Saigon Summer Ball 2020 continues to support poor children

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A representative of the Saigon Children’s Charity speaks at the virtual fundraising event. Photo: saigonchildren

First organised in 2009, the Saigon Summer Ballhas long been one of the premier charity events in the Ho Chi Minh City social calendar.

For the first time ever saigonchildren held its famous Saigon Summer Ball in several locations, all connected through a live stream and online platforms for auction and raffle.

2020 also marks the 12th year of the Saigon Summer Ball, with total funds raised after 12 years of over USD 1.5 million.

Last year, at the Park Hyatt Saigon, the Saigon Summer Ball raised more than USD185,000.

With this funding, saigonchildren will continue to improve the lives of thousands of disadvantaged children and their families across Vietnam, especially in the context of COVID-19.

Saigon Summer Ball fundraising supports all of the programmes; School Building, Special Needs Education, Getting Ready For Work, and the Child Development Scholarship Programme which gives underprivileged children the opportunity to continue their education rather than leaving school to earn money for their families. In this way saigonchildren can help ensure that every child reaches their full potential and gives them the ability to provide a better life for themselves and their families.

Saigon Children’s Charity is an NGO registered in UK in 1992 and work exclusively in Vietnam for one purpose: to help disadvantaged Vietnamese children to get an education and a fairer start in life. The organization is committed to overcoming barriers to education for children, including poverty, geography, knowledge and disability.

Earlier this month, saigonchildren has annouced that it has raised over VND 10 billion (USD 434,000) from domestic and foreign entities and individuals since April, to address the urgent needs of the families of impoverished children with immediate support of staple foods, and sometimes books, drinking water, and rent support.

By tackling hunger within homes, saigonchildren was allowing over 7,000 families to continue to support their children’s education and prevent them from dropping out.

Saigonchildren first launched a COVID appeal at the start of April to raise funds in order to provide relief packages for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Source: saigonchildren

The NGO also called out donors for the emergency support phase 2 to continue to expand its relief support, aimed specifically at supporting impoverished residents of the Da Nang city and Quang Nam province.

This is essential as the pandemic has hit tourism areas such as these particularly hard and low-income seasonal workers struggle to find enough economic resources to keep their families fed and educated, saigonchildren said in its appeal.

Da Nang's economy shrank by 3.61 percent in the first half of this year, its first contraction in the 23 years since it became a centrally administered city. According to the Da Nang Department of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs, there are 216,387 uncontracted and freelance workers being affected by the pandemic in the city. Over 50,000 people in the city’s poor and near-poor households are amongst the most impacted by social distancing measures and the closure of businesses.

Due to the restrictions currently being applied, saigonchildren will partner with the local NGOs and Union of Friendship Organizations to help distribute the support packages, comprising of food staples and other necessities. Saigonchildren is aiming to raise enough to support children from poor families based in Quang Nam and Da Nang, previously not under the wings of the charity, as well as supporting the children already in their programmes.

This second COVID-19 appeal will aim to continue the mission of the first – improving food security to alleviate the pressure that families feel around providing an education. However, it will additionally be reaching out to provide scholarships to disadvantaged students so that they can have a full school year uninterrupted by the pandemic./.

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