Vice President Đặng Thị Ngọc Thịnh gives away the 2019 KOVA Prize in the Beautiful Living category to individuals for outstanding social service in HCM City on Saturday. — VNS Photo Gia Lộc

HCM CITY — The 17th annual KOVA Prize honoured a medical research project, five individuals for their social service and more than 100 students for scientific research and outstanding academic results at a ceremony in HCM City on Saturday.

The group prize in the Creative Ideas for Applied Science category was awarded to the department of urology at HCM City’s Bình Dân Hospital led by Dr Phạm Phú Phát for their research on laparoscopic partial nerphrectomy for treatment of small renal tumours.

Phát said: “Technical advances prevent the removal of a whole kidney for patients with renal tumours unlike in the past. The treatment method helps preserve renal function.”

Patients recover within two or three days after a laparoscopic partial nerphrectomy, he said.

He wants to train doctors at district-level hospitals in remote areas around the country and young doctors in this procedure to popularise it.

The prize in the Beautiful Living category went to five individuals for their socially useful actions that have inspired other people to follow suit.

Nguyễn Ngọc Điểu founded the Ngọc Điểu Rehabilitation Centre for Children with Cerebral Palsy in the Mekong Delta province of Vĩnh Long.

It has been providing free rehabilitation and treatment for poor children with cerebral palsy in many provinces around the country for many years.

Trần Thị Ngọc Nữ, chief lawyer at the HCM City Association for Protection of Children’s Rights, works pro bono with child victims of abuse.

Nguyễn Thị Xuân is a nurse at the Dermatology Hospital in Bắc Ninh Province and works with leprosy patients.

Vì Thị Thuận is the founder of the Thuận Hòa Social Welfare Centre in Hòa Bình Province and has provided vocational training and jobs for women including many with disabilities.

Lê Thị Lan Anh is an English teacher. Herself a victim of Agent Orange, she teaches poor and disabled children for free at her home in Hà Nội.

The KOVA Prize also honoured eight students for outstanding research and 132 poor students at public universities for consistently excellent academic performances.  

The KOVA Prize was set up by former Vice President Nguyễn Thị Bình and Associate Professor Nguyễn Thị Hòe, chairwoman of the KOVA Paint Group in 2002. — VNS