“Love is giving, happiness is sharing, and concrete actions are much more meaningful than words.”

The viewpoint was shared by Nguyen Trung Thai, deputy director of the Inspection Committee under the Hanoi Association of the Blind, at a recent webinar held by Kinh Te & Do Thi (Economic and Urban) newspaper to honor examples of good people and good deeds in all walks of life.

Thai, who teaches computer courses for the blind in the capital city, is an active member of charity activities included in Hanoi’s "Good People – Good Deeds" program, which has lasted for three decades to help disadvantaged people in the city.

The city's program has been launched by Hanoi’s authorities for 30 years now [1992-2022] to promote the long-lasting tradition of helping needy people in the city. 

Thai won the "Good Person – Good Deed" title in 2022 for his devotion to the blind in Hanoi over the years. The teacher, who was blind since the age of 14, helps the blind by offering smartphone applications and compiling documents. Notably, the manual to use smartphones for the blind compiled by him is widely used in training courses of the Blind Association.

Thai has overcome his ill fate by successfully completing the computer teacher training course in 2008. In 2014, he won the second prize in the national computer science contest for the blind. 

Nguyen Trung Thai shares with readers at the seminar. Photo: Pham Hung/ The Hanoi Times

“The first revolution was the introduction of Braille, the second was the computer with software that supports speech, and in the last almost 10 years, smartphones have been the third revolution that completely changes the lives of the blind,” he shared with The Hanoi Times.

Nguyen Van Thanh is another example of the "Good People – good deeds" program. Thanh, a resident in Hanoi's Me Linh district, has donated his blood 106 times.

"Voluntary blood donation is necessary as there are always patients who need blood for a timely emergency across the nation," Thanh said, sharing that the biggest motivation for his donation comes from empathy and desire to share with the community.

To keep donating blood for years, Thanh had to make his family at ease of his health conditions and convince them of the urgency of people in need. 

Lai Ha Phuong, Chairwoman of the Women's Union of Ha Dong District in Hanoi, is another person who is dedicated to environmental protection and contributes to the charity work in the locality.

Lai Ha Phuong, Chairwoman of the Women's Union of Ha Dong District. Photo: Pham Hung/ The Hanoi Times

Phuong, together with others in the union, have launched different models to protect environment, such as sorting waste at source, launching the "green apartment – green corridor – green balcony" movement in residential areas, as well as "friendly garbage" and "charitable garbage".

“We often take care of the disadvantaged and migrant women, the lonely elderly without support, women and children with illness and difficulties,” Phuong told The Hanoi Times.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Giang Huong, a teacher at Vietnam – Bulgaria Kindergarten in Hai Ba Trung District, is an active participant in the school's charity activities and many other volunteer programs.

In 2021, she and the Autumn Volunteer group campaign raised funds to build two schools for children in Northern mountainous province of Son La. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Huong and her friends presented rice and food to poor households.

Nguyen Giang Huong, a teacher at Vietnam – Bulgaria Kindergarten in Hai Ba Trung District. Photo: Pham Hung/ The Hanoi Times

Huong's charity work began in 2009-2010 when her husband told her about harsh conditions of children in northwestern highlands. "At that time, I know how much it grieved the children who had no warm clothes on cold days. To help them, I asked my colleagues to support me by knitting hats, sweaters, shirts, and socks for those children. We are very happy that we can help them," Huong said.

"In addition, I asked parents to teach their children to save old clothes and collect books to send to children in difficulty. Thanks to this, I can teach my students to share more responsibly with the community and society," she added.

Hanoi’s "Good People – Good Deeds" program has received a positive response from the local media, which has launched press awards for examples of good people and good deeds. Kinh Te & Do Thi newspaper has set aside a section for "Good People – Good Deeds", and its latest move is the above-mentioned webinar on the movement.

The event allowed Hanoi’s good people to share their personal stories and experiences with readers. Thereby, they can widely spread the "Good People – Good Deeds" movement to the community, creating positive energy to motivate local residents to build a developed and modern capital city.

The program is an extension of the Vietnamese people's tradition "Lá lành đùm lá rách" ("healthy leaves wrap around torn leaves"), which is a very meaningful movement in the context of a busier society, faster pace of life and people having little time to care for others.