Poverty has urged children of ethnic minority group Van Kieu in the central province of Quang Tri to fill their stomachs by scouring for food from rubbish heaps dumped at local markets. Three times a day in the morning, afternoon and at sunset time, dozens of Van Kieu kids join in groups dressed untidily to rush eagerly onto garbage heaps at nearby markets to find their food which could be rotten fruits or other discarded food from thrown away cans. Most of them live in mountainous areas in Lao Bao District. One of them, Ho Van Huong, a second grader at the Lao Bao 2 Primary School, said “I see my friends picking fruits at markets and I join them.” “Picking is good as it does not cost money and helps me have food,” he added. His mother Ho Thi Xa said she advised him not to eat rotten food in trash but he kept on doing it, and she has no way to stop it. The poor children also take the rotten food home to feed their parents, some locals say. Many of those kids live in big families where their parents have more than two children. Some couples have up to 10. The main source of income of Van Kieu people is from farming. (www.tuoitrenews.vn [1] Mar 3)
