In response to the campaign “Each organisation, each individual linked to a humanitarian address”, launched by the Central Committee of the Vietnam Red Cross, in 2013 Red Cross chapters at all levels in Ho Chi Minh City raised VND 6.6 billion to provide regular care for nearly 13,000 people in difficult circumstances; provide capital and job referrals for 442 cases; and donate 204 wheelchairs and hand-powered tricycles to poor people, children with disabilities and pupils in difficult circumstances. The assembly halls in District 5 made a very large contribution to this shared achievement.
Tran Van Tuan, head of the propaganda department of the Ho Chi Minh City Red Cross chapter, took us to District 5, home to many assembly halls — places for language exchange and for preserving the spiritual culture of the Chinese community living and doing business in the district, which has made many positive contributions to charity and humanitarian work.
In 2013, through contributions in many forms from assembly halls, associations, businesses, benefactors and Red Cross members in the district's 15 wards, the District 5 Red Cross carried out many charitable social programmes benefiting society, with a total value of more than VND 5 billion, and donated 7,893.5 out of 4,600 units of blood, reaching 172% of the target.
Located at 12 Lao Tu Street, the On Lang Assembly Hall (Quan Am Pagoda) has, since its founding, strictly implemented the Party and State's policies on ethnicity and religion. It is a national cultural relic recognised by the Ministry of Culture and Information (now the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), and a place for preserving the art of language and worshipping the beliefs of the Fujian (Chinese) community in Saigon – Cho Lon in particular, and visitors from all over in general.
Hong The Chan, deputy head of the standing board of the On Lang Assembly Hall, said: “To preserve our cultural traditions, we always call on Buddhist followers and visitors not to litter, not to burn incense everywhere, and above all not to put money in the hands of Buddha statues.”
All incense, candles, offerings to the Buddha and donations are placed in a box, which the management board collects at the end of the day and records transparently. From these contributions, the On Lang Assembly Hall has worked with the ward Red Cross and other organisations on many humanitarian activities, such as contributing VND 100 million to the District 5 Fatherland Front Committee for the fund “For our beloved Truong Sa – for the front line of the Fatherland”; working with the city Red Cross to provide Tet (Lunar New Year) care for overseas Vietnamese at Tonle Sap in Cambodia; organising free medical treatment and medicine for the poor, awarding scholarships to poor children, and promptly helping the poor and people in areas hit by natural disasters and floods…
Originally an islet, Hamlet 4 in Phong Phu commune, Binh Chanh district (Ho Chi Minh City) is a poor commune with difficult roads, where pupils have to travel to school by boat every day, which is very unsafe. In 2013, the Tue Thanh Assembly Hall at 710 Nguyen Trai Street spent VND 100 million building a concrete bridge for the local people. Since the bridge was built, people's lives have improved and pupils can get to school much more easily.
The Tue Thanh Assembly Hall is also known as the Thien Hau Temple, a typical architectural and artistic relic and a community centre for the Cantonese-speaking Chinese community. Besides restoring and promoting the relic's values, the Tue Thanh Assembly Hall's management board also focuses on encouraging Chinese people from all walks of life to follow the Party's policies, the State's laws and the campaigns launched by the Fatherland Front and Red Cross chapters at all levels. Le Van Canh, head of the Tue Thanh Assembly Hall's management board, said: “Over the past five years, with more than VND 6.3 billion donated by monks, nuns, Buddhist followers and visitors, the Tue Thanh Assembly Hall has cared for and supported Vietnamese Heroic Mothers in Quang Nam and Quang Ngai provinces until the end of their lives. It has organised visits and gifts for new recruits, contributing to the military rear-area policy, supported regions hit by natural disasters and floods, and built charity houses and gratitude houses…”
For 11 consecutive years, poor people, children in difficult circumstances and Agent Orange/dioxin victims have received free medical examinations and medicine from volunteer doctors of the District 5 Red Cross, working with the Nghia An Assembly Hall (Ong Pagoda), on 30 April, Uncle Ho's birthday and the anniversary of the founding of the Red Cross.
For poor elderly people and those too weak to come, the assembly hall and the doctors visit them at home. Alongside examinations and free medicine, and the programme “From Heart to Heart”, the Nghia An Assembly Hall also works with a funeral home to arrange funerals for poor and homeless people in the district.
Vuong Quang, chief of office of the assembly hall, said: “To fund our charity and humanitarian work, besides the incense and candle money from Buddhist followers, donations from benefactors and members' contributions, every year at the Lantern Festival (Tet Nguyen Tieu) we hold a lantern festival that attracts large numbers of visitors and an auction. In 2013, for example, we auctioned nine lanterns for more than VND 4.3 billion. All the money raised goes to charity and humanitarian work…”
Nguyen Binh Tru, Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Red Cross
“In 2013, many natural disasters, storms and floods, together with the global economic downturn, strongly affected the country's overall economy, and the city's fundraising to care for the poor also faced many difficulties… However, at the assembly halls in District 5, the movement to help the poor and people in difficult circumstances has been maintained steadily and has become a bright spot in the campaign “Each organisation, each individual linked to a humanitarian address”.”
Truong Ngoc Long, Chairman of the District 5 Red Cross, Ho Chi Minh City
“Besides doing a good job of preserving and restoring the State's national historical relics, the assembly halls in the district also actively work with organisations to care for the lives of poor people and people in difficult circumstances in the district, and take an active part in charity and humanitarian work, for which they have been commended by the Party, the State and the authorities in many forms.”
Article and photos: Trinh Son – http://www.nhandan.org.vn