Certificates of merit are presented to collectives and individuals with outstanding achievements in social charity work in 2025 at the Việt Nam Buddhist Sangha's review conference on Tuesday. — VNA/VNS Photo Xuân Khu

HCM CITY — The Việt Nam Buddhist Sangha (VBS) carried out extensive charity and social welfare activities nationwide in 2025, with total spending exceeding VNĐ2.161 trillion (US$82.27 million), according to a report released on Tuesday. 

The report was presented by the VBS Central Committee's board for social charity at a conference held in HCM City to review Buddhist affairs in 2025.

It noted that the central board and its provincial- and city-level divisions mobilised resources to support people affected by natural disasters, disadvantaged communities and vulnerable groups across the country.

Key activities included delivering emergency relief, granting scholarships, constructing houses for disadvantaged people, presenting bicycles and wheelchairs for those in need, as well as building bridges, wells and rural roads.

The VBS also offered free medical check-ups and medicine distribution for poor patients, cataract surgeries to restore eyesight, and support for heart and eye operations. Additional efforts focused on caring for Vietnamese Heroic Mothers, policy beneficiary families, border guard soldiers, orphans and the elderly, as well as the operation of charity kitchens.

Building on these results, the VBS has identified charity and social welfare as a central task for 2026. The Sangha reaffirmed that such activities not only help ease hardships faced by the poor but also embody the Buddhist spirit of compassion and the Vietnamese tradition of mutual support.

Priorities for 2026 include expanding charity fundraising, implementing aid programmes at the grassroots level, and coordinating with the Việt Nam Fatherland Front committee of Cà Mau Province to provide clean drinking water and standard sanitation facilities for schools.

The VBS also plans to encourage monks, nuns and followers to join hands in establishing a Buddhist hospital, while further consolidating and expanding the Tuệ Tĩnh traditional medicine clinics nationwide. — VNA/VNS