Vietnam Red Cross aims at one million Tet gifts for the poor hinh anh 1Local chapter of the Vietnam Red Cross Society presented rice for poor people in Quang Ninh (Photo: chuthapdoquangninh.org.vn)

Hanoi (VNA) - The Vietnam Red Cross Society (VRCS) is striving to provide at least one million gifts for needy people on the Lunar New Year holiday (Tet), VRCS Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Xuan Thu stated at a fund-raising event in Hanoi on December 20.

At the event, six organisations and individuals donated 14 billion VND (615,160 USD).

According to Thu, to realise the target, fund-raising campaigns were held earlier this year.

An action month for Tet for the poor and dioxin victims will be launched, during which support through house repair, the supply of cows and insurance cards and musical concerts will come to these disadvantaged communities.

Between December 10 and February 8, 2017, the VRCS will kick off a texting campaign, where each “TET” message sent to 1402 equals 20,000 VND (0.87 USD) worth of donation for the needy.

These activities are part of the “Tet for the poor and dioxin victims” programme, initiated by the VRCS since 1999. It has so far raised more than 4.5 trillion VND (198 million USD) to assist over 17 million poor households and dioxin victims, with 2.17 million gifts worth over 852 billion VND (37.5 million USD) delivered in 2016 alone.-VNA
VNA