With around VND40 billion (US$1.9 million) donated to the Let’s Build Truong Sa fund so far, an artificial island, which represents the unity and patriotism of Vietnamese people, has finally taken shape.

Ngo Phan Ha Chau, a student of the Ho Chi Minh City National College of Education, has done something very simple when she visited the archipelago. At that time she knew it was meaningful, but she did not think it would have a great impact on Vietnamese youth and the community as well.

Before a trip to the Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos organized by the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, Chau carefully wrapped a small amount of soil taken from mainland and put it in her luggage, as a present for the soldiers on the islands.

“When I arrived at the archipelago, I saw my pack of soil as something meaningful. I wanted to do something for the island. Though the pack of soil is small, if many people do the same thing, I believe island and mainland will be closer,” Chau said.

When everybody on the trip gathered to sing with the soldiers, Chau eagerly released her soil onto the island.

Chau’s action made sense. That touched everybody. The Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union and Tuoi Tre Newspaper then decided to launch a campaign entitled Let’s Build Truong Sa, aimed at raising funds to build the archipelago and promoting patriotism from individuals and organizations.

During the first day of the campaign, which began in May last year, hundreds people came to donate to Truong Sa. Each individual who came to donate had a story.

Nguyen Thi Lan, 86, who is a Vietnamese army veteran decided to donated VND100 million ($4,760) as a way of showing her responsibility to the country.

“I’m now 85. I know I can’t travel to Truong Sa islands to visit our soldiers. So I just wish to donate this sum of my savings as my duty towards the nation,” she told Tuoi Tre.

There is also the story of two primary students, Cat Tuong and Kiet Tuong, who urged their father to bring them to Tuoi Tre’s headquarters to donate VND2.654 million ($126), which was the lucky money they got during the last Tet (Lunar New Year) Holidays.

The program spread quite fast. Young and elderly, poor and rich, from veterans to teachers around the country supported the campaign.

Nguyen Thi Quy, from Ho Chi Minh City’s District 12, touched everyone when she came to donate her savings. Quy, who earns her living by collecting waste for recycling, parked her bicycle full of discarded bottles and paper in front of Tuoi Tre’s office to meet with the paper’s representatives and donate VND200,000 ($9.5).

Quy said that, though she works hard, she reads stories related to Truong Sa every day on newspapers her husband brings home from work. Each day, she earns about VND50.000 ($2.4) from the job.

Group donation

A few days after the campaign launched, several enterprises gave a hand to the program through various donation activities.

Major enterprises such as Eximbank, Vinamilk, Sabeco, Saigon Coop, Cienco 5, Ho Chi Minh City Golf Association, and the Vietnam Football Federation used their budgets and mobilized contributions from staff to donate to Truong Sa. Each enterprise donated billions of dong.

Fahasa, a major book distributor, called on all of it guests to donate to Truong Sa and finally raised VND70 million ($3,333) for the campaign.

Vinacafe Bien Hoa raised VND630 million ($30,000) at an event held to reward its customers.

Since September, organizers have called on everybody to send SMS messages to donate. More than 365,000 people have sent SMS messages, creating a total donation of VND7.7 billion ($367,000).