The Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and the Standing Board of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee jointly launched a text message campaign entitled “Join hands for the poor.”

The launching of the National Humanitarian Portal 1400 took place on early August 19 in Ha Noi on the occasion of the 74th anniversary of the August Revolution. 

The portal is part of a series of activities to implement the the nation’s sustainable poverty alleviation, and respond to the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and the Day for the Poor in Viet Nam (October 17).

Addressing the event, Deputy PM Vuong Dinh Hue said supporters can join the program by texting “VNN n” to 1408 from August 19 to 24:00 of December 31, 2019. Each mobile text message will contribute at least VND 20,000 (US$0.86) to the poor.   

According to the Deputy PM, the money raising campaign was launched two months before the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. He was convinced that the campaign would be successful.

Since 2017, the Central Steering Committee for National Target Programs, the Viet Nam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee, and the Viet Nam Television (VTV) annually held program “Join hands for the Poor” on October 17 to call on support for the impoverished nationwide.

Last year, the program raised VND 3 trillion of aid. Especially, the National Humanitarian Portal 1400 collected over VND 6.3 billion of money for the poor. 

VFF President Tran Thanh Man affirmed that the fund for the poor and social welfare program will focus on three key goals namely building houses for the poor especially people with merits and extremely-difficult people; providing scholarships for difficult pupils and students; and presenting gifts to the poor on the occasion of the Lunar New Year Festival.

Viet Nam is home to 1.3 million poor households according to the multi-dimensional poverty standards for 2016-2020, accounting for 5.23% of the country’s total population and more than 1.23 million near-poor households who need help to stabilize their livelihoods./.