Texting campaign to raise funds for those less fortunate

A texting campaign will be launched on October 1 to support disadvantaged people, as part of efforts to respond to the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and the Day for the Poor in Vietnam.
Illustrative image (Source: VNA)
Illustrative image (Source: VNA)
Organisers of the campaign, which are the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and the Vietnam Fatherland Front, held a meeting on September 25 to coordinate their plans. 

Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Minh Hong said that the campaign, themed “The whole country joins hands for the poor – not leaving anyone behind”, targets people from all walks of life, as well as various organisations and businesses.

Willing donors can send the code VNN to 1409 from October 1 until the end of December 31, 2018 to contribute 20,000 VND towards helping people living in poverty and difficult circumstances.

The campaign aims to raise 5 billion VND (215,000 USD) which will be used to ease difficulties for disadvantaged people, especially those from ethnic minority groups.

Under the multi-dimensional poverty criteria for the 2016-2020 period, Vietnam currently has over 1.64 million low-income households, accounting for 6.7 percent of the total population, and 1.3 million others living close to the poverty line, making up 5.43 percent of population.

Sustainable poverty reduction, in line with a multidimensional approach to poverty, not only means helping people afford food and clothing, but also improving their access to basic social services, meeting their minimum demands on healthcare, education, housing, clean water, sanitation, and information.

In 2016, a similar texting campaign received over 203,000 messages, collecting over 3.04 billion VND (130,720 USD). The money was used to support the development of livelihood for locals in six localities across the nation.

Last year, the campaign raised 4.4 billion VND (189,200 USD), which helped improve the livelihoods of people in six localities and funded the provision of radios and televisions for disadvantaged households from ethnic minority groups.

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