For many years, a 77-year-old woman has been going to every small alley and street corner in her neighborhood to collect scraps and sell banh my to get money for her ‘piggy banks’, which are kept to help the poor. 'Ma Cuc', or Mother Cuc On a pre-Tet day, Cuc sat at her home and opened a book where she wrote down the names of poor people who needed help. After writing cards to invite poor people to come to get Tet gifts, she checked her bag once again to see if any money was left and put the money into the ‘piggy banks’ on the table. ‘Ma Cuc’, or Mother Cuc, is the name people in Ward 8, District 3, in HCM City give to Nguyen Thi Bach Cuc who has been collecting scraps and raising money for piggy banks for 40 years to help the needy. Cuc said she is kindhearted and does a lot of charity work. When she began working for the ward’s women association, she decided to create ‘piggy banks’ to save money for the poor by collecting scraps. “When I began collecting scraps, there were a lot of whispers and comments. People said I pretended to be poor but my children are successful. But I did not feel sad. I believed they would understand me,” she recalled. She said when her "back was still straight" she went to every small alley to collect scraps. Later, when her back became bent with age, she went to every house to ask for scraps. For many years, a 77-year-old woman has been going to every small alley and street corner in her neighborhood to collect scraps and sell banh my to get money for her ‘piggy banks’, which are kept to help the poor. Finally, locals realized the humanitarian significance of her work. They voluntarily bring scraps to her house and she classifies the scraps and sells them for money. Cuc said she "fed the first pig" for one year. When she opened the piggy bank, she found VND50 million. The amount of money was sent to many agencies and organizations to distribute to the poor. The woman, seeing people happy with her …
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