HONG KONG BUSINESS ASSOCIATION VIETNAM CHARITY INITIATIVE

We welcome Members of all nationalities who are interested in having business relations with Hong Kong and its members operating in Vietnam. HKBAV has since earned a bona fide reputation amongst the International Business communities in Vietnam through the activities it organized.

One of the HKBAV objectives is to actively give back to the community through its collective membership.  A Charity Fund was set up in 2005 and was supervised by a Charity Committee independent but reporting to the Executive Committee.  Over the years, we have raised over 55K USD and donated more than half of that to organizations/initiatives through ad hoc or organized activities with a current reserve of ~26K USD.  With the increasing awareness of Corporate Social Responsibilities and the HKBAV desire to actively give back, the Executive Committee has approved a longer term strategy and commitment to a cause in which HKBAV will work actively to fundraise and support.

HKBAV agrees that our efforts should meet the following criteria to ensure focus.

1) Activities should allow involvement of our members’ and their organizations.
2) We should be accountable for the funds being used responsibly working with organizations where we conduct appropriate due diligence.
3) Causes we contribute towards should be sustainable and have a longer term impact preferable to one time relief.
4) We should allow for promotion of HKBAV whenever appropriate.

HKBAV to take on a longer term initiative under the banner of “Enable Learning   Impart Knowledge ”.   A logo, designed by Ms Christina Yu of Ipa Nima, incorporating the HKBAV logo, was developed to bring focus to our efforts.  She has chosen the Chinese word ‘å–„’ for the concept behind the design as it means kindness/ charitable.  The integration of the book image in the Chinese word brings out our focus of learning and knowledge.
Pillar One – The Library Project (“TLP”)
www.library-project.org

An NGO project to build libraries and reading corners in schools in rural Vietnam to improve children’s literacy. Each project comes with proper librarian training and a 3-year monitoring program.  TLP started in China and branched into Vietnam and Cambodia.  The cost of each library project is small enough for HKBAV to commit without pressure with the flexibility to up our game should our fundraising efforts pay off. The geographical coverage within Vietnam also allows HKBAV to select school locations closer to our members’ site to encourage further CSR participation in supporting through local efforts. A 3-year commitment was entered into with a minimum of one library each year committed.

Pillar Two – The Speaking Book Library (“SNOL”)
www.sachnoionline.com

SNOL was set up in 1998 by the HCM City’s Women’s Charity Association.  It produce and provide CDs and cassettes from nearly 600 titles to 75 associations and schools for blind and visually impaired people across Vietnam.  The on-line library has nearly 200 titles including textbooks at all 12 school grades and materials to prepare for university and college entrance exams as well as general knowledge books on science, medicine, tourism and other subjects.

They have been provided a plot of land by the HCMC city and is now building a permanent centre in D1 100% funded through donations.  The new centre will consist 4 to 6 audio booths where they can increase their output of audio books from the current 2 booths.  In additional to that, it will provide computer facilities to assist the visually impaired to access information on the internet.

HKBAV will contribute towards some of the equipment to prepare for the opening of the centre slated for end of 2016 and further materials towards learning of the English Language in hope to enable future employment opportunities for the visually impaired communities.  Subsequent donations to be considered as the permanent centre goes into operation.

Pillar 3 – Learning Centre for Nhat Hong Centre for the Blind & Visually Impaired
http://en.happysuncenter.org/gioi-thieu/

Nhat Hong Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired provides services to children and youth with vision impairment, especially to blind orphans and multiple impaired children.  Started in 1995, Nhat Hong has grown from caring for blind children to supporting children to integrate into normal education environment and a career training centre towards sustainable living.

They have 2 centres in D1 and D9 in HCMC.  HKBAV will contribute towards the building of a learning centre at each location with computers and braille readers to allow them to access internet materials and to learn foreign language also in hope for employment opportunities in the future.  Subsequent donations to be considered as the learning centre goes into operation.

Other Ad Hoc requests
We will also consider supporting CSR efforts of our members and member organizations through our funds as long as they meet the general objective of our focus “Enable Learning Imparting Knowledge”.  The funds to be utilized shall be approved by the Ex Co on a case by case basis.

Fund Raising Initiatives

Every year, Tung Shing Group supports our Charity Funds through annual moon cakes sales.  Through Hanoi Hotel, HKBAV would be provided with 300 to 500 boxes of mooncakes to our members at a preferred price and proceeds to our Charity Funds.  Tung Shing Group has already committed again to same this year and we hope to continue this tradition.

Starting in 2016, HKBAV will organize an annual charity golf tournament to create proactively a pipeline for funds for our committed initiatives.  HKBAV has been organizing golf tournaments in Vietnam and in the region since 1995. The first charity golf tournament is scheduled for Nov 11, 2016 (Friday) at the Tan Son Nhat golf course with details to follow.