Vice President, General Secretary, and Executive Director of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Red Cross Society Nguyen Hai Anh shared with reporters of the Hanoi Moi Newspaper about this meaningful "Humanitarian Journey - Spreading Love".

Vice President, General Secretary, Executive Director of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Red Cross Society Nguyen Hai Anh. Photo: Thu Hien

Join hands to build a compassionate community

- Can you share a few special highlights of Humanitarian Month 2025?

- Humanitarian Month is an activity that the Central Committee of the Vietnam Red Cross Society has been piloting since 2018 according to the policy of the Central Party Secretariat and by 2021, the Central Party Secretariat has officially allowed May every year to be the peak month for humanitarian activities.

Humanitarian Month 2025 has a special mark, because the activities are organized in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Liberation of the South and National Reunification Day, especially the 135th birthday of President Ho Chi Minh - the founder of the Association, the first Honorary President of the Vietnam Red Cross Society.

With the theme “Humanitarian Journey - Spreading Love”, Humanitarian Month 2025 is not only a series of Red Cross activities of a mass nature, but also a journey connecting kind hearts, lighting up love from the simplest gestures. There, every heart, every gesture, every action, no matter how small, can contribute to making a big change in the lives of those in need. The peak activities will be concentrated from May 8 (International Red Cross and Red Crescent Day) to President Ho Chi Minh's birthday, May 19.

Through the series of activities, the Vietnam Red Cross Society wishes to widely propagate humanitarian values ​​and the movement "Good people, good deeds - Joining hands to build a compassionate community" to all classes of people. Along with that, the Red Cross Society at all levels also strengthens activities to mobilize resources and build funds for humanitarian assistance activities of the Society system during the year, especially implementing a sustainable peak support period for vulnerable groups in the community.

Timely reward and encourage individuals and groups who do good humanitarian work and spread love. Photo: Hien Dung

- Sir, the Central Committee of the Association has set a goal of mobilizing resources of 400 billion VND in Humanitarian Month 2025. How do you assess the opportunity to realize this goal, contributing to the proactiveness and readiness to respond to humanitarian aid requests during the year?

- In carrying out the task of regularly disseminating, raising awareness and responsibility for humanitarian work and the role of the Vietnam Red Cross Society, the appendix issued with Decision 895/QD-TTg in 2023 has identified the leading role of the Vietnam Red Cross Society, with coordinating agencies being ministries, ministerial-level agencies, government agencies, People's Committees of provinces and centrally run cities. In fact, during the Humanitarian Month of 2024, the entire Society mobilized resources to carry out humanitarian activities worth over 763 billion VND, assisting over 1.6 million poor people and people in difficult circumstances. This year, I believe that as long as each of us is clearly aware of our responsibilities, joins hands to share, and builds a compassionate community, the work of mobilizing resources can completely exceed the set target.

Warm and meaningful gifts of support. Photo: Hien Dung.

Replicating sustainable livelihood support models

- Sir, what will be the form and content of the series of activities responding to Humanitarian Month?

- With the goal of creating a strong change in the awareness of Party committees, authorities, organizations and individuals towards humanitarian work, creating a large movement of mutual love and support in the community, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Red Cross Society has implemented a series of activities with many diverse forms, reaching out to a wide range of people in the community.

That is the Campaign "Millions of Compassionate Steps - Continuing the Golden History", deployed on the online sports platform vRace, attracting nearly 200,000 participants, conquering over 5.6 million km and mobilizing 5.62 billion VND to carry out humanitarian activities, helping people in difficult circumstances nationwide.

That is the activity "Support 100,000 humanitarian addresses", with a variety of activities: Organizing incense offering, visiting 500 martyrs' cemeteries, historical revolutionary sites; visiting and giving gifts to families of heroic Vietnamese mothers, families of martyrs, war invalids, veterans, former youth volunteers in difficult circumstances. Along with that, organizing 50 programs of medical examination, health consultation, medicine provision, gift giving with a scale of 300 to 500 people/program.

In particular, the Association supports the construction of 500 Red Cross houses (VND 50 million/household); supports the livelihoods of 500 poor and disadvantaged households, VND 15 million/household; supports the construction/repair of kitchens, clean water, and bookcases for 50 disadvantaged schools, VND 300 million/school. Also during the Humanitarian Month, we will mobilize 5,000 people to register to donate organs and tissues to spread the spirit of "giving is forever".

The joy of spreading kindness to the masses. Photo: Hien Dung.

- Vietnam Red Cross Central Committee will coordinated with the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to organize the National Humanitarian Month Launching Ceremony 2025 on May 8, at the Youth Cultural House (Ho Chi Minh City). Up to this point, how are the preparations for the event, sir?

- Before the Launching Ceremony is a series of high-profile activities in the three provinces of Quang Tri, Dak Lak, Dong Thap, taking place from May 5 to May 6 with many meaningful activities. In particular, to In order to show gratitude to previous generations through their works and humanitarian activities in areas with deep historical significance, the Association will visit and present gifts to Vietnamese Heroic Mothers, families of martyrs, families of veterans, and former youth volunteers in difficult circumstances.

Implementing the policy of replicating the sustainable livelihood support model, we continue to support the construction of Red Cross houses, worth at least 50 million VND/house; support the livelihoods of poor households and households in difficult circumstances, worth 10 to 15 million VND/household; support the construction/repair of boarding kitchens, worth 300 million VND/newly built kitchen, 150 million VND/repaired kitchen.

Along with that, there are activities to support clean water and bookcases for schools in difficult conditions. In particular, the Red Cross will organize a Humanitarian Market (Zero-VND Market) for about 1,500 beneficiary households (each beneficiary household will be given a voucher worth 500,000 VND to go to the Market). At the same time, it will organize consultation, medical examination, and free medicine for more than 2,900 people in difficult circumstances.

Mr. Nguyen Hai Anh exchanged information with the media about the implementation of Humanitarian Month 2025. Photo: Thu Hien

- To be able to replicate sustainable livelihood models, what difficulties will the Vietnam Red Cross Society have to overcome, sir?

- To be sustainable, we need long-term support from businesses, communities and social organizations. The biggest difficulty now is procedural problems when mobilizing international resources, causing delays in receiving and deploying resources. Therefore, perfecting policies and removing administrative procedures are essential to further promote international participation in humanitarian work in Vietnam. In order to replicate sustainable livelihood models, expand the network of sharing, connect communities, and provide timely support to people in difficult circumstances, the Vietnam Red Cross must continue to professionalize its operations, increase transparency in managing volunteer activities, affirm its reputation and spread trust.

- Thank you very much for taking the time to talk./.

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The core value and meaning of Humanitarian Month is not only to help, but also to inspire and build a compassionate and humane community. Hopefully, during this peak period, the spirit of sharing and beautiful stories from real people and real events in daily life, especially the message "Everyone can become a humanitarian volunteer, by being kind every day" will continue to spread.
Humanitarian Month 2025 will be a journey of love multiplied from the simplest things."

Vice President, General Secretary, Executive Director of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Red Cross Society Nguyen Hai Anh

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/lan-toa-tinh-than-nhan-ai-trong-thang-nhan-dao-nam-2025-700960.html