HCM CITY — A new website created by university students provides information to relatives about war martyrs and their graves at HCM City’s Martyrs Cemetery in District 9. 

The website https://tphcm.anhhunglietsi.vn/ was launched yesterday by the city-based Việt Nam Student Association, which includes students at HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities and University of Information Technology.

The students spent three months seeking information for the database and designing the website, according to Trương Văn An, deputy secretary of Hồ Chí Minh Communist Youth Union at the HCM City Univeristy of Social Sciences and Humanities.

Through the search function, visitors only need to type the full name of the martyr or heroic mother buried in the cemetery.

The site will then reveal the martyrs’ birth year, birthplace, day of sacrifice, burial position in the cemetery, and their site of fighting in the war. 

Pictures, videos and songs about martyrs on the website are also included, said Lê Viết Hưng, chairman of Việt Nam Students Association at the University of Information and Technology.

The website also offers information about the place where the remains of unidentified martyrs were initially found.

“Through the information on the website, we hope that people can help us identify them and their family,” said An of  the HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

Many martyrs buried at the cemetery are unknown and have not been identified. 

An said that he and his schoolmates, who study history and are now taking part in the Green Summer Volunteer programme, visited the cemetery to collect information about the martyrs but suffiicent data was lacking.

More sources at the city’s libraries and in newspapers had to be researched, An said.

“In the upcoming time, we will contact experts and researchers, martyrs’ friends and family members to update information on the website,” he said.

Hưng of the University of Information Technology said: “We knew that this website would be good and useful, but we realised that it would be difficult to do because we had not sample to follow, but we never gave up."

After digitizing information about more than 14,000 graves of martyrs and heroic Vietnamese mothers at the cemetery, they plan to launch website for other martyrs’ cemeteries.

“Setting up the website is an opportunity for us to practise what we learned in classes and gain more experience in programming,” Hưng said.

At a meeting to prepare for the 70th War Invalids and Martyrs Day, Lê Hoàng Minh, deputy chairman of the Việt Nam Students Association, said the website would be a meaningful addition to the special day on July 27.

“The website provides a large database that helps educate young people about the patriotic tradition in the country,” Minh said. — VNS