Roberto Cocevari, a member of the association’s board, praised the association’s support for flood victims in the central region of Vietnam and called for further donations to carry out other charity programmes.

Pham Van Thinh, another association member, said that in the coming year, the association plans to provide necessary learning materials for a school that was heavily damaged in the recent floods in Ha Tinh province.

The Vietnamese Ambassador to Italy Nguyen Khanh Thoai expressed his gratitude to the kind hearted overseas Vietnamese and the Italian citizens for their sympathy for Vietnam during the country’s wars of resistance and in its present construction.

This is an annual event, held by the association since the 80s. Over the past few decades the number of its members has increased remarkably and its charity activities have widely expanded including cooperation between the Buzzi pediatric hospital in Milan and the Hung Vuong hospital in Vietnam, the construction of villages for orphans and scholarships for many Vietnamese students and pupils.