Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance brings warm winter to kids in Vietnam
A Tokyo-based insurance holding firm has handed over gifts to around 5,000 needy children in Dien Bien, a mountainous province in northern Vietnam, on the occasion of Christmas and New Year.
The presents, including woolen jackets, hats and scarves, were granted by Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group (MSIG) through World Vision International to bring those kids a warm winter.
Recipients of the donations worth U$20,000 in total were children aged five to 13, and those who come from poor families in Muong Cha District, the development and relief organization group said in a press release the same day.
MSIG is one of Japan's largest property and casualty insurers which had 7.5 trillion yen in assets as of the end of March 2015, according to Reuters.
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| A kid smiles as she wraps herself in a newly gifted blanket in Dien Bien Province, located in northern Vietnam, on December 15, 2015. Photo: Tuoi Tre |
Since 2010, the Japanese firm in cooperation with World Vision has provided winter blankets, scarves, hats and gloves for underprivileged children in the province with the total cost of US$100,000.
World Vision began its development program in Muong Cha in 2007 and has since supported more than 10,000 poor households with many activities, including education, health care, child protection and capacity building.
Besides Muong Cha, the organization is also implementing one program each in two other districts, Tua Chua and Tuan Giao.
World Vision International, which works to improve the quality of life of people, started working in Vietnam focusing on emergency relief assistance in 1988 and opened an office in Hanoi in 1990.
The organization is operating 40 area development programs and 16 special projects in 15 provinces across the country, having granted some US$300 million worth of aid to the country and helped three million Vietnamese children in the past 25 years.