82,000 glasses of milk to be given to disadvantaged children in Thua Thien-Hue

Thua Thien-Hue (VNA) - A programme providing 82,350 glasses of milk to more than 900 disadvantaged children in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue kicked off at a ceremony on July 1.

Co-organised by the National Fund for Vietnamese Children (NFVC) and the Vietnam Dairy Product JSC (Vinamilk), the ceremony took place at the Duc Son Pagoda Orphanage, which is raising 135 kids aged between one month and 22 years.

As part of the “Vuon cao Viet Nam” (Stand Tall Vietnam) milk fund, the programme will offer three months of free milk to children in 18 social welfare centres and orphanages in the province.

Thua Thien-Hue houses close to 293,500 children under 16, or 26 percent of its population. Of the total, 4,049 come from especially disadvantaged backgrounds and are provided with social welfare.

Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Phan Minh Nguyet said many local children are yet to receive adequate care in terms of nutrition and the rate of those drinking milk is low.

She took the occasion to praise the fund’s contributions to better nutrition for children as well as to improve public attention to children’s growth.

Initiated in 2008, the milk fund has so far handed over 37 million glasses of milk worth some 163 billion VND (7.07 million USD) to 460,000 children. This year it aims to give 1.7 million glasses, worth 12.5 billion VND./.