Hiromi is examining a newborn baby.

VietNamNet Bridge – “Hello, I’m Hoa, midwife at the Nghi Loc General Hospital, Nghe An.” Hearing the Nghe An pronunciation and looking at the face with Vietnamese characteristics of a young girl at Nghi Loc General Hospital, many people think that she is a Vietnamese girl.

But that’s a volunteer named Takahashi Hiromi from Hokkaido, an island in the north of Japan.

Hiromi became a midwife at the Nghi Loc General Hospital under the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers Programme (JOVC) of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) two years ago.

Before coming to Vietnam, Hiromi worked for four years as an orderly at the Japan International Health Centre after graduating from the Mother and Child Care Faculty at Ryukyus University.

Hiromi said that she was very worried when she was ‘recruited’ by the Nghi Loc General Hospital, which is 300km from Hanoi. However, Hiromi quickly adapted herself to Nghi Loc, a poor area of Nghe An, though she grew up in Japan, a developed country. Everything is new, but Hiromi loves discovery.

Working in the obstetrics ward, Hiromi does everything from washing patient rooms to cleaning up for mothers and newborn babies, taking care of premature babies, etc. In every task, Hiromi is always dedicated.

Hiromi has stayed awake whole nights to take care of expectant mothers. She has often ridden a bicycle to the houses of new mothers for medical exams for the mothers and their newborn babies. She has also gone to health stations to provide obstetrical examinations and set coils for local women.

Many mothers in Nghi Loc whose children were delivered by Hiromi have taught their children to call Hiromi “mother”. Working for more than two years at the Nghi Loc General Hospital, Hiromi has helped more than 50 women to deliver children.

According to doctor Le Ke Tu, director of the obstetrics ward: “Hiromi is not afraid of difficulties. Many families have named their children Nhat (meaning Japanese) to remember ‘mother’ Hiromi.”

Before coming to Vietnam, she studied Vietnamese language for three months in Japan and one month more at the Hanoi-based University of Social Sciences and Humanities after that.

Working as a volunteer at the Nghi Loc General Hospital, Hiromi realised that the local pronunciation was difficult to hear and to speak. In addition, there were many local expressions that she couldn’t understand.

However, with an open mind and closeness to patients, Hiromi gradually understood the local language and has learned to use Nghe An language very well.

“I’m very happy because my Vietnamese colleagues see me as a member of their family,” Hiromi said in Vietnamese.

Hiromi has a Vietnamese name, Hoa (flower). She loves cuisines of Nghe An, for example fish cooked with soybean jam, jackfruit jam, rice with eggplant, etc.

She has a close Vietnamese friend in Nghi Loc. “In my first days here, I met a disabled girl named Nhung when she was going to the market. She was sitting on the back of a motorbike and said hello to me. Her legs are very short, just half of normal people, and they can’t move. Around half a month later, I suddenly saw her at my hospital. Since then we have become close friends. She teaches me Vietnamese language and takes me to a place where many Vietnamese children are studying computing,” Hiromi said.

Hiromi asked a non-governmental organisation in Japan to present a wheelchair to Nhung. Since then she has asked for more wheelchairs for disabled Vietnamese people from charity organisations in Japan. “I have asked for 20 wheelchairs from Japan and they are being used by people who really need them,” she said. 

(Source: Tien phong)