The Union of Friendship Association of the northern midland province of Phu Tho has actively appealed for foreign aid and implemented many projects support local people and children funded by foreign organizations, helping improve living conditions for the disadvantaged people in Phu Tho.
An example of foreign donors operating in Phu Tho is Korea Food for the Hungry International (KFHI), a non-profit non-government organization (NGO) of the Republic of Korea.
KFHI has been working in Vietnam since 2006. It is mostly involved in community development, hygiene and safe water, vocational training, support of children in disadvantaged circumstances and improvement of schools through short-term projects or grants in cash and kind.
The NGO made its presence in Phu Tho in 2016, with its first activity presenting scholarships to students from poor families.
In 2018, the Prime Minister requested the educational sector to upgrade toilet quality at schools. Prompted by this, KFHI started a project on improving educational environment and building toilets in Phu Tho.
Under the project, the NGO provided school equipment, including computer sets, installed water supply systems along with water filters, and built toilets at 12 elementary schools in Thanh Thuy, Thanh Son and Tam Nong districts with a total value of over VND1.3 billion ($55,000).
Besides, KFHI brought Korean volunteers to the schools to paint the walls of the toilets at Dau Duong elementary school with child-friendly images in Tam Nong.
Under a cooperative deal signed with the Phu Tho Union of Friendship Associations, KFHI also launched a Children Development Project in 2018. The five-year project supports school children in Thanh Son and Thanh Thuy districts with an annual value of $90,000. Accordingly, the organization, in coordination with the districts’ Departments of Education and Training, selected 600 children from 6-11 years old in disadvantaged areas for the support. Each child was sponsored by a family in South Korea. The children received periodical health checks and textbooks and leaning equipment at the beginning of the school year. Gatherings were held for them on such occasions as festivals and the International Children’s Day.
Nguyen Tuan Anh, head of the Education-Training Bureau of Thanh Thuy district said KFHI’s programs and projects in health care and education in the district have contributed to promoting education development in disadvantaged areas in the locality.
At the time when the COVID-19 pandemic was spreading in Phu Tho in early 2020, KFHI promptly delivered presents comprising face masks, hand sanitizer and hand soap to poor families and students and teachers in Thanh Thuy and Thanh Son districts.
Over the past five years, the total value of funding for projects implemented by KFHI in Phu Tho amounted to over $403,000. More importantly, the support has encouraged disadvantaged children in the province to overcome difficulties in their life and study.
KFHI has also connected the Korean International School in Hanoi with elementary schools in Phu Tho in a program called “Warm blankets in winter”, under which the Korean school donates blankets to poor students in Cam Khe and Thanh Thuy district every year.
Furthermore, the director of the CDP project and staff members of KFHI held a Korean language course for provincial officials in charge of external affairs, aiming to help them understand more about the Korean culture and promote the friendship between the Korean community in Phu Tho and local people, as well as between the two countries.