The Ho Chi Minh City Child Welfare Foundation coordinated with the Viet Tinh Anh Joint Stock Company January 10 to offer disadvantaged, orphaned and disabled children 480 packages of Lego toys worth VND2.5 billion (US$13,000).
A ceremony was held at the Inter Continental Asiana Saigon Hotel to offer the gifts to the children from Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho City.
More than 500 children from charitable centers, and 150 children from Minh Dao Primary School in HCMC’s District 5, took part in a Lego-assembling competition themed “Children’s Dream” during the ceremony.
The toys were offered by Denmark’s Lego Group in conjunction with the Viet Tinh Anh Joint Stock Company following an official visit by the Queen of Denmark in November 2009.
Lego Group’s flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts. Lego bricks can be assembled and connected in many ways to construct such objects as vehicles, buildings, and even working robots. Anything constructed can then be taken apart again, and the pieces used to make other objects.
The toys were originally designed in the 1930s in Europe and have achieved an international appeal with an extensive subculture that supports Lego movies, games, competitions, and four Lego-themed amusement parks.