Club 18.04: Multiplying Kind Hearts

(Baonghean.vn) –To help theTo help the less fortunate integrate into the community, the 18.04 Club of Vinh University Student Association was born.

Being born with bad luck and suffering from many defects, they do not accept their fate and always want to rise up with the desire to become a normal person and integrate into society. Moreover, they want to besharing, encouraging, and motivating in life. Helping members have the opportunity to communicate, share their feelings, difficulties in life, creating opportunities to connect good feelings between volunteers and members, practicing skills, experiencing life, joining hands for the community and society is the purpose for the establishment of the 18.04 Club of the Vinh University Student Association.

Club launch 18.04.

During a visit to SOS Children's Village Vinh, Uncle Cuong - Deputy Director of the village confided: I also have a disabled nephew, he has difficulty walking, always has low self-esteem, currently studying at Le Viet Thuat High School, after graduating from high school he wants to take the entrance exam to the IT department of Hanoi University of Science and Technology. My family and I advised him to study in Vinh so that his parents would have less trouble, and it would be easier to take care of him... but he has not changed his decision yet... I hope you can come visit, confide in him, and encourage him...

The club has been established for more than 3 months. Initially, there were only 41 members, but now the number of members has increased nearly 3 times. They are students from the faculties of Literature, History, Geography, Biology, Foreign Languages, Economic Construction and some collaborators from other schools such as Vinh University of Technology and Education, Nghe An College of Economics, Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry.

Volunteer team with children at vocational training center for the disabled.

The club participates in volunteer activities to plant and take care of trees at Vinh city cemetery.

Phan Anh Duc - class 52B Biology, Vinh University, shared: born and raised in a large farming family. It was even more difficult when I fell into this situation. Since I was young, I understood the hardships of my parents, so I tried very hard to study. But to get to university like today, it was a long journey mixed with joy, sadness and hardships of family, friends and teachers. In life, I encountered many difficulties, especially in traveling and communication skills to get along with everyone. Because of those difficulties, in studying, when I encountered math problems that I did not understand or had questions, I did not dare to ask teachers and friends because my speaking ability was limited. Many times I lived in self-consciousness, inferiority complex and gradually lost my soft skills. What I and all the members of the Club want most is that the School Union will organize more exchange activities so that we have more opportunities to practice the skills that we lack and also an opportunity for me to exchange, integrate and be able to help everyone.

With 11 disabled members, the 18.04 club becomes a big home. There, children are shared, sympathized, and no one is afraid or avoids them.In the club activities, we always focus on integrating exercises and unclear issues in study and life to solve together (in the form of group discussions). This creates opportunities to practice soft skills (because many students, especially those with disabilities, lack soft skills (the ability to speak in front of a crowd).help children become more confident in communication and they themselves become role models to help children and friends in the same situation become more confident and sociable.

Hoang Thi Kim Chi - class 51K1 Food Chemistry, Vinh University said: Club 18.04 is not only for young people with disabilities, but each volunteer who joins the Club may initially just want to have fun, but with compassion and youthful enthusiasm, each person wants to share and help members as well as children in disabled centers to overcome themselves, believe in life, integrate into activities, especially communicate with people. We hope to call on more people to join the Club as well as donate to support the Club to create strength to help more disabled people.

With the permission of the school's students, the consent of the Board of Directors and the Management Board of the vocational training center for the disabled in Nghe An province, the April 18 Club called on sponsors and organizations to donate to build a fund and started its activities with the program "Connecting love" with the children at the vocational training center for the disabled in Nghe An province. With the desire to bring them a warm atmosphere, through games, 240 children received small gifts, motivating them to strive to study and rise up to become disabled but not useless people. In addition, the members of the Club also actively participated in the humanitarian blood donation program, giving gifts to 2 disabled students in the Club: Pham Anh Duc 52B - Biology Department and Le Dinh Thanh 52B9 - Accounting.

Not only stopping at meeting and organizing games with disabled children, the members of the Club also learn sign language, to talk and share feelings with them. Starting from February 2012, the Club has implemented a regular activity plan at 2 vocational training centers for the disabled and the Nghe An province orthopedic center such as: helping children learn culture, helping them develop soft skills, organizing entertainment during extracurricular hours every Wednesday, building an art group, a sports team. In addition, at the orthopedic center, volunteers also help disabled patients practice rehabilitation.

Vinh University is known as a school with a rich tradition in teaching and learning, a place that does a good job of integrating into the community, especially always paying attention to and creating conditions for disabled students and students with especially difficult circumstances to study and contribute. Hopefully, Club 18.04 will continue to promote the tradition of its school, and do better in the club's motto: always steadfast, resilient, full of vitality, and hope.“We ourselves will help ourselves.”

Thao Nhi