The Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs under Propaganda Department (CEMA), Vietnam Banking Times and Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) have come together to jointly hold the program that will bring warm to the disadvantage ethnic students. Most of students are from the Tay or Nung ethnic minority group, who have lived in the mountainous areas for a long time. After bringing blankets to poor students in Cao Bang and Bac Kan provinces, the program provided 770 blankets to students in the ethnic minority boarding school in Tuyen Quang Provinces include Na Hang, Chiem Hoa and Son Duong schools. Nguyen Thi Nha, a Tay student, said that currently most children only have old, light blankets that are not warm enough for the cold winter in the mountainous areas. "The children are very excited, they all want to come here," headmistress Hoang Thi Hien said. The students at Son Duong Ethnic Minority Boarding School also received 210 blankets on the same day. In September the charity program also provided over 900 blankets to the students in Cao Bang and Bac Kan provinces. The organizers hope that during 2012 and 2013 they will be able to deliver 11,667 blankets to 53 minority schools in 14 provinces in the northern mountainous areas. The program will be implemented in three steps: phase 1 to take place during the 2012-2013 school year, phase 2 set for the 2013 Lunar New Year and phrase 3 is for 2013-2014 school year. Hoang Xuan Luong, deputy head of CEMA said, "the organizers asked their sponsors to bring the blankets straight to the students, not just a symbolic ceremony. In the near future, we hope to call for more support from commercial banks to help these kids." (dtinews.vn Oct 18)
