At
6.30 pm Thursday Tuong Vi, 24, and some other members of charity group Suc Tre
(Young Force) arrived in Ho Chi Minh City’s Le Van Tam Park from school or
work.
They quickly learnt how to cut hair since this
weekend they will be giving haircuts to children in Dong Nai Province to
prepare them for the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Suc Tre is one of many charity groups that
will help less fortunate people celebrate the Moon Festival this weekend.
Tuong Vi has been involved in Suc Tre’s
charity events since 2007 when she and a few other students at the city’s
Foreign Trade University formed it. That year the group was featured in Tuoi
Tre newspaper and the group became well known among young people.
This year its members will travel to the poor
commune of Ma Da in Dong Nai’s Vinh Cuu district, stay a night and celebrate
the festival with residents.
When asked what her group will bring to the
kids this year, Vi says: “We never judge them as being poor and needy. We just
want to cheer them up.”
During the trip the group will give away a
scholarship worth VND1 million (US$50) to Phuoc, an eighth grader in the
commune who has been going to school 15 kilometers from home. The money will
help him pay for a year for the bus which costs VND10,000 every day.
This will not be the group’s first visit to Ma
Da commune; its members went there last year and celebrated the Moon Festival
with 100 kids.
“Last year when we went to pick up some kids
from their houses to the playground where the festival was celebrated, they
quickly got into the bus, touched everything from the seat to air conditioner
and asked what they were,” Vi recalls.
One reason why the group is returning to the
place is to visit the family of Qua, a 12 year-old boy who was diagnosed with
liver cancer. Last year, the members took him to the festival, sang with him,
and cheered him up. Unfortunately, when they visited Ma Da last March, they
learnt that the boy had passed away two months earlier.
Though Qua will not be there for this
Mid-Autumn Festival, Suc Tre members will take care of his younger sister and
try to bring her a good time, just like they did for her brother.
Another charity group called Moi ngay mot cau
chuyen (A story a day) plans to visit orphans, older people, and people with
mental illnesses at Dieu Phap pagoda Saturday.
One of the organizers, Hoai Yen, a senior at
Van Lang University, said they had been making lanterns and wrapping gifts for
the last few days.
The volunteers will divide themselves into
groups to talk to the senior citizens and people with mental illnesses while
others will help with cooking and feeding kids. The group will also organize
lantern decoration contests and a fashion show to enable kids to show off their
creativity.
It will also organize a photo shoot for every
kid here.
Yen explains: “Usually when young people
participate in charity events, they take pictures of themselves with the kids.
This time, we want the children to have their own photos so when they grow up
they’ll have something of their childhood to remember.”
Yen even dreams of setting up a bookcase at
the pagoda so that the group can read stories to the kids every time they
visit. She also hopes to gain enough experience in voluntary work so that she
can organize more events that attract young people in her hometown in the
coastal province of Binh Thuan.
The Mid-Autumn Festival has become a popular
occasion for doing charity and some groups start preparations a month before.
Tang Huynh Yen Phuong, 22, a fresh graduate,
has been selling moon cakes at Serenade Café in Phu Nhuan District since the
beginning of August to raise fund for the charity group Helping Hand Saigon.
Whenever she finds time, she drops by the
group’s booth and joins other volunteers in selling, not forgetting to reward
philanthropists with a big smile. She has been doing this for the last six
weeks and enjoys meeting the warm-hearted customers.
“There was a young woman who came all the way
from District 5 to buy cakes from us at 10pm. We had already closed by then and
could not sell to her. We thought she would buy somewhere else, but she turned
up again at 6am the next morning.”
An American who does not live in Vietnam
ordered several boxes and had them sent to an orphanage here.
The group has sold more than 500 boxes and is
all set for a Mid-Autumn Festival filled with games, lion dancing, a play, and
cakes for children at Tu Hanh temple in Binh Tan District Saturday.
“I cannot wait for this year’s Moon Festival.
I used to celebrate it with my family but recently found no point in it since I
have grown up.
“But I guess the festival this year will have
a new meaning for me since I will be spending my time and giving my love to
those who do not have a family.”
Tru Troi
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