More than 5,000 children will receive Trung Thu gifts, including mooncakes, candies, fruits, and traditional star lanterns during the Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on September 21, thanks to Trung Thu Cho Em (Full Moon Party for Children), a programme launched by HCM City Youth Union and its partners. — Photo from the programme’s organisers

HCM CITY — The HCM City Youth Union and its partners have launched a charity programme to offer mooncakes for poor children in isolation zones in celebration of the Mid-Autumn (Trung Thu) Festival, which falls on September 21 (the 15th day of the eighth lunar month). 

The event, called Trung Thu Cho Em (Full Moon Party for Children), targets children aged three to 15. 

More than 5,000 children will receive Trung Thu gifts, including mooncakes, candies and fruits, which will be delivered by the union’s volunteers. Traditional lanterns will be included. 

“Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year for the first time we will organise full moon celebrities for children without theatre performances and traditional games,” said Nguyễn Thanh Hân, director of the Social Activities Centre for Việt Nam’s Young People, Teenagers &Children, a member of the programme’s organising board. 

Hân and his staff delivered Trung Thu gifts to 500 children from poor and migrant households in An Phú Ward in Thủ Đức City after the event’s launching day on September 8.  

“We hope our programme, Trung Thu Cho Em, will encourage children and parents living in pandemic and isolation zones to be optimistic in the virus fight,” said Hân.  

“Our volunteers have told the kids that ‘you should never stop your dreams and wishes’.”

Lâm Minh Châu, 10, who lives with his parent in a small alley on Lương Định Của Street, were happy to receive a mooncake and a star lantern from the event’s volunteers. 

“I thought I would have no Trung Thu lantern and mooncake this year. I’m very happy to participate in the programme Trung Thu Cho Em,” said Châu. “I will play and light up my lantern alone at home because I follow COVID-19 measures.” 

Châu and other kids living in his area were asked to wear face masks, keep a safe distance, and wash hands with sanitiser during and after taking the gifts. 

Labour unions at industrial parks and export processing zones in the city will also present several thousands gifts to poor children and teenagers this season. — VNS