and sweet potatoes. Everyday my father packed produce on a bicycle and transported it to the market. We lived a frugal but peaceful life.
As time went by, my family had three more new members, putting a strain on our living conditions. My parents decided to come back to Ho Chi Minh City. When I was 11 I began selling boiled sweet potatoes in summer time. I'd go to the market at dawn and returned home at noon. My mother was busy doing housework and caring for my younger brothers and sisters. My father supported the family by riding a motorbike for money.
When I was in fifth grade I suffered a heart attack and underwent surgery. I still feel great pain in the wound, especially when the weather changes.
Our living conditions became worse. Sometimes we had nothing to eat. Once my mother cooked some dried stale rice for our meal. Even under such circumstances, my parents insisted that we (my brothers and sisters and I) study well to have a better life in the future, so I always say to myself, 'Strive, don't be discouraged if you find yourself inferior to others'.
Trang, 16 years