Sun* and the journey to beloved Central Vietnam

A poor village with unfulfilled dreams…

Sun* volunteer groups had traveled through a 280-kilometer journey before reaching Loa hamlet and spent 2 days 1 night there organizing the event. Everyone in the group seemed to get emotional when seeing the life of the people here with their own eyes.

Loa is the most crowded, the farthest, and also the poorest hamlet in Huong Hoa District. People here are surrounded by mountains and forests, almost isolated from modern life.

As soon as the Sun* volunteers had just stopped at the village, people gathered around them. Rarely does anyone pay a visit to the village so the inhabitants were very excited! At night, the village bureaucrats and the teachers of the Ba Tang Lower and Upper Secondary School laden with a lot of delicious food to contribute to the joy with Sun* family. We had the opportunity to sit and chat intimately with villagers, and hear many touching stories.

They talked about their dreams, their children's dreams. They want the kids to go to school, they want to be exposed to new things in urban areas, but the conditions do not allow them. Their life here is so difficult. Therefore, they have no other choice but to compromise and live with what they have.

Talking about the last historic flood, they said that Loa hamlet suffered the most dramatic losses. Many houses have collapsed, people were swept away by floods, entire fields were lost, there was not enough food since food support could not reach because the village was isolated, the elderly and children did not have warm clothes. At that time, their dreams are again just the necessities with enough clothes to wear, a meal big enough to get full so the children would not have to suffer from hunger and cold.

“Warm sun rays” from Sunners

At the end of October, the Board of Directors in collaboration with Charity Club launched the movement "Sun* - All hands on deck for  Central Vietnam" with an appeal to all employees and groups in the Company to offer practical help to inhabitants in Central Vietnam who was suffering from the damage by the flood, so that they can quickly stabilize their mentality and life.

The amount of money that Sun* raised after the launch was 120,649,000 VND. However, after that, Charity Club continued to receive donations from Sunners. Therefore, the current figure has reached VND122,199,000. (Detail)

After a lot of research, Charity Club decided to choose Loa Hamlet, Ba Tang commune, Huong Hoa district, Quang Tri province to visit, support and motivate people.

The target audiences of this Sun * family volunteer are children and families with extremely difficult conditions. Instead of focusing on material gifts, Sun * emphasizes spiritual meaning. Therefore, in addition to the gifts for the people, Sun * Charity Danang Club also prepares a meaningful fun program for the children in the commune.

The program attracted more than 200 children present at the campus of Ba Tang Lower and Upper Secondary School. The organizing committee hosted interesting games, bringing joys and laughter, additionally well-prepared gifts that the children loved. The cheerful laughter, the enthusiasm and the eagerness sparkling in the children's eyes are the greatest achievements the whole group can harvest after this trip.

Baby Ho Thi Muong - Grade 3, High School - Three-storey High School excitedly shared: “This morning I heard my sister said there was a program, so I came here at 9:00. I feel very happy. These presents are so beautiful, I really love them!"

Mr. Ho Van Bang - Chairman of Ba Tang People's Committee shared: “After the storm, there were also groups coming here to do charity work and support people. However, they just simply came, gave gifts, and then left. But you guys are the first group to organize the program with the focus on children, so it is very meaningful. The program has made the children happy, excited, offered them the opportunity to exchange and expand more knowledge, to absorb new interesting things. Mentally and physically, you have brought it fully to the people here. Thank you very much.”

In addition to this program, the group also brought gifts to support people here. On the planning of the trip, Sun* carefully researched and distributed the gifts in the most appropriate way. Specifically, pre-school children were given 1 separate combo gift ( including 1 warm shirt, 1 beanie, 1 bag of milk candy), children from and above grade 1 were given a combo gift of their correct size (including 1 pair of boots, 1 warm shirt, 1 bag of milk candies).

Moreover, Sun* supported 160 households in Loa hamlet and 100 extremely difficult households in Ba Tang Commune, each household with 5 kg of rice and a combo of cooking oil, fish sauce, sugar, salt, and Phat Linh medicated oil. Sun* also prepared more warm clothes donated by Sunners (which have been carefully examined and classified) to send to the people.

Talking about her feelings, Ms. Ho Thi Vuong - Villagers of Loa share with us by her imperfect Kinh language: “I was born in 1993, I have had 3 children! People here are very miserable, the storm has just made them even more miserable. Fortunately, there is a volunteer group coming here to support. The kids had been so excited since last night that they showed up early this morning to wait. Looking at the kids having fun, I feel so happy! The group comes here to do a program for the children to play, we are very thankful!"

Mr. Ho Van Thong - the inhabitant at Loa Hamlet shared that “You are all from the distant Danang coming here to support us, we feel appreciated. More than those tangible gifts, those intangible ones like these are meaningful to us. We feel so happy.”

With the though not too greatly tangible contributions, Sun* believes that the volunteer trip to Loa village has helped relieve the hardships after the last flood, and the children can live in the happiest and most enjoyable moments, forgetting the poverty, the hunger that has haunted them for the past days. Sun* would also like to express sincere thank you to the bureaucrats of Loa Hamlet, Ba Tang Commune for enthusiastically helping our volunteer group during our time there. Thank you Sun* staff for spending many days of advice and support so that we can make this trip come true.

After the volunteer trip to Loa Hamlet, the rest of the donation money from the campaign “Sun* - All hands on deck for Central Vietnam” will be spent on more journeys to the mountainous Quang Nam, supporting the inhabitant here to recover from the flood. 

Detail about the donated money for Ba Tang Commune, click here