At the “Employment Bridge – Accompanying Employers and People with Visual Impairments” conference, organized on November 27 by Sao Mai Center for the Blind with support from The Nippon Foundation, participants listened to the story of Nghiêm Thu Loan. Her journey shows how a series of closed doors can become the starting point for building dreams, creating value, and contributing back to the community.
Facing barriers to education
As a child, Loan was repeatedly turned away from public schools because of her visual impairment. While other children simply went to class, she and her family spent years searching for a place that would accept her.
After many unsuccessful attempts, a turning point came in 2019, when Loan received a full scholarship to RMIT Vietnam. Her university years were filled with new challenges – from adapting to an international learning environment to navigating campus life as a blind student – but they also opened up space for her to grow and redefine what was possible.
Building skills, step by step
Amid long days of study and adjustment, Loan realised a simple truth: dreams do not grow on their own; they grow from the steps we take.
She chose not to wait for opportunities to appear. Instead, she actively built her own foundation by studying pedagogy, social work, writing, public speaking and English. Each new skill was like a brick helping her shape the future she wanted – a future in which she could teach, lead and support others with similar experiences.
Three roles creating positive impact
Today, Loan is gradually realising her dream of creating positive impact on society through three key roles.
As a trainer and teacher, she teaches English and soft skills to learners with visual impairment. Her classes focus on helping students regain confidence, strengthen their communication, and recognise their own strengths so that they can build a personal identity, access job opportunities and move towards independent living.
As a young social activist, she contributes to the STEP Club and community projects that create real spaces for visually impaired people to work, to lead and to create. Together with her peers, she designs activities that are practical and hands-on, building bridges between people with visual impairment, the wider community and real opportunities in life and work.
As a content writer and inspirational speaker, Loan writes and shares stories drawn from lived experience. Her goal is not to ask for sympathy, but to demonstrate the true value and capabilities of people with visual impairment, and to encourage young people – with and without disabilities – to trust their own potential and dare to walk their own path.
Messages for those building an inclusive society
Sao Mai Center for the Blind would like to highlight three messages that Loan shared with different stakeholders who are working together toward a more inclusive, barrier-free society.
To businesses, she emphasises the importance of opening doors to opportunity. A timely chance can change a person’s life and, at the same time, strengthen the human values of the organisation that offers it.
To organisations of and for people with visual impairment, she calls for continued efforts to build “bridges of hope” through concrete, practical activities that reflect real needs and connect directly to education, work and community life.
To young people with visual impairment, her message is simple and direct: live genuinely, study seriously, and work with real commitment. Your efforts today are not only for your own future, but also for those who will follow.
A journey that opens paths for others
Sao Mai sincerely thanks speaker Thu Loan for bringing so much trust, encouragement and hope to the event. We believe that every young person with visual impairment who keeps moving forward is not only finding a path for themselves, but also quietly opening new paths for others. Loan’s journey reminds us that difficulties can become opportunities to grow, that challenges can be starting points for strength, and that even when the road ahead is long, each step we take can help make society more inclusive for everyone.
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