Hồ Xuân Hiếu, Director of Quảng Trị Trading Company (left) visits one of the adopted children. Photo tuoitre.vn

QUẢNG TRỊ - For the past two years, Quảng Trị Trading Company in Đông Hà City, Quảng Trị Province, has been sponsoring 57 local orphans.

Directors and staff of the company have become the adoptive parents of the children.

Mai Hoàng Minh Khoa, living in Ward 2, Đông Hà City, lost his father in early 2019, when he was only 5 months old.

Khoa's father's death shocked the public in Đông Hà City at that time. On his way home from work, when he was passing an intersection, Khoa's father saw a young man on a motorbike running through a yellow light. Khoa’s father warned the man of dangerous driving, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. Instead of heeding the advice, the motorcyclist stabbed the good Samaritan.

"Khoa's father died doing something to help society, so we feel a responsibility to help," said Hồ Xuân Hiếu, Director of Quảng Tri Trading Company.

In early 2020, Hiếu set up a company-sponsored child protection fund to support orphans and named it "For children".

Khoa was the first child to be sponsored by the fund when he was 18 months old.

After Khoa's father passed away, Khoa's mother, with a meagre salary from her job as a private preschool teacher, struggled to raise the child.

“Khoa is given VNĐ500,000 every month until he turns 18,” said Hiếu.

Hiếu said the fund will continue to support other orphans.

Sympathising with children who have lost either or both parents, Hiếu said the company decided the minimum monthly support level should be VNĐ500,000 for each child.

In the lobby of the company's headquarter in Đồng Hà City, there is a large board with pictures of the 57 orphans. This was also a way to remind the company's directors and staff about their responsibilities.

"We don't insist that the children we sponsor are good at school or talented. Orphans are already disadvantaged, they have to live well first before they can think about studying. If you study well, you will be encouraged with separate rewards," Hiếu said.

To help orphans overcome the tragedy of losing their parents, the company also sent employees who live nearby to support each child or coordinate with the local youth unions.

Trần Quốc Bảo, a 9th grader from Mộc Đức Village, Cam Hiếu Commune, lost both parents six years ago.

They left behind two children – Bảo and his 6-year-old brother. The two brothers were adopted by a relative, but their future remained uncertain.

Bảo was adopted by the "For Children" fund from the beginning of 2021 and given VNĐ500,000 each month, which was enough for school fees. He was also helped by Hoàng Kim Trọng, a young worker who lived near Bảo's house.

Knowing that Bảo suffered great emotional trauma when his parents died, Trọng visited often and gradually became his older brother.

"Bảo has a vulnerable soul because of the family incident. I understand and try to share and advise him."

After about a year, when the fund posted information on social media, many people in HCM City and Hà Nội asked to contribute money to feed orphans.

"The more people who help us, the more orphans will be supported, more lives will be improved," Hiếu said.

Orphans who achieve good results at school each year also receive the same gift policies as children of employees at the company.

Nearly 500 managers and employees of the company have also registered with the hospital to donate blood when needed. VNS