As the largest private conglomerate in Vietnam, corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of Vingroup show how much it has given back to the community. It is among the companies with the most CSR programs which have proven the group’s business philosophy that the development of itself and the community goes hand in hand.
Vingroup has established the Kind Heart Foundation to realize its CSR philosophy.
Attending to underprivileged children
Born in Khanh Hoa Province, like many other children, Nguyen Kim Thuy used to have a happy family. However, when she entered a secondary school, her parents died in an accident.
She and two siblings have been living with their grandparents since then but their grandfather has a cardiovascular disease. They have been brought up by their old grandmother.
Due to Thuy’s circumstances, she got a scholarship from Vingroup to pursue her dream of attending university. She then continued to receive a scholarship to pay university tuition fees.
Vingroup’s scholarships are aimed at supporting the country’s future generations, helping them overcome their difficulties to continue their learning journey and realize their dreams.
After 10 years, the Kind Heart Foundation has awarded 41,000 scholarships to underprivileged students with outstanding achievements nationwide.
In November last year, the foundation presented nearly 900 smartphones to poor students to facilitate their online learning during the Covid-19 social distancing period.
The support of the foundation helped ease pressure on the education sector and assisted students to access knowledge and keep pace with their friends.
According to the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, nearly 2,200 Vietnamese children were orphaned by Covid.
To relieve their pain, the Kind Heart Foundation has supported 837 children aged below 16 as of the end of 2021 with VND700,000-1 million each per month. They will receive the financial support for 11 months in the first phase.
The Kind Heart Foundation has also helped build swimming pools at many schools as drowning is among the 10 leading causes of death for children aged between five and 14, while the teaching of swimming in schools remains limited due to the high cost of the construction of swimming pools.
In the first five months of this year alone, 113 children in Vietnam drowned. Therefore, in June, 15 swimming pools funded by the Kind Heart Foundation were put into use in many schools nationwide to prevent drowning.
After four years, the foundation has coordinated with the Disaster Prevention Fund to complete and put into use 114 swimming pools in 36 localities, significantly contributing to protecting children from drowning.
The swimming pools, which cost VND600 million each, were designed to meet the standards, have arches, water treatment equipment and bathrooms.
The Kind Heart Foundation has opened up opportunities for hundreds of students to learn swimming in a safe environment to protect themselves from drowning.
Moreover, the foundation has donated computers to support the teaching and learning of information technology in 37 schools in remote areas.
Under the requirement of the Ministry of Education and Training, from the school year 2022-2023, information technology will become compulsory for students of grade three and above. However, many primary schools in remote areas did not have equipment for the teaching and learning of the subject.
Therefore, since 2020, the Kind Heart Foundation has carried out a program costing VND10 billion to sponsor the information technology education and online learning for primary students.
In late August last year, as many as 875 computers and 21 projectors were installed in 37 schools.
Last September, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the foundation completed building 15 schools, with eight of them in Ha Tinh, two in Hau Giang and one in each of Hoa Binh, Yen Bai, Thanh Hoa, Kon Tum and Dak Nong, with a total investment of nearly VND60 billion before the school year 2021-2022.
Of the total schools, six are kindergartens and nine are primary and secondary schools.
Funding healthcare programs
Following the achievements of a project to screen, detect and control non-infectious diseases in Cao Bang, Lai Chau and Ninh Binh provinces in 2021, the Kind Heart Foundation in June this year continued to join hands with the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology to expand the project to seven more provinces.
The project’s objective is to train more than 90% of medical workers of communes in these seven provinces so that they can early detect and treat non-infectious diseases, specifically high blood pressure and diabetes. In addition, over 90% of medical workers in villages and hamlets in the 10 northern mountainous localities will be also trained.
In addition, equipment and consumable supplies will be equipped at all medical stations in the 10 provinces.
Furthermore, in February, the Kind Heart Foundation supported the training of 40 doctors.
The program was launched after the foundation and the Ministry of Health had cooperated to train and improve skills and professional knowledge for 50 young doctors in difficult areas for a year.
This year, the foundation plans to fund the training of 100 more doctors in northern mountainous, central, Central Highlands, border and island areas.
Over the two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, Vingroup donated a tremendous sum of over VND2 trillion to the anti-pandemic fight. In specifics, it presented 30 coronavirus breathalyzers and related materials to serve two million breath tests with a total value of over VND460 billion to the Ministry of Health; four million Covid vaccine doses; and thousands of ventilators among others.
Another meaningful program carried out by Vingroup is supporting disadvantaged households losing cattle in the historic floods in late 2020. The Kind Heart Foundation in October last year presented cow breeds to 600 households in Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Phu Yen provinces.
These cow breeds were cross-bred ones, which were selected carefully and fully vaccinated against foot-and-mouth, pasteurellosis and lumpy skin diseases. The cows weighed over 155 kilograms and cost over VND16 million each.
The Kind Heart Foundation has conducted the program since 2012 to help poor households alleviate poverty.
Households whose cows give birth to female calves in the first litter will give the calves to other poor households. Thus, the number of households receiving the support will increase.
Over the past decade, nearly 24,000 cows have been given to households nationwide.
