HCM CITY— Two thousand children living in social welfare centres in HCM City will enjoy the Tổ Ấm Ngày Xuân (Spring Loved Home) programme on Saturday (Feb 10) at Tao Đàn Park in District 1 to celebrate Tết.

In the annual event organised by the Youth Social Work Centre of HCM City, the children will play traditional games, enjoy meals, and get shoes and gift packages.

Since January 21 the centre has organised similar programmes in other districts in the city and rural areas in the neighbouring provinces of Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu and Bình Phước.

Patients at the city Paediatrics Hospital 2 also enjoyed the programmes, called Xuân Yêu Thương (Loved Spring), on February 1, in which they took part in games and other amusement activities.

As part of their annual community activity, from the end of last month to February 9, Central Group Việt Nam and Big C supermarket chain in collaboration with Unilever Việt Nam are giving away Tết gifts worth VNĐ792 million (US$34,900) to 3,600 poor families in provinces and cities where Big C has stores.

The gifts are worth VNĐ220,000 each and consist of rice, cooking oil, fish sauce, seasoning, and others.

On February 6 the city Department of Industry and Trade together with many businesses, including Lotte Mart, gave Tết gifts to 440 families in many communes in Long An Province under the Government’s preferential treatment policies for poor households.

Each gift was worth VNĐ400,000-VNĐ500,000 and consisted of essential daily items and confectionery.

On February 2 People’s Committee leaders visited and gave gifts to 400 poor patients in the city’s Paediatrics Hospital 1 and 2.

Of the patients, 80 per cent are from other provinces.

The committee’s vice chairwoman, Nguyễn Thị Thu, said: “Though they are from other provinces, the city’s leaders take care of them since they are being treated in the city’s hospitals.”

The city has a policy of ensuring everyone, especially disadvantaged people, enjoys a “warm” Tết, she said.

This year for the Lunar New Year the city has earmarked VNĐ700 billion (US$30.8 million) to help poor people and those covered by its policies to celebrate the New Year.

Nguyễn Thị Vui of Đồng Nai Province, whose three-month-old daughter was treated for artery stenosis at the city’s Paediatrics Hospital 1 and received a gift from the city authorities, said she felt the “warmth” behind the gift. She and her daughter will remain at the hospital during Tết.

Dr Nguyễn Thanh Hùng, head of the hospital, said nearly 1,000 patients are admitted every day during Tết every year.

The HCM City Traditional Medicine Institute in Phú Nhuận District on February 4 provided free treatment and gave gifts to people with financial difficulties and families covered by the city’s policies and employees of enterprises based in the district.

During the February 10-11 weekend the institute will provide free examination and treatment to people in disadvantaged communes in Bình Phước and Lâm Đồng provinces. —VNS