On the morning of November 2, Tuoi Tre opened the seventh one-day annual “Sunflower Festival” for children with cancer at the Youth Cultural House in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1.
The event, attended by thousands of people, is aimed at commemorating the death of Le Thanh Thuy, a high school girl famous for her long and hard fight against bone cancer before she died on November 2, 2007, as well as the establishment of the newspaper’s “Thuy’s Dream Foundation” to support children with cancer.
The main activity throughout the day-long event is making paper sunflowers that symbolize Thuy’s incredible faith in the battle against her cancer.
Thousands of paper flowers were made in the morning, carrying tons of messages to support cancer children in Vietnam.
The festival also features a wide range of activities including live music, dance performances, an exhibition displaying paintings drawn by children with cancer, and portrait sketching booths.
Aadgroen from Holland joined the event and got a drawing of his portrait when he passed by the cultural house and was attracted by the festival.
“I think it’s a great event,” he expressed after being explained the meaning of the event.
“Many people got here and I think they all liked it,” he said, adding that he really liked the painting.
Besides being decorated with many paper sunflowers, the main stage of the fest is covered by numerous paper hands collected from a campaign calling for people to sketch the shape of their hands and write messages on them to encourage cancer child patients.
For each paper hand photo posted on Facebook with hashtag #cunggopbantay, local medical firm ECO Pharma JSC commits a donation of VND10,000.
In addition, a fair with proceeds donated to Thuy’s Dream foundation is one of the most crowded areas of the day.
Oscar Enzing joined the 2014 “Sunflower Festival” by selling cakes at the UK-based charity Hope for Children’s booth, 30 percent of whose proceeds will be donated to cancer children.
“I’m very happy that I can help,” the man from Holland shared. “My mother has cancer as well so I know how the situation is.”
Also at the festival, hundreds of yellow balloons were released into the sky bearing good wishes to child cancer patients.
Jan Pirkett, who lives in New Zealand and is in Vietnam on holiday, called the event a “good charity to support” after she bought a sunflower-shaped headband and wore it happily.
This year’s “Sunflower Festival” will end with a gala night featuring music performances and the awarding of 145 scholarships worth VND725 million (US$34,124) to children with cancer.
Đăng ký: VietNam News