Many businesses, agencies and domestic and foreign social organizations have joined charitable activities to help the poor and disadvantaged in the central and southern provinces prepare for the upcoming Tet (Lunar New Year) festival. In the central province of Binh Thuan, the Lawrence S.Ting Community Support Fund in Ho Chi Minh City, in cooperation with the provincial Red Cross, donated 165 wheelchairs to people with disabilities. Several overseas Vietnamese, who returned to welcome Tet in the island district of Phu Quy provided 171 poor families in the district with more than 4 tonnes of rice and VND20 million in cash.
The VinGroup fund and Vietnam Journalist Association gave 870 gifts, each worth VND500,000, to ethnic people in My Thanh and Ham Can communes of Ham Thuan Nam district and two scholarships to outstanding students in the locality.
The Vietnam News Agency (VNA)’s “Victims of Agent Orange Fund," Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange (AO)/dioxin (VAVA) and the Binh Thuan provincial Red Cross also presented gifts and provided free check-ups to poor families and AO victims in Ham Thuan Nam, Ham Tan, Tuy Phong and Tanh Linh districts.
COCOA , a non-governmental organization from Australia handed over two houses and gifts worth a total of VND160 million to the poor in three communes of Dong Phu district in the southern province of Binh Phuoc.
Branches of the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) in the southern province of Binh Duong have launched the bank’s fourth “Tet Gifts for the Poor” program in the province. Bank staff will visit care centers for orphans and the elderly as well as remote areas in the province to deliver Tet gifts worth over VND300 million.
Tan Hiep Phat Group in Binh Duong province also presented 700 Tet gifts worth VND230 million to families of soldiers and invalids and the poor in Thuan An town.
The HCM City Student Assistance Centre and universities have been providing bus tickets and presents to poor students so they can go home and spend the Tet holiday with their families.
The centre coordinated with the city's Vietnam Fatherland Front and Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper to buy bus tickets for 3,500 students who will return home to 22 provinces, some as far away as Thanh Hoa and Nghe An. These students were chosen because their families were affected by the last floods in the region between Nghe An and Phu Yen provinces. Ethnic minority students who have not been able to go home for Tet for many years were also given bus tickets. In addition, the centre will also help students from the central region buy tickets at discounts of 5%-25%. During the annual Tet exodus, millions of people travel home for the holidays, causing buses, trains and planes to be packed to the rafters. Universities and student associations are also making plans to provide bus tickets to their poor members. The HCM City Social Sciences and Humanities and HCM City University of Technology will each help 100 students. Next week, the centre will present gifts worth VND250,000 each to 1,000 students from other provinces who will remain in Ho Chi Minh City during Tet. It will organise traditional games and parallel sentence writing contests for them during the holidays. The centre has also arranged seasonal jobs for more than 3,000 such students and next week the HCM Communist Youth Union will offer gifts to students staying at 11 dormitories around the city during Tet. Several universities are planning entertainment and gifts to students who will remain in their dormitories during the Lunar New Year festival. (vovnews.vn Jan 14)
