HCM City marks 25th anniversary of summer voluntary campaigns

ABO/VNA – The Ho Chi Minh City Youth Union along with the Vietnam Youth Federation and Vietnam National Union of Students in HCM City held a ceremony on August 12 to mark the 25 years of summer youth voluntary campaigns (1994-2018).

At the ceremony (Source: tuyengiao.vn)

Vice Secretary of the HCM City Youth Union Nguyen Viet Que Son said voluntary youth movements have developed across the city over the past 25 years and expanded to other localities nationwide and internationally.

More than 2.1 million youth union members and youngsters in the city have helped eliminate illiteracy for 29,000 people, supported 580,000 students with learning and provided consultation for more than 2.3 million students.

Volunteers have also dredged more than 39,000 metres of canals, collected some 35,000 tonnes of construction waste and sediment, planted 3 million trees and introduced job opportunities to more than 18,000 youngsters.

They also helped young people access loans worth nearly 12.4 billion VND (528,779 USD) and presented more than 1,200 scholarships to students in fields like electronics, hairdressing, informatics, construction and vehicle repairing.

The volunteers provided free health check-ups and medicine to more than 2 million people and encouraged people to donate 109,611 units of blood in addition to upgrading 614,194km of roads, building and repairing 450 bridges, installing lighting systems for 30km of rural roads and building over 1,000 water filters.

Vice Secretary of the municipal Party’s Committee Vo Thi Dung suggested the youngsters diversify voluntary campaigns and expand activities in south-eastern, south-western, Central Highlands and central regions, sea and island areas and Laos and Cambodia.

At the ceremony, the HCM City Youth Union received the President’s third-class Labour Order. Three collectives and one individual were honoured with the Prime Minister’s certificate of merit in recognition of their contributions to the city’s voluntary campaigns.

Earlier, the organising board held a walking programme to raise nearly 15 billion VND for the scholarship fund “accompanying students to school” and 10,000 notebooks for needy students in the 2018-2019 academic year.

Youths from 24 districts in the city organised activities to present scholarships, bicycles, textbooks and learning equipment to students from disadvantaged backgrounds and children of workers and soldiers in the sea, island and border regions.

(Source: VNA)