One-year anniversary of the Life Is Beautiful Campaign

“Let our dreams fly with stars, fly to faraway lands, for a green planet …”, the serene singing voices of Sol Art Children’s Choir and visually impaired children from Nguyen Dinh Chieu Blind School seemed to brighten the whole studio and warmed the hearts of over 200 audience members and thousands of TV viewers.

Along with the moving stories of MC Hoai Anh, there was the song “Singing for tomorrow” performed by 6 children from Nguyen Dinh Chieu Blind School, the powerful rock voice in the song “Oh! Don’t despair!” of Goodwill Ambassador Kasim Hoang Vu, the lively guitar sounds containing a hidden vitality and real enthusiasm of blind musician Nguyen Thanh Binh, and the song “Small entrance to the life” performed by Goodwill Ambassador Dam Vinh Hung. The message “Let’s dream and fight!” of the campaign was successfully transmitted in the anniversary broadcast and certainly made a deep impression on all audiences who have followed the campaign.

Invited to the anniversary as a mirror of strong will and desire, Nguyen Thao Van from Nghi Luc Song Center shared: “…” The picture of little Thao Van and her brother, Cong Hung, sitting in wheelchairs and what they made for others in the Center raised the audiences’ surprise and admiration. Despite their disability, they could make extraordinary things. Nghi Luc Song Center has organized and maintained a computing and English class for PWDs. Besides, the Center has run a social enterprise that provides quality website designing services. All the staff working there are PWDs. The Center is established, maintained and developed thanks to, not only, Cong Hung and Thao Van’s intelligence but also their strong will.

Empathy and sympathy are present in the heart of both PWD and those without disability. Manager Do Thanh Dong of E-oftflow Company, of which half of the employees are disabled, shared about his recruiting strategy: “We consider 5.3 million Vietnamese PWDs as a great human resource and suitable for our computer work, therefore we have actively approached them. At the moment, employees with disabilities account for 10% of our total number. We have made our point clear that if we could give the disabled opportunities, we may not get profit from it but in the end everyone is happy”.

A one-year period is not too long but long enough for the humanitarian media campaign LIB to make a profound impact on people both inside and outside the country. With 52 weekly reports on VTV4, a completed website with effective models for supporting PWDs, and updated profiles of PWDs, the campaign has achieved initial success in terms of communication. In addition, a total of 7.160.093 VND donated by domestic and foreign organizations and individuals in the past year has effectively helped 1140 PWDs and 1 charity organizations. In the live broadcast, the campaign organizers claimed to give all the money donated in Ukraine, Russia and Belgium to 1000 PWDs in 63 provinces and 2.8 billion VND to Vietnam Red Cross to develop the “Cow Bank”. The model “Cow Bank” was initiated by the Fund for Agent Orange Victims.  The Vietnam Red Cross assisting PWDs in Thai Binh and Hai Duong was selected to be one of the 10 best models.

The effort and dedication of two Goodwill Ambassadors, Kasim Hoang Vu and Dam Vinh Hung have contributed greatly to the campaign’s success. Following the successful auction of Dam Vinh Hung in the LIB Gala on April 17, 2010, Kasim Hoang Vu participated in a special fundraising road show on the occasion of the 1000^th anniversary of Thang Long-Ha Noi in Ukraine on September 9, 2010 to call for donations from overseas Vietnamese. The presence of LIB at Food Expo Brussels and the Proud of Hanoi Program in France in October 2010, as well as, the agreement between the East Meets West Foundation and the Sports and Entertainment Organization of Australia for cooperation in 2011 has helped bring LIB closer to both overseas Vietnamese and foreign organizations and individuals.

These considerable achievements are attributed to not only the three partners and the Goodwill Ambassadors but also the volunteers inside and outside the country, who have played an important role in transmitting the campaign message by developing the website’s database and content.