The National Fund for the Poor and Social Welfare raised over 13.9 trillion VND (600.7 million USD) during 2017-2019, Vice President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee Truong Thi Ngoc Anh told a teleconference in Hanoi on December 23.

Anh said over 2 trillion VND were spent on social welfare programmes. Over 110,000 houses and thousands of welfare works were built and repaired in localities, millions of poor patients received health check-ups and treatment while thousands of poor households were given access to loans for production.

She added that the fund’s campaign board will continue holding an annual television programme “The whole nation joins hand for the poor” on October 17 to launch the Month for the Poor from October 17 – November 18.

The VFF Central Committee and the board will present 3,500 gifts to poor households and 20 gifts to poor communities with a total value of over 4.4 billion VND from December 2019 to January 20, 2020.

President of the VFF Central Committee Tran Thanh Man urged VFF chapters to call on organisations and enterprises to continue supporting the fund, thus creating a driving force for the poor to sustainably escape poverty.

They were required to effectively use the fund in line with State regulations, ensuring fairness and objectiveness.