The Department of State Reserves in the Mekong Delta region on February 20 presented 146 tonnes of rice to disadvantaged students in Tra Vinh province.

Tra Vinh is the only locality in the region to benefit from the programme, under which each of the 2,000 beneficiaries received 75 kg of rice in the first semester of the 2013-2014 school year.

The programme forms part of activities launched in the province to assist students in difficulty.

Last year, over 32 billion VND (1.5 million USD) was collected from various resources in order to encourage poor and ethnic students to attend school.

Tra Vinh has more than 160,000 students, of which 31.4 percent are Khmer and 32 percent belong to poor families.-VNA