2014 Summer Volunteer Campaign: Focus on specialized activities

(Baonghean) - Every year, during the summer, young volunteers set out with the spirit of "wherever there is a need, there is youth, where there is difficulty, there is youth". The volunteer movement has brought to society a beautiful, humane image of today's youth, demonstrating that the youth live responsibly towards society and join hands for the community.

Vinh University's SVTN team built an inter-village road in Yen Tinh commune (Tuong Duong).

In-depth activities

Yen Tinh is a mountainous commune 45 km from the center of Tuong Duong district. Out of 9 villages in the commune, only 5 have electricity and telephone signal. The volunteer team of the Faculty of Law - Vinh University chose the farthest and most difficult location, Cap Chang village, to carry out volunteer activities. Following the theme "Youth join hands to build new countryside", the volunteer team was divided into many groups, each group of 6 people took turns transporting materials, leveling the ground, and initially forming roads for the villagers. Team leader Pham Van Hoi - student of K53B15 Faculty of Law - said: "To level the 40m section passing through Cap Chang village, we divided the work among ourselves. One group went down to the stream to get rocks, another group used ropes to pull carts up the mountain slope. It took a week to complete this section of road." Realizing that this is a hot spot for illegal gold mining, the team coordinated with the commune police to go to the scene to propagate to the people and mine owners to be aware of the dangers and harms of illegal gold mining in the area. After more than 3 weeks, the team exceeded the set plan: leveling the ground and spreading gravel on 200m of inter-village roads; visiting and giving gifts to 6 families with preferential policies; coordinating with the commune Youth Union Executive Committee and local Youth Union to help 3 families with preferential policies repair their houses, clear their gardens, etc.; combining with meetings of the people of Hat and Cap Chang villages to organize 2 sessions to disseminate the law to union members and youth in the area.

As a unit with a tradition in volunteer activities, this year, Vinh University has 19 concentrated teams participating in the exam support program and 18 concentrated teams operating in localities from July 1 to July 20 in districts of Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces, including 1 international team operating in Xieng Khouang province (Laos). Right from the launch of the campaign, the Standing Committee of the Youth Union has made detailed plans to direct the advance teams, survey the locations of volunteer activities; select outstanding students to respond well to specialized volunteer activities. This year, the school has established 5 specialized volunteer teams such as the Volunteer Team of the Faculty of Agriculture - Forestry - Fisheries to disseminate knowledge of science and technology of plants and breeds to people in Duc Thanh commune - Yen Thanh, the Team of the Faculty of Construction to design and directly construct public sanitation works for Chau Kim commune - Que Phong, the Team to disseminate law to people in remote areas in Yen Tinh by students of the Faculty of Law; the Team to popularize information technology for young people in Kim Son town (Que Phong) by the IT team.

This year, 13 volunteer teams from Vinh Medical University have really gone to places where people need them. 45 student volunteers participated in supporting the treatment of leprosy patients, at the same time, helping the elderly and lonely patients in their daily activities at Quynh Lap Leprosy - Dermatology Hospital. From bowls of charity porridge, tight handshakes, initial care, future doctors and nurses have left deep feelings in the hearts of leprosy patients. Student volunteers from Vinh Medical University also went to the provincial Nursing Center for Wounded and Sick Soldiers to care for seriously wounded soldiers, participated in supporting the treatment of autistic and disabled children at the provincial Children's Support Fund...

Difficult to meet demand

In need of popularizing IT for cadres and youth union members in the area, Thanh Lien Commune Youth Union - Thanh Chuong sent a document requesting the Provincial Youth Union to provide human resources to participate in popularizing IT and Vinh University Youth Union Team was the designated unit to undertake this task. However, due to many objective factors, Vinh University Youth Union directed the youth project team to Thanh Lien Commune. Due to the mismatch in human resource needs, the plan between the locality and the volunteer support unit changed, forcing this volunteer team to move to operate in Vu Quang - Ha Tinh. This shows that there is a "phase difference" between the locality's support needs and the capacity of the volunteer team.

Regarding this issue, comrade Nguyen Ngoc Canh - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Youth Union said: "This is also an issue that needs to be learned from experience. With the theme "Year of Youth Volunteers", the Provincial Youth Union Standing Committee has directed all volunteer teams to focus on specialized activities, so only places that really need support can participate in activities."

To complete the volunteer mission, there needs to be a significant amount of financial support, because in fact, many localities do not lack human resources to support working days, but they only lack funds to complete the project. Nguyen Tat Hung - Class 52, Faculty of National Defense Education - Vinh University, Team Leader of the volunteer team in Vu Quang - Ha Tinh said: "When contributing working days to build traffic works, we really wanted to complete the lighting system for the people, but because there was no funding, we had to give up". Also related to the funding issue, Mr. Nguyen Dong Hieu - Secretary of the Youth Union of Vinh Medical University said: "Many localities want us to organize a volunteer team to examine and treat patients, but because the accompanying machinery and equipment are not enough, the efficiency is not high".

The 2014 Summer Youth Volunteer Campaign was widely deployed throughout the province from June 1 to August 30, 2014. This is a series of key activities within the plan to implement “Year of Youth Volunteers 2014”. This year, the provincial level directed the establishment of 35 concentrated and specialized Youth Volunteer teams to support disadvantaged areas. Promoting the pioneering spirit of specialized volunteer teams, combined with local volunteer teams, this year's summer volunteer campaign focuses on several main contents such as: Directing volunteer activities to the grassroots, promoting the role of youth volunteers in socio-economic development, especially in the movement to build new rural areas. However, to meet the real needs of the locality, more coordination is needed between the Youth Union at all levels and the professional capacity of the volunteer army.

Article and photos:Thanh Nga