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Ngo Do Thu Huong (also known as Helen Ngo) recalled that in her 13 years living in Belgium, she has realized there are certain prejudices towards immigrants that have hindered many people from blooming to their fullest and feeling inclusive. Therefore, she yearned to be capable of supporting others, particularly her compatriots, on their way to seek jobs and stabilize their life in a new place.
After obtaining a degree in international business administration, Helen Ngo worked in a Belgian office of a Dutch company. She then moved to various positions in different fields of medical research, construction equipment manufacturing, consultation, and even became a cultural website administrator, event organizer, coordinator for a project of the local authorities. Her latest job is in John Bean Technologies Corporation of the US.
No matter where she works, Helen is most concerned about the human factor. A professional working environment to her is a place to show respect to people and assign the right task to the right person. That is the reason for certain times she has changed her job.
In June 2021, when Belgium experienced severe influences of the Covid-19 pandemic, Helen worked in a vaccination center and got in contact with thousands of people whose awareness about the vaccine effects was still low. Her duty was to assign 100 people among 1,000 registered volunteers in the system to work each day. At that time, she received an interview of the local television because she could take on such a challenging position despite being an immigrant.
Helen recalled some questions from a senior citizen about the reasons why she had hired students instead of selecting volunteers or why she had prioritized jobs for OKAN students (the education organized for newcomers to the country who cannot speak Dutch). In response, she said that even though she knew choosing such students meant more work for a coordinator like her, she just wanted to help those vulnerable people to integrate in the community more quickly and change the prejudice of local habitants towards immigrants.
For the model of Vietnamese Language Camp (serving Vietnamese overseas children in Belgium) to operate, Helen had to persuade the participation of Mai Anh (with a master’s degree in linguistics in Holland) and Christa Claes (winner of the best teacher award in the local community). This collaboration has made parents trust the Camp enough to send their children there to learn Vietnamese. Obviously, Helen has achieved such success thanks to her love and yearning to help the community of vulnerable people.
This respectable woman even shared that she has a habit of nurturing her hair long and then cutting it to send to ThinkPink (a Belgian non-profit organization specializing in launching campaigns to fight against cancer). She has just opened a Fanpage for giving-away items, aiming at sharing unused goods to those in need and recommending discounted services to the community, especially Vietnamese people.
It is not sure if Helen Ngo could maintain her enthusiasm and passion to help others in the far future or not. But at least now, her heart is still full of love and her mind is fill with the most beautiful acts, just like the lyric of a song Martine, Helen’s music teacher, wrote for her: “U bent een “mooi” mens, met veel wijsheid en kracht, alleen u weet het zelf nog niet, alleen dat komt nog een dag” (Helen, you are “beautiful”, you have both wisdom and strength, it’s just that you haven’t recognize it yet, but that day will come soon).
Helen Ngô was born in 1987. She learnt in Nguyen Hue High School for the Gifted (in Hanoi). When she was 17, Helen came to Holland to pursue higher education in The Hague University. In 2010, she moved to Belgium and has lived there since.
