Hanoi (VNA) - Forty-five poor students from the ethnic minority Khmer group in the southern province of An Giang received scholarships from Vu A Dinh Scholarship Fund at a ceremony on March 2.
The scholarships were valued at 800,000 (around 36 USD) to 1 million VND (45 USD).
According to Truong My Hoa, former Vice President and President of Vu A Dinh Scholarship Fund, some 5,000 Vu A Dinh scholarships with total value of about 5 billion VND have been granted to poor ethnic minority students and children in coastal areas and islands throughout the country in the 2015-2016 school year.
Since 1999, the Fund has granted over 50,000 scholarships while donating to many charity programmes such as building schools, bridges and houses in remote areas.
On the same day, the Nhi Dong 1 Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City signed a cooperative agreement with Dai Nam Joint Stock Company (JSC) in Binh Duong province to sponsor free heart surgeries for 200 poor children, who suffer from heart diseases.
The company also gave the hospital four ventilators worth nearly 4 billion VND as part of its programme for children patients of heart diseases.
According to Nguyen Thanh Hung, Director of Nhi Dong 1 Hospital, the lack of ventilators and equipment has delayed the pace of surgery for heart patients. The assistance has helped doctors accelerate the operations, saving thousands of patients.
Dai Nam’s programme finances around 200 heart surgeries for disadvantaged children each year. It also provided two ventilators valued 3 billion VND for Cho Ray Hospital.
Since 2004, the Nhi Dong 1 Hospital has successfully treated thousands of children who suffer from heart diseases. However, thousands of others are still queuing up for operations, with many of them desperately needing help from the community.-VNA