The Association of Overseas Vietnamese in Cambodia inaugurated two floating community houses on June 29 as gifts from the Ho Chi Minh City Association in Support of Poor Patients.

These houses were built for Vietnamese fisherman families in two communes in Kal Dieng district, Pursat province, to hold meetings, cultural activities, wedding parties or memorial ceremonies.

The house for the Vietnamese community in Koh Keo commune is worth 10,000 USD, covering over 60 sq. m. while the other for those in Koh K’Ek commune was built at a cost of 8,000 USD.

At the inauguration ceremony for the second house, the President of the donating organisation’s Thu Duc district Cell, Nguyen Thi Nguyet, also delivered a gift of notebooks and textbooks for poor students in the community.

She said donors expected that these houses would not only help improve the living conditions of expatriates but also encourage them to maintain their Vietnamese cultural identity in the country of Angkor Watt.

This is the second time Kal Dieng district has received floating houses from their homeland. The two previous houses are used as Vietnamese language classrooms, one of which was a gift from the late Prime Minister, Vo Van Kiet.

Deputy President of the Kien Giang province Association in Support of Poor Patients, Nguyen Thi Lien, promised to raise more funds back home to help fix up the two old floating houses, which are deteriorating./.