Overseas Viets in Australia Turn Their Hearts Towards Homeland’s Seas, Islands

Former Vice President Truong My Hoa speaks to overseas Vietnamese in Australia at the event. Photo: TG&VN

This year, after a hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, former Vice President Truong My Hoa, who is President of the Vu A Dinh Scholarship Fund and head of the “For beloved Hoang Sa-Truong Sa” Club, continues the journey of visiting Australia to promote their meaningful humanitarians activities to overseas Vietnamese.

In Canberra on July 5, Hoa visited the embassy, along with staff of the Fund and the Club, to meet a large number of representatives of Vietnamese expatriates.

After watching valuable footage of the Fund and Club's activities in Truong Sa and the DK1 platform, overseas Vietnamese and embassy staff were informed by Hoa about charity activities helping children, not only while living in remote islands, but also when they return to the mainland, as well as helping many ethnic minority children to get to higher education.

Former Vice President Truong My Hoa said that in 2012, overseas Vietnamese in Australia were the first to contribute to the program "For Dear Truong Sa students". This is the starting point to help arouse the large movement of incubating the future and winging dreams throughout the local areas in the country as well as the Vietnamese communities abroad.

After 24 years of operation, more than 125,000 Vu A Dinh scholarships have been awarded to outstanding pupils and students of ethnic minorities, children of naval soldiers, coast guards, fisheries surveillance officers, border guards, and fishermen across the country.

From a few hundred initial scholarships for students at boarding schools for ethnic minorities, there are now 8,000 scholarships, of which 5,000 are for ethnic minority children, and 3,000 are for fishermen's children and soldiers on duty in the islands. Vu A Dinh Scholarship Fund has become a close companion and trusted friend of students living on islands and mountains across the country.

Delegates pose for a group photo. Photo: TG&VN

In August 2014, the "For Dear Hoang Sa-Truong Sa" Club was established to connect aspirations and hearts towards Hoang Sa and Truong Sa. After nearly 9 years of operation, the club has attracted 3,692 individual members, 142 collective members, including 16 units in Australia.

The club has become a bridge to bring to the sea and islands messages of love from the mainland as well as from distant lands in the world, Hoa stressed.

Representatives of overseas Vietnamese and embassy staff expressed their gratitude and appreciation for the practical and tireless contributions of the Fund and the Club to the cause of education and the journey of connecting the seas and islands with Vietnam.

Ambassador Nguyen Tat Thanh also emphasized the great contributions of former Vice President Truong My Hoa in various positions to the friendship between Vietnam and Australia over the years.

On this occasion, embassy staff presented former Vice President Truong My Hoa with the poem "The Command of the Heart", which included:

Hỏi lòng, lòng bảo: cứ xung phong!”

Hoàng Sa - Trường Sa thân yêu đó,

Cùng nhau giữ vững đất cha ông.

Còn sống, còn dốc lòng thiện nguyện,

Còn thương, còn muốn nước hóa rồng…

Translation:

Ask your heart, it says: go ahead!"

Beloved Hoang Sa - Truong Sa,

Together to protect the land of our ancestors.

Still alive, still devoted to charity,

Still love, still want the water to transform into a dragon...

Along with expatriates and staff of the Consulate General in Sydney, those who attended the meeting contributed more than AUD 7,000 (USD 4,660) to the Scholarship Fund and the Club, many expats and staff of the Embassy and Consulate General have registered to join the Club "For dear Hoang Sa-Truong Sa."

The delegation will also visit some localities in Australia in the coming days.

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