Phan Minh Hoàng (L), vice president of the Vietnam Young Physicians Association on behalf of the association receives the donation from Chun Nam Ng (C), CFO of Manulife Vietnam, and Bady Phạm (R), representative of Pulse Active. — Photo courtesy of Manulife Vietnam

HCM CITY — Manulife Vietnam and its partners have donated VNĐ500 million (US$21,600) worth of medical supplies for frontline workers in the fight against COVID-19, raising its total donations so far to VNĐ3.5 billion ($151,000).

The latest donation was raised from the MOVE for Vietnam Challenge, an online campaign that inspired ManulifeMOVE users to raise funds by simply getting active.

The challenge invited people to complete 50,000 steps on the ManulifeMOVE app, in return for which the company would donate VNĐ50,000 on behalf of each person to support medical workers.

The $21,600 will be used to buy more than 2,500 medical protective suits for the Vietnam Young Physicians Association (VYPA) in Quảng Nam Province and Đà Nẵng City.

Speaking at the ceremony to hand over the donation to the VYPA, Chun Nam Ng, CFO of Manulife Vietnam, said, “While ultimately the people of Việt Nam will benefit most from this assistance, it’s the volunteers and medical workers on the frontline who are the key recipients of our donation.”

Nguyễn Hữu Tú, VYPA vice president and general secretary, said: “Manulife Vietnam and Pulse Active’s donation of medical supplies will go a long way towards providing both a practical and community-minded solution to the challenges we are facing.

“On behalf of the frontline workers we would like to say thanks for the support shown by everyone who took part in these activities.”

In April, Manulife had donated over VNĐ3 billion ($129,356) worth of essential items to quarantine centres in Hà Nội and HCM City, including 20,000 face masks, 12,000 protective suits, 10,000 litres of hand sanitiser gel, 500 fans, and 15 refrigerators to store medicines.  — VNS