Life isn’t always fair. Many times, we face struggles that are too big for us to be able to overcome and it feels like there is no way out, but God always finds a way to show us that not everything is lost.

Ngo Quy Hai is a 27-year-old man who has lived most of his life hidden from the rest of the world. The reason why is because he’s a burn survivor who has been conscious of the stares by the people from his surrounding.

When the horrible incident took place, Hai, who is from Vietna, was still just a toddler. It all happened when he was pushing a baby walker to the kitchen and accidentally fell into an open wood stove. The burns he suffered were more than severe, but he managed to survive.

“Baby walkers were common back then and there wasn’t knowledge about how dangerous they can be,” Hai explained.

He was rushed to the Children’s Hospital 1 in Saigon where he spent two long years.

Surgeries followed one after another, but despite everything, he was still left with scaring all over his body and face. What’s most, he struggled with mental trauma both because of the accident itself and because he was bullied by other children because of his looks.

“I felt alone growing up and didn’t have many friends,” he explained. “I felt ostracized from society. When I tried to find work, I was mocked and ridiculed. I didn’t leave my house at one point for almost two years.”

Living a life in solitude was hard. Hai fell behind with his studies and felt devastated, but he then met a friend who understood exactly how he felt.

“Sometimes I think it is fate that brought us together,” Hai said of his new friend. “We’ve played together since we were very young and have experienced many joys and sorrows as we both shared the same sadness that no one wanted to play with us.”