VietNam Life Style: poor

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Intel Vietnam cares for local community

Rick Howarth (R), general manager of Intel Products Vietnam hands over Tet gifts to poor people in District 9 - Photo: Le Toan

Intel Products Vietnam organized a Tet festival at its factory for over 300 poor households in District 9 where the company is based.

At the festival, Intel granted 500 Tet gifts worth VND135 million consisting of milk, sugar, candies, Chinese sausage and rice to poor families in six wards of District 9 including Tan Phu, Tang Nhon Phu A, Tang Nhon Phu B, Long Thanh My, Hiep Phu and Long Binh. It also donated VND100 million to the district’s study encouragement fund and equipped two computer rooms with VND820 million (US$40,000) worth of IT hardware at Hung Binh Elementary School in Long Thanh My Ward and Phuoc Long Elementary School in Phuoc Long B Ward.

“We see corporate social responsibility as a priority to show our long-term commitment to Vietnam. The welcoming Tet festival is our first social activity to start 2011,” Rick Howarth, general manager of Intel Products Vietnam, said.

Last year the company conducted VND2.5 billion worth of social activities to support the district’s poor.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Leaf art to raise funds for poor

Artists have created the first 10 of 52 artworks on holy leaves brought from India to raise money for eye surgery for poor children

Photo: VnExpress

Artists commissioned by the Vietnam Fine Arts Association and the Vietnam Buddhist Church have created the first 10 of 52 artworks on holy leaves brought from India to raise money for eye surgery for poor children.

The “bo de hoa tam” (pictures made of bodhi leaves) will be displayed at three major pagodas around Vietnam for the Anh Sang Tri Tue (The Light of Mind) charity program.

In 2008 the artists made a pilgrimage to Mahabodhi Pagoda in India's northern Bihar State, the site where the Buddha attained enlightenment under a bodhi tree and a direct descendant of that tree is still worshipped at the pagoda.

It is from this tree that they brought the leaves and have created Buddhist motifs like peace and images of Buddha.

"The 52 pictures represent the weeks in a year," Nguyen Doan Anh Khoa, the project spokesman, said.

"The Bodhi tree is associated with the goodness that is innate in people's hearts," he said, adding that the exhibition aims to remind viewers that everyone has a heart like the Buddha.

The works will go on display to the public on September 22-24 at Bat Nha Pagoda in Da Nang, from September 30 to October 2 at Tao Sach, Tay Ho District, Hanoi, and from October 8 to 10 at Xa Loi Pagoda, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City.

Later they will be awarded to 10 outstanding entrepreneurs on Entrepreneur's Day (October 13).

The entrepreneurs, in turn, will each fund 100 eye operations for poor blind children through charity organizations.

VietNam Life Style