Nghe An Youth: More "supports" to help the poor "warm their stomachs and hearts"

It has become a habit that every Tuesday morning, patients being treated at Tan Ky District Medical Center are present at the hospital grounds to receive free porridge brought by Union officials, young civil servants, union members, youth, students, philanthropists, and businesses in the district.

In a space filled with love, in less than an hour, more than 150 bowls of porridge were delivered to the patients. Mr. Nguyen Van Sinh (Tan Phu commune) excitedly said: "Due to difficult circumstances and a far away house, when being treated as an inpatient at the hospital, there were many shortages, but thanks to the bowls of porridge, the care and encouragement of the young people, the spirit of the patients here is always happy, reducing the pain of illness".

"Bowl of charity porridge" activity of Tan Ky District Youth Union. Photo: Phuong Thuy

It is known that most of the inpatients at Tan Ky District Medical Center have extremely difficult family circumstances and economic conditions. Some patients are treated alone, without relatives to care for them.

With the desire to share and help patients in difficult circumstances, promote the spirit of shock and volunteerism of young people in social security work, Tan Ky District Youth Union has coordinated with the District Health Center to direct the Youth Union organizations of communes, towns, and the Youth Union branches of district-level agencies to mobilize young cadres, civil servants, union members, and young people to help.

Accordingly, each member saves personal expenses from 8,000 to 10,000 VND per month, at the same time, connects and calls for support from philanthropists and businesses to organize the program "Bowl of love porridge", cooks and distributes free porridge to patients being treated here.

The program “Bowl of Love Porridge” has attracted 17 youth union branches to participate, including 10 agency branches, 3 school branches and 4 neighboring commune branches. Each session of cooking and distributing free porridge will be undertaken by 2 branches. On average, each pot of porridge is worth about 700,000 VND (more than 150 servings of porridge), the main ingredients are rice, green beans, pork bones, pork and vegetables, tubers, fruits...

Many activities of Tan Ky youth such as: Free medical examination for patients in difficult circumstances; Organizing meals for children in difficult circumstances, living far from school; Summer youth volunteering to build rural roads; Giving gifts to households in religious areas affected by natural disasters after the recent storm and flood.

Comrade Chu Van Thuan - Secretary of Tan Ky District Youth Union said: The activity of cooking and distributing free porridge has been maintained stably from 2016 to present, with more than 15,000 warm porridge servings delivered to patients regularly every Tuesday morning.

Of which, since the beginning of the year, 35 batches have been organized, with more than 5,500 porridge portions, with a total cost of more than 80 million VND. A bowl of porridge not only warms the stomach of patients but also warms their hearts, because it is filled with the love and sharing of the whole community. Through this volunteer activity, it will connect individuals and organizations to share the pain of illness with patients.

"The program also creates conditions for union members and young people to practice and contribute, building a young generation of pioneers and benevolent people, thereby promoting a sense of responsibility, public ethics, and completing assigned tasks well" - Secretary of Tan Ky District Union emphasized.

Also with the spirit of mutual love and solidarity, arousing solidarity with the motto "The whole leaves cover the torn leaves", the District Youth Union and the Youth Union of Quy Chau district have deployed the model "Free wardrobe for the poor".

The “Free Wardrobe” model of Quy Chau District Youth Union. Photo: Phuong Thuy

The charity wardrobe is located at the Quy Chau District Medical Center, carefully selected and arranged by the district's youth union members. To build this model, Quy Chau District Youth Union launched and called for the participation of 28 Youth Union branches, and at the same time promoted and mobilized individuals and organizations in the district and province through social networks to donate clothes to poor patients.

Thanks to that, the wardrobe is always fully and promptly "supplied". Currently, the free wardrobe model in Quy Chau district has received more than 10 tons of clothes of all kinds.

With the motto "Whoever has extra, come support, whoever needs, come get" has attracted a lot of attention from people, many poor patients after knowing the information also came to the address, hoping to choose a satisfactory and warm set of clothes for themselves and their relatives.

Happy to choose a suitable coat for her loved one from the free wardrobe, Mrs. Vi Thi Hoi (Chau Tien commune) was moved: "I have been taking care of my husband at the hospital for a week now, the weather has started to get cold but I have no money to buy warm clothes because my family is poor and has to spend all the money on medicine. As soon as I heard that young people were giving out free clothes, I immediately chose some shirts for my husband to wear..."

Activities of Quy Chau youth for poor patients such as: Free wardrobe; free examination and medicine; organizing charity porridge.

Quy Chau District Youth Union Secretary Nguyen Thi Hieu said: For the poor, buying a set of clothes is very difficult, moreover, poor patients also have to pay a lot of expenses for medical examination and treatment. Also starting from this reason, the model "Free wardrobe for the poor" was born in 2017 and has been opened 35 times, giving out more than 5,000 sets of clothes, contributing to encouraging the spirit and giving more strength for patients to continue fighting the disease.

"In the coming time, Quy Chau youth will try to call for expansion of the program, and also hope that charitable organizations and volunteers will join hands to help more poor patients" - Secretary of Quy Chau District Youth Union shared.

In addition, Quy Chau youth also has many other activities such as coordinating with Quy Chau District Medical Center to organize free medical examinations and medicine distribution for patients in difficult circumstances; "Bowl of love porridge" activity...

Talking to us, comrade Chu Duc Thai - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Youth Union, Chairman of the Provincial Youth Union said that up to now, 14 district-level units have deployed and regularly maintained free porridge distribution activities at district and provincial hospitals, distributing more than 30,000 free porridge portions to poor patients.

In addition, the free wardrobe model has also been directed to be effectively replicated at facilities, each year thousands of sets of clothes have been distributed to the poor in difficult circumstances, these activities have created a strong influence in society.

The construction and replication of this model has promoted the spirit of volunteerism among young people, while educating young people about responsibility to the community, the spirit of mutual love, and love between people.