White Blouse Volunteer

(Baonghean) - On weekends, people in Vinh City see groups of students in blue volunteer uniforms enthusiastically going to families to "perform their duty" of collecting scrap materials: beer cans, plastic boxes, cardboard... They sell and buy books, pens, and warm clothes to donate to poor students. This activity has been maintained by the Youth Union of Vinh Medical University for the past 3 years...

On weekend evenings, the courtyard of Vinh Medical University becomes bustling with activity as many students carry bags of scrap bottles and waste paper to their "collection point." They happily and enthusiastically share the fruits of their labor after a day of wandering through alleys and streets collecting and soliciting recyclable materials from residential areas.

Student volunteers from the "White Blouse" club collect recyclable materials at public places to raise funds for charity.

Turning into a small alley on Tan Hung Street (Hung Loc Ward, Vinh City), Nguyen Thi Trang, a second-year nursing student, quickly asked, "Excuse me, sir/madam, do you have any scrap metal or waste paper today?" Immediately, the homeowner brought out a bag of empty beer bottles, plastic bottles, and other recyclable materials for the students. The sight of these volunteer students collecting scrap materials every weekend afternoon and evening has become familiar to residents of neighborhoods in Hung Loc, Hung Phuc, Hung Dung wards, and other areas.

A group of students from Vinh Medical University started collecting recyclable materials to raise funds for charity, helping poor students, after participating in a volunteer trip to Nam Nhoong commune, a mountainous area in Que Phong district.

Nguyen Huu Que, a student in class D1B of the Nursing Faculty, vividly remembers the winter of 2011, when he accompanied members of the university's Student Union to this remote mountainous region to donate gifts to poor students: “It was my first time setting foot in a remote village where the people's lives were still impoverished and electricity hadn't reached the area. In the winter in the forest, the weather was bitterly cold, but the students still came to school in thin clothes, some barefoot, their lips darkened by the cold. What I remember most is the eager eyes and joyful smiles of the children when they received gifts from the university students. Leaving the children in the highlands, we carried with us the thought that we would strive to raise funds to support poor students.”

Student volunteers from the "White Blouse" Club collect recyclable materials every weekend.

As one of the club's first members, Le Dinh Thanh, a second-year student in the Trauma Department, shared: “We live in rented rooms. In crowded places like that, there's often a lot of waste like empty cans, newspapers, cardboard... piled up in a corner of the street, waiting for sanitation workers to come and clean it up. Our group proposed a fundraising activity by collecting waste, to both protect the environment and raise money for charity. The student group started by planning to call on other students in the school to participate, through the school's Youth Union and Student Association activities and through online forums.”

Seeing the practical significance of collecting recyclable materials to raise funds, the group attracted over 50 students and named themselves the "White Blouse Club." In the early days of collecting scrap, many students were a little hesitant, but after a few attempts, we all agreed to bring our student IDs to explain the purpose and meaning of the charity to the homeowners. Many people supported us, and some even donated cash to the charity fund.

The joy of the student volunteers from the "White Blouse" Club after a night of collecting recyclable waste.

For nearly three years, on weekends, more than 50 students from the "White Blouse" Club have divided into groups to go to various dormitories to collect scrap materials and recyclable bottles to raise funds for charity trips. After classes and internships at the hospital, the students take advantage of the late afternoon and evening hours to collect recyclable materials. Summer and winter alike, the volunteers' feet roam through every alley and street corner, picking up and gathering all kinds of scrap. After about two or three hours of spreading out across the neighborhoods, the scrap materials are "gathered" in the schoolyard. The male students sort the scrap and weigh it for sale.

The work of collecting scrap materials is also very arduous; the team has to divide up the tasks to avoid overlapping areas and make every effort to collect as much as possible. Some days the whole team collects nearly a million dong, but other days they only get a few dozen kilograms of scrap paper and bottles… Although they have to cut back on leisure time on weekends to do work that requires patience, the volunteers always encourage each other to keep trying. Because soon, underprivileged children will have new school bags, pens, notebooks, and warm clothes. That joy of the poor students is the motivation that always drives the "White Blouse" volunteer group to continue their journey of collecting scrap… With the income from collecting scrap, the volunteer group has raised about 30 million dong each year to support poor students in Que Phong and Anh Son districts…

The activities of the "White Blouse" Club have been recognized by the Central Student Union and the Provincial Youth Union with Certificates of Merit for its positive contributions to the "volunteer movement for the community." To date, the model of collecting recyclable materials for charity has spread and gained popularity among young people. The "White Blouse" Club has added members from several universities and colleges in the province. A group of university students has also formed the "Green Living" Club, maintaining its activities by collecting and selling recyclable materials to raise funds for charity. These actions, though small and simple, are practical and noble. They illuminate the spirit of volunteerism for the community, urging students in particular and young people in general to strive for a beautiful and useful life, to know how to love and be responsible to the community. This is an invaluable foundation and asset in life...

Dinh Nguyet