Fatherland Front launches SMS poverty campaign

Nguyen Thien Nhan, president of the Fatherland Front, said the organization has traditionally focused its charitable activities on the needs of youngsters to ensure that they do not go hungry and have adequate housing and access to a good education.

Since the beginning of this year, said Mr Nhan, the Fatherland Front has raised US$43 million that has been used to build or repair more than 34,000 homes for children along with a raft of other projects.

Chief among the other projects, the Fatherland Front provided grants and scholarships to nearly 300,000 students throughout the nation in recognition of their outstanding academic achievement and need.

The largest contributors over the years, said Mr Nhan, have been Vingroup (US$13 million), the State Bank of Vietnam (US$1.3 million), Viettel Group (US$21.7 million) and Vietnam Buddhist Shangha (US$21.7 million).

Hoang Vinh Bao, deputy minister of the Ministry of Information and Communications, in turn encouraged citizens to participate in the annual SMS text message campaign, which this year runs October 17-November 30.

Everyone, he said, can send SMS text messages via the national humanity information portal at telephone number 1409. For each message US$0.65 (VND15,000) of the charges will go to the Fatherland Front poverty reduction campaign.

The launch of the SMS campaign is in response to the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and the National Day for the Poor (October 17). It is a joint effort by the Ministry of Information and Communications, Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and Fatherland Front.