The annual Vietnam Summer Camp 2011 for overseas Vietnamese youths and students will take place from July 7-24, honouring Ly Tu Trong, one of the youngest fighters for freedom in Vietnam under French domination.

The information was reported by the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs (COVA) under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) in Hanoi on June 28.

This year’s camp will see the participation of 150 overseas Vietnamese youths and students from nearly 30 countries and territories worldwide.

Speaking at the press conference, MoFA Deputy Minister cum COVA Chairman Nguyen Thanh Son said that the annual activity aims to help overseas Vietnamese young people and students exchange friendship with local peers.

He said the event will also enable those young people to learn the Party and State’s guidelines and policies and the country’s development, as well as enrich the mother tongue and knowledge on national history and culture.

The opening ceremony of the Vietnam Summer Camp 2011 will take place in Hanoi at the Statue of Ly Tu Trong, who was arrested by the French army in February 1931 and sentenced to death in November the same year when he was 17 years old.

The closing ceremony will be held in the southern province of Dong Nai .

During the event, the participants will pay courtesy visits to Party and State leaders and visit historical, cultural and tourist sites in the capital city.

They will offer incense at the Hung Kings’ Temple in northern Phu Tho province and the Dong Loc T-junction Historical Relic in central Ha Tinh province, and pay tribute to President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum.

They will take part in a requiem for heroes and martyrs at the Dong Nai Martyrs’ Cemetery on the occasion of the Invalids and Fallen Soldiers’ Day (July 27).

The overseas Vietnamese youths will also visit Son My Village in the central province of Quang Ngai , where the My Lai massacre took place during the US war in Vietnam .

They plan to present gifts to Vietnamese heroic mothers and conducts exchanges with young people in Quang Ninh, Phu Tho, Nghe An and Quang Ngai provinces and Ho Chi Minh City./.