Việt Nam Red Cross Vice President and Secretary Nguyễn Hải Anh hands over the establishment decision to representatives of the Red Cross volunteers team of Vietnam Post Office. — VNS Photo Thanh Hải

HÀ NỘI — The Việt Nam Red Cross (VNRC) today launched a writing contest on volunteer activities, named ‘I volunteer’, as part of its activities to celebrate the International Day of Volunteers (December 5).

The contest aims to spread the message "Connect, Share and Spread" through articles and stories telling about the sacrifice and contribution of people, organisations and businesses that or the author's deep memories in the process of volunteering and supporting the community.

Entries are written in Vietnamese with a minimum of 700 words and no more than 2,000 words, with photos. The characters in the article must be real people with their names, specific addresses and their achievements in volunteer activities.

The writing contest starts accepting entries from December 5, 2019 to the end of April 20, 2020. The contest’s results and award ceremony will be announced in May 2020 at the launching ceremony of ‘Humanitarian Month 2020’ and celebrating the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Day and Vietnam Red Cross Volunteers Day (May 8, 2020).

On the occasion, the VNRC introduced two Red Cross Volunteer teams, including the Red Cross Volunteers Team of Vietnam Post Office (VNPost) and Mùa thu và những người bạn (Fall and friends), as a foundation for gradually expanding the Red Cross volunteer models across the country.

As of June 2019, Việt Nam has more than 300,000 Red Cross volunteers, including 9,596 teams, groups, and clubs in various operation models. They are taking part in humanitarian activities such as mobilisation of voluntary blood donation, training in first aid and disaster prevention, as well as helping the poor and needy people in the community. — VNS