Timely assistance can help a family overcome a difficult period; a scholarship may preserve the dream of schooling for disadvantaged students; and a donated unit of blood can save a human life.
To achieve this, the Ho Chi Minh City Red Cross Society has maintained close engagement with local communities, directly assessing individual circumstances in order to devise sustainable and long-term support solutions.
Sowing hope to transform lives
At the end of April, during the launch of the 2026 Humanitarian Month campaign, Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Anh, 66, a resident of Binh Tien Ward, expressed her joy at being able to shop for essential goods free of charge using shopping vouchers presented by the Ho Chi Minh City Red Cross Society. With the vouchers, she selected daily necessities for her family.
According to Ms. Ngoc Anh, the support came at a particularly meaningful time, providing encouragement and assistance to both her and her husband, who suffered a stroke, amid difficult circumstances. During the 2026 Lunar New Year holiday, the couple also received practical support from the Red Cross Society, which helped cover medical treatment costs for her husband and brought warm Tet gifts to their home.
Ms. Ngoc Anh’s family is among the millions of people who have benefited from humanitarian assistance in recent years. Beyond organizing emergency relief activities to help residents overcome the most difficult periods, humanitarian work has increasingly shifted from “emergency support” to “recovery assistance and sustainable livelihood development.”
This approach enables disadvantaged individuals and families to become more self-reliant through their own labor and available resources, while also giving them greater confidence to proactively improve their lives.
One humanitarian initiative that the Red Cross Society of Binh Loi Trung Ward has carried out for many years is providing funeral assistance to disadvantaged and isolated individuals.
On an afternoon in mid-April, the Red Cross chapter of Quarter 40 in Binh Loi Trung Ward received information that Ms. Le Ngoc Hai, 90, had passed away. Ms. Hai had lived in difficult circumstances with her grandchild in a cramped and dilapidated house located deep inside a narrow alley. Struggling to make ends meet, the family was unable to afford funeral expenses for her.
Upon learning of the situation, the Red Cross Society of Binh Loi Trung Ward, together with the Bac Ai Charity Patronage Board, promptly visited the family and provided full financial support for the funeral arrangements, totaling more than VND37 million (US$1,409).
Recently, humanitarian and social welfare activities have been extensively implemented by Red Cross organizations at all levels across Ho Chi Minh City through numerous impactful movements and initiatives, including “Tet of Compassion,” “Humanitarian Month,” the campaign “Each Organization and Individual Associated with a Humanitarian Address,” “Zero-cost Supermarkets,” “Humanitarian Markets,” “Zero-cost Markets,” the “Nutrition for Poor and Disabled Children” program, and the “Safety for Poor and Disadvantaged Fishermen” initiative.
The overarching goal of the Ho Chi Minh City Red Cross Society is to ensure that every project and activity delivers practical value, enabling disadvantaged people to improve their livelihoods and gradually stabilize their lives.
Silent contributions
In recent years, humanitarian work has been measured not only by the passage of time but also by the enduring cultivation of compassion. Driven by a strong sense of responsibility and benevolence, numerous charitable kitchens have been established across localities — from workers’ boarding areas and hospitals to disadvantaged coastal communities — quietly sustaining the spirit of solidarity and sharing within society.
Once a month, the small kitchen of Ms. Dao Thi Lien, 66, in Binh Duc Hamlet, Ngai Giao Commune, Ho Chi Minh City, comes alive from the early morning hours. Together with the Tri An Binh Duc volunteer group, Ms. Lien prepares more than 200 free meal portions for patients at Ba Ria-Vung Tau Psychiatric Hospital.
Although each cooking session costs only around VND7 million, the meals are carefully prepared with meat, fish, vegetables, and fruit. “Seeing patients holding the meal boxes and emotionally expressing their gratitude makes every hardship worthwhile,” Ms. Lien shared.
As a regular recipient of the meals, Ng. H.T., a patient undergoing treatment at the hospital, said the warm meals helped him feel cared for and supported during his illness.
Beyond Ba Ria—Vung Tau Psychiatric Hospital, the “Zero-cost Vegetarian Kitchen” in Hong Lan Hamlet, Ngai Giao Commune, has also maintained its operations for nearly four years. Established in September 2022, the volunteer group, led by Mr. Le Si Hai, has so far organized 98 free meal distributions for patients and their relatives at hospitals. Each event provides around 300 meal portions, valued at nearly VND5 million.
Some outstanding results of the Ho Chi Minh City Red Cross Society in the 2022–2026 term:
· More than 616,100 Tet gift packages were delivered, with a total value of over VND320 billion (US$12 million).
· Over 1.2 million beneficiaries received support during the “Humanitarian Month."
· 310 Red Cross houses were built, with a total value of more than VND21 billion (US$800,000).
· 251 humanitarian fairs, “zero-dong” markets, and “zero-dong” supermarkets were organized, assisting over 156,000 people.
· More than VND282 billion (US$10.7 million) was spent on healthcare support and first aid services, benefiting over 2.3 million people.
· Nearly 8 million meal portions were provided to patients and disadvantaged individuals.
· Timely first aid was administered to more than 16,290 cases in the community.
· A total of over 1.4 million units of blood were received.
