Representatives from the Embassy of Lao People's Democratic Republic to Vietnam, VUFO, the Vietnam-Laos Friendship Association, the Laos-Vietnam Friendship Association, and VietnamTimes magazine attended the special event, welcoming Laotian writers and students in Vietnam.

The "Storytelling Keepsake" contest was launched on May 9, 2022. Photo: VNT

The "Storytelling Keepsake" contest to mark the 45th anniversary of the Vietnam-Laos Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation (July 18, 1977 - July 18, 2022), the Year of Laos-Vietnam Friendship and Solidarity 2022, and the 60th anniversary of the beginning of diplomatic ties between the two countries (September 5, 1962 - September 5, 2022).

The competition gives the citizens of the two nations a chance to share heartfelt tales of friendship between Laos and Vietnam as well as proud holy memories. At the same time, this serves as a platform for the two peoples' hopes and suggestions for improving relations between Vietnam and Laos to be heard, shared, and thought upon. The competition also helped to commemorate and communicate the admirable principles underlying the unique solidarity connection between Vietnam and Laos to all social groups, particularly the younger generation.

The Friendship School T80 (Son Tay, Hanoi) has sent out invitations to all Lao students enrolled at the institution as a response to the competition. Photo: Thoi Dai

People from both nations have responded to the contest and taken an active part in it. After announcing the contest's commencement, the Lao PDR Embassy in Vietnam worked closely with the Central Committee of the Laos-Vietnam Friendship Association and the Lao Veterans Association to distribute the contest's regulations to communities in Laos. Publicize information and news about the competition at the same time on Laos's mass media, including printed and electronic newspapers, online social networking sites, etc. Agencies, organizations, units, educational institutions, students, and citizens from all over the nation were all warmly welcomed to participate.

The organizing committee has received 6,215 articles, speeches, and artifacts relating to lovely and emotional recollections of Lao-Vietnamese people who used to stand side by side and share factual outcomes of battling, work, and studying as of the contest's final entry deadline of September 15, 2022. Numerous works discuss the existing extensive collaboration between the two parties, the two nations, and the two peoples, expressing their sentiments, goals, and intentions to foster cordial relations between Laos and Vietnam in the future.

Le Reo (2nd from the right, from Trieu Son, Thanh Hoa) sent about 60 keepsakes to the Organizing Committee. Photo: Hanh Tran

Delegates, writers, and spectators take in an artistic program during the awards ceremony that includes songs that praise the strong friendship, solidarity, and cooperative relationships between Vietnam and Laos. The songs were submitted for the contest through the author's personal performance. The show included documentary reporting on the contest's planning, unique contest souvenirs, competitors' tales and sentiments about the connection between Vietnam and Laos, as well as their wishes for the relationship to be "forever growing and eternally sustained."

There is a special exchange program with Tran Van Thang and Khamkeo Voongphila, the sworn brothers who are Vietnamese and Laotian, at the prize ceremony. Tran Van Thang is the son of Tran Van Tuc, one of the "Storytelling Keepsake" contest winners.

Many Laotian students were evacuated to Vietnam 53 years ago during the conflict. The Vietnamese families, many of them were farmers who worked throughout the war, adopted the kids and took them home so they could live with them. They cohabitated as a unit, as a family. Tran Van Tuc adopted Khamkeo Voongphila, a youngster from the Laos (zone 3, Dao Xa commune, Thanh Thuy district, Phu Tho province). Khamkeo Voongphila went back to Laos after both nations experienced liberty and peace. They have lost contact with one another for decades.

From a photo taken together in 1969, the Laotian adopted son found his Vietnamese adoptive parents' family who had taken care of him during the chaotic war years. Photo: Contest Submission

Khamkeo Voongphila was able to locate his adoptive parents and adopted sibling in their new country of Vietnam thanks to a photo shot with their family in 1969 and some poignant details submitted to the "Storytelling Keepsake" contest. As they wrote about their life and fond recollections of their years together, the parents and the adopted child both took home top awards in this contest. After fifty years apart, Tran Van Thang will get the chance to meet up with Khamkeo Voongphila, the adopted son of his family, in Hanoi.

Furthermore, the delegates and audience had the opportunity to connect with author Trang Lao Lu (84 years old, Ban Lao Kho, Phieng Khoai commune, Yen Chau district, Son La province), a witness who had safeguarded the great revolutionary leader of the Lao people President - Kaysone Phomvihane in Lao Kho village during the brutal war years.

The mementos are only basic objects with nothing in the way of tangible worth, but they hold the great and holy spiritual values of friendship, love, the relationship between teacher and student, and comradeship that the two ethnic groups have experienced through thick and thin.

More than just a competition, "Storytelling Keepsake" has surely helped to foster and grow the connection between the two peoples of Laos and Vietnam.

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