A seventh grader from the northern port city of Hai Phong on May 10 was awarded the first prize of the 43rd Universal Postal Union (UPU) International Letter Writing Contest in Vietnam.

In her letter, Pham Phuong Thao from Chu Van An Secondary School in the city’s Ngo Quyenh district wrote about a violin whose owner became more optimistic in life when making music.

Her letter will be translated into French to be sent to the Swiss-based UPU for the international round.
The national contest, themed “Write a letter about how music can touch lives”, received more than 1 million entries from students up to 15 years old across Vietnam from October 2013 to March 2014.

The Vietnamese contest was held by the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Vietnam Post Corporation, and the Thieu nien Tien Phong (Vanguard Teenagers) newspaper.-VNA