HCM CITY — More than 1,000 volunteers are participating in the Earth Hour campaign with the theme “Connect to Earth”, which kicked off on yesterday at the Youth Cultural House in District 1 in HCM City.

The campaign includes activities to spread the message of environmental protection and energy savings to people of all ages and occupations.

Hundreds of volunteers, as well as singers Lykn Lee and Lê Thiện Hiếu, the ambassador of the Earth Hour 2018 campaign, rode bicycles on streets in central HCM City to urge residents to switch off lights and unnecessary electrical appliances to save energy.

In addition, 16 units of the City Power Corporation worked with Communist Unions in city districts to organise teams to mobilise people to respond to the campaign.

From now to the end of the month, many volunteers will stand at intersections in districts 1, 3, 5, 10 , Phú Nhuận, Tân Bình, Bình Thạnh and Thủ Đức to call on drivers of motorbikes stopped at red lights to turn off their engines to reduce consumption of petrol and waste.

All of the activities are in response to the global Earth Hour event, “Join Global Lights Off”, which will take place from 5pm to 10pm on March 30 at the 4A yard at the city’s Youth Cultural House in District 1.

The Earth Hour main event, expected to attract more than 5,000 people in HCM City, will call for lights to be switched off for one hour around the world (at 8:30pm Vietnamese time).

Tăng Hồng Dương, student at Tôn Đức Thắng University, said this was the first time that he had taken part in the campaign. “I joined the campaign to contribute to environmental protection,” he said.

Huỳnh Bá Thắng, freshman at the University of Economics HCM City, said the campaign was a “wake-up call for everyone around the world” to protect the environment.

“I was really impressed with the huge number of people participating in this year’s campaign. This proves that the campaign has attracted many people, especially young people, to join hands to protect the environment,” Thắng said.

First held in Việt Nam in 2009, the event has seen a considerable increase in the number of participating organisations, businesses and individuals.

The event is organised by the the Sài Gòn Giải Phóng (Liberated Sài Gòn) newspaper in collaboration with the city’s departments of Natural Resources and Environment, and Industry and Trade, and the HCM Communist Youth Union. — VNS