Ho Chi Minh City has collected nearly VND162 billion (US$ 7,508,586) from organizations, and individuals to support the fund for the poor in the city, announced at a meeting presided by Vo Thi Dung chairman of the city’s Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee on April 14.
The meeting was convened to review the campaign for the poor in 2014 and plan for 2015. The amount has exceeded the target.
According to a report, the city’s Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee launched the program to build and improve 104 new charity houses and 645 houses for social welfare beneficiaries; repair 832 other houses for the poor with total cost of nearly VND27 billion (US$ 1,258,008).
In addition, the city used VND154 billion (US$ 7,175,305) to take care living condition of needy people in districts as per the government’s New Rural Development Plan. Besdies, this activity aimed to help, ethnic minority people, laborers, students, women of low-income families, families short of manpower or with old and feeble members, disabled orphans and poor immigrants.
In response to the program ” Join hand to improve countryside”, the steering board for the poor in cooperation with Farmer Association mobilized the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development to support VND20 billion (US$ 931,857).
This amount will be used to building 500 charity houses for disadvantaged farmers in suburban districts, in districts which are implementing the government’s New Rural Development Plan.
The steering board also encouraged organizations and benefactors to support VND3.7 billion (US$171,310) to build 161 houses for poor ethnic minority in the northern mountainous province of Dien Bien.
Last year, the fund organizers gave 21,353 scholarships named Nguyen Huu Tho to students of all grades and vehicles, bus tickets worth nearly VND27 billion (US$1,250,100) to disadvantaged students.
The city has encouraged residents to save energy; accordingly, last year the city saved 454.76 kWh electricity or equivalent to VND794.18 billion. Landlords were encouraged not to increase rent costs to help stabilize poor workers and students’ lives.
Free 12,503 health insurance cards worth VND2.4 billion were given to the poor and provided free examination for nearly 250,000 poor people with total money of VND12 billion.
In 2015, the city steering board will strive to mobilize around VND100 billion for the fund to build 677 new charity houses, and repair 1,225 houses as well as give 905 vehicles and 21,362 Nguyen Huu Tho scholarships helping decrease the rate of poverty households to below 1 percent and families whose economic condition is close to the poverty line to under 2 percent of the whole city’s population.
Đăng ký: VietNam News