Keeping in mind that sharing is living more responsibly, Nguyen Giang Huong, a teacher in Hanoi, has practiced her life motto even more effectively: do charity as much as possible.

Nguyen Giang Huong (3rd right), teacher at the Vietnam-Bulgaria Nursery School, Hanoi, in a charity program for mountainous children. Photo: Nam Du/ The Hanoi Times

It has been many years since Huong learned of the shortages suffered by children in the mountainous areas of Vietnam, she has donated clothes, books and food and raised funds for charity in different programs that she initiated and joined.

“Words can’t express how saddened I am to learn about their hardship, especially not enough clothes for winter,” Huong recalled the first time she got the news from her husband. With sympathy, she knitted scarves, sweaters, and hats for the kids, then sent winter clothes and books to kids in northern areas home to ethnic minorities.

Years after, her charity has been expanded and joined by a network of hundreds of members. They have contributed their parts to not only children in mountainous areas but also disadvantaged and older people through various programs, including building schools in remote areas and offering food for poor patients and needy people during Covid-19.

By promoting kindness and understanding towards others, Huong and her team have reached thousands of beneficiaries in mountainous areas hundreds of kilometers from Hanoi, inpatients in seven big hospitals citywide, poor households in Hanoi, and martyrs at cemeteries.

Nguyen Giang Huong at a webinar honoring Hanoi's Good People – Good Deeds held by Kinh Te & Do Thi Newspaper earlier this month. Photo: Pham Hung/ The Hanoi Times

Promoting good deeds         

Huong is one of the people honored by Hanoi's Good People – Good Deeds program 2022. Not until she was given the title was she praised for her good deeds over the past years.

Being a teacher at the Vietnam-Bulgaria Nursery School in Hai Ba Trung District, Huong is better known as a person devoted to charity. Sharing with The Hanoi Times, she said: "Good deeds are suitable lessons for kids who are nurtured humanely."

Apart from things offered for children, Huong and members of the "Thien Nguyen Mua Thu" (Autumn Charity) team have built six schools in the northern mountainous provinces of Son La and Ha Giang that border China. Each school costs an amount of VND450 million (US$18,500)-VND700 million ($41,000).

To make the projects possible, each member has to raise funds by calling for donations from their relatives, friends, and sponsors; making pictures with Bodhi leaves; selling farm produce, and organizing charity fairs.

Huong and her team have offered porridge for the sick at the biggest healthcare centers in the capital city, including the National Hospital of Endocrinology, Blood Transfusion Hematology, Vietnam National Children's Hospital, Hanoi Oncology Hospital, Thanh Nhan Hospital, Dong Da Hospital, and Bach Mai Hospital.

For the past few years, they have offered porridge to patients every Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday, regardless of the weather.

Huong said those activities are not enough, and her team plans to boost charity work among their relatives and friends for the only reason: love and happiness will be spread.

"Giving is taking with love. I'm given lots of love and warmth from sharing, and I feel happy when I see the joy on children's faces and do a little good deed," she shared.

Huong is one of many people honored for Hanoi's Good People – Good Deeds program, which has been underway for three decades to uphold Vietnam's tradition of "the healthy leaves protect tattered ones."