Vo Thi My Linh

Vo Thi My Linh is a writer in Vietnam and founder of Volunteer House Vietnam.

Volunteer House Vietnam has so far obtained significant results: Over 2000 volunteers from over the country have registered to be its members; 80 free accommodations from 20 provinces of Vietnam have been offered to Volunteer House Vietnam, 4 English classes in Ho Chi Minh City and 4 English classes in Hanoi were established.

With the growth of volunteers and the support from the community, Linh believes that Vietnamese children can confidently communicate in English - which is the key for them to open the door to the world in the near future.

Linh started writing at an early age and became a journalist, a novelist and co-author of 10 books for teenagers.

Linh said, her first writing was a divorce agreement for her mother, which, in her thought, was the only way to help protect her mother from being beaten by her father.

She was known in her country after surviving and writing about an avalanche in Nepal on October 14, 2014.

She became even more prominent after a letter to the Minister of Education in which she advocated for increased English educational programs in her developing country.

The avalanche killed at least 43 people out of a total 168 trekkers on the Annapurna mountain in 2014.

Linh managed to survive and also helped a porter to save his life.

Linh said the reason that made everybody go trekking is, "Sometimes, life is a pile of shit. To find faith, somebody has to climb up the mountain to see a flower which blooms on stone and realize that life is still beautiful."

When young people admired her, Linh reminded them "Climbing a mountain doesn't mean you are strong. The women, who stay at home and take care of their family every day, are really strong women."

Being someone who was once poor at English, Linh knew the disadvantages facing people who can't speak English.

When Linh went to Aruchour village – a remote area in Nepal to do volunteer work - she found out people over there speak English very well although they are very poor.

Linh spent a whole day in the library of a primary school reading a Nepalese English textbook.

Then, she made a comparison with the English textbooks in Vietnam and realized there was something wrong in the English textbooks for Vietnamese students.

She then wrote a letter to the Minister of Education.

After publishing it on Facebook, the letter received more than 24.000 "Like" clicks and more than 10.000 "Share" clicks and later went viral.

Linh said, "I still don't know why people appreciated me after that. I suppose that anybody can write a letter like me, to say anything they want to say. That was not bravery. That was a type of freedom of speech."

Volunteer House Vietnam is a non-profit organization which provides free accommodations for foreign travelers in exchange for free English lessons for underprivileged children.

In 2015, Linh published her first novel "Over the Hill" (Vietnamese: Bên kia đồi) after being co-author of ten books of short stories for teenagers.

This novel received good reviews from critics.

She also is the Founder of Volunteer House Vietnam.

This is a non-profit organization established for the purpose of connecting generous and talented travelers and children eager to learn English in Vietnam.

Linh was born and raised in Central Vietnam.

Her father was a bomb sawyer.

Harvesting bombs after the war was a means of survival in her village.

Bombs were sawed to extract the TNT inside, which was used to catch fish.

The outer shells were sold to recyclers as scrap metal.

Her father was injured by a bomb on a nearby hill.

He needed a corneal graft and it took him 6 months to recover.

The bomb accident tore her family apart, causing numerous events later.

"It was not a big deal though", Linh said.

"The big deal is that every year, around 4,000 people in Vietnam are severely injured and die due to accidents with explosives. The danger is not a deterrent for bomb sawyers, who regard it as their only source of income. It is ridiculous, isn't it?"

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VHV's goal is to set up at least one free English class in each province of Vietnam by 2020 for children, especially for disadvantaged ones from 9–12 years old, to be taught by our volunteers and travelers.

In explaining the reason why she chooses English as the focus of her project, Linh recalled her time in Nepal, saying people there were in deep poverty, living without the Internet, TV or phones but spoke English very well.

"As a person who is not very good at English, I see those who are good at the language having the chance to land well-paid jobs in Vietnam," she added.

"I don't want language to be a barrier for Vietnamese people."

"Our target is not how many VHV students we teach but raising people's awareness of how important English is," Linh stated.

"When people understand the language's importance, they will learn it voluntarily."