Nguyễn Lê Hoa (second left) with her friends at her restaurant in Switzerland. — VNA/VNS Photo Tố Uyên

HÀ NỘI — Many Vietnamese people abroad have collaborated with local authorities and residents to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

General Director of Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) in Switzerland, Bertrand Levrat, recently sent a letter to thank Vietnamese woman, Nguyễn Lê Hoa, for her efforts in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in Geneva.

Hoa is the director of a Vietnamese restaurant named Saveurs du Vietnam in Geneva.

Hoa and one of her foreign friends helped the hospital buy 12,000 face masks for HUG's health workers when they faced difficulties in ordering masks from abroad.

The Swiss government has called on people not to use masks wastefully and the masks for healthcare workers must continue to be a priority.

She herself donated 5,000 masks to the hospital and hundreds of Vietnamese meals to COVID-19 patients or people in need.

Along with charitable activities such as donating masks, free food and water, Vietnamese people and locals across the country came out onto balconies and windows at 9pm daily, clapping and expressing their thanks and solidarity with the country’s health workers, said Lưu Vĩnh Tòan, Hoa's friend in Zurich.

The Vietnamese community living in Switzerland is estimated to be over 8,000.

Their donations reflected the tradition of solidarity and mutual support of the Vietnamese people. Despite difficulties in their host countries, overseas Vietnamese had launched fundraising campaigns and worked with local authorities to combat the disease, said Nguyễn Kim Công, a member of Hoa's charity group. — VNS