More than 57,000 houses were deeply flooded in Quảng Bình Province.— VNA/VNS Photo Hồ Cầu

 HÀ NỘI — A nationwide campaign has been launched to raise funds for poor households and flood victims in the central region.

The campaign was started on Saturday night and live broadcast from Hà Nội with the attendance of Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc and National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyễn Thị Kim Ngân.

Speaking at the event, PM Phúc asks businesses, organisations and individuals in and out of the country to continue providing support for people hit by storms in the central region.

“The mission of sustainably reducing poverty and ensuring social security is getting more difficult every day, especially when our economy is suffering from a pandemic and natural disasters,” he said.

“It requires us to stand together and be more proactive and creative in mobilising and moderating different financial sources.

“'Working together for the poor - leaving no one behind’ should not be just an empty slogan, we really should act on it with our sympathy, love, and follow our hearts.”

Major storms and floods in the central region have destroyed socio-economic infrastructure in several localities and left several households in extreme poverty and bad health conditions, he added.

There are some 1.9 million people in 500,000 poor households who are unable to work and lift themselves out of poverty nationwide, he said.

Some VNĐ2.4 trillion (US$103.4 million) was raised at the event.

Another fundraising programme was also started on Saturday in HCM City by the city’s Vietnamese Fatherland Front committee.

It called for support in the form of goods, necessities and cash from all walks of life for residents in the central region.

A total of VNĐ7.7 billion ($332,000) worth of goods and in cash was raised at the event.

The city’s Party Committee also gave VNĐ2.1 billion ($90,400) to the five flood-ravaged central provinces of Thừa Thiên-Huế, Quảng Bình, Quảng Nam (VNĐ500 million each), Quảng Trị and Quảng Ngãi (VNĐ300 million each).

Some VNĐ50.5 billion ($2.2 million) was raised by a number of celebrities.

Petro Vietnam donated VNĐ4.5 billion ($194,000) for the six central provinces incuding Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị, Thừa Thiên Huế, Quảng Nam (VNĐ1 billion each), Thừa Thiên Huế and Quảng Trị (VNĐ500 million).

Hundreds of charity trips and fundraising activities were organised by citizens across the country.

Food, goods and necessities worth from a few million to a few hundred million đồng, as well as cash, were sent by people in the north and south to residents in the central region.

US Ambassador to Việt Nam Daniel J. Kritenbrink on Saturday announced an initial US$100,000 in disaster relief funds to help Việt Nam cope with the consequences of tropical storm Linfa.

These funds will be provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to the Vietnam Red Cross Society (VNRC) to address the immediate humanitarian needs of vulnerable communities in areas most affected by the storm. — VNS