Volunteering is a feeling, a desire to contribute.

Free classes by blue-shirt tutors for children of workers and laborers in poor boarding houses in Ho Chi Minh City during the 2024 volunteer summer - Photo: KA

As of the last day, the total resources mobilized by the city for this year's activities were nearly 13.4 billion VND, completing many tasks and projects that bring value to the community, creating a training environment for volunteer soldiers.

After 30 years of organizing summer volunteer activities, how can young people and students come to volunteer activities with affection, responsibility and a desire to contribute?

Mr. NGO MINH HAI (Secretary of Ho Chi Minh City Youth Union)

Look straight at the limitations

Acknowledging many achieved targets and impressive results, the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Union also frankly pointed out the limitations.

Mr. Pham Le Minh Khang - Head of the School Youth Committee (Ho Chi Minh City Youth Union) - said that the propaganda did not have many inspirational highlights about summer volunteer activities. The survey and assessment of the satisfaction of volunteers, children and people were not consistent at the grassroots level.

The city level said that some units have not focused on activities responding to the peak day. Not to mention that some units have not proactively joined forces and have not established content from the beginning. The old problem was mentioned again when mobilizing people to participate in projects and volunteer activities with young people is not really effective.

Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Union Ngo Minh Hai said that although everything was implemented very early, there were still some outstanding issues, mainly coordination. Mr. Hai said that from the beginning, the city level had to pay close attention to the connecting units to go through the provincial and city Youth Unions. However, in reality, there were still teams that coordinated with the district level without going through the provincial level.

"We still have some problems with coordination and response between the city and provinces. Some places have supported soldiers to stay at local people's houses, but there are also units that do not do this. While it is necessary to stay at local people's houses to help students feel the culture and lifestyle of the place they come to," Mr. Hai emphasized.

Along with that, although the city started early, the grassroots did not follow up well. Mr. Hai asked: "Is it more difficult to mobilize students and young people to volunteer now than before?"

The Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Union said that on September 21, Ho Chi Minh City will host a national volunteer army meeting to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the youth volunteer campaign.

"We need to continue to exchange, discuss and find solutions so that volunteer activities are suitable for the reality of studying at universities and colleges today," said Mr. Hai.

Graphics: TAN DAT

Eat, live and work together with the locals

Secretary of Ben Tre Provincial Youth Union Lam Nhu Quynh said that not only did she coordinate the implementation of the project, she also hoped that students would return to their hometowns to experience it like the third semester to gain more life experience and understand the local people better. Ms. Quynh said that in reality, there were teams that did not want to live with local people and the local response forces here and there were not as expected.

From practical activities, the Secretary of the Ben Tre Provincial Youth Union proposed that units when sending troops to the province commit to a longer period of time and should be continuous, at least three years. "We can continue to coordinate after the end of the summer volunteering associated with expertise. That could be supporting scientific research activities, startups and many other contents" - Ms. Quynh suggested.

Deputy Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City National University Youth Union Truong Van An said that it is necessary to orient the area sooner. Mr. An said that in terms of communication, although there are some famous young faces and KOLs participating and becoming ambassadors for each campaign, more are needed.

"We can invite some famous singers and artists to join our activities. In the provinces and cities, if possible, we should try to invite famous local TikTokers to spread the activities, meanings and images of the volunteer programs and campaigns we do," Mr. An suggested.

Meanwhile, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Hang - Secretary of Nha Be District Youth Union (HCMC) - agreed that it is necessary to carefully survey local projects and tasks and closely connect units to be able to organize well. For example, Nha Be welcomed more international volunteers and coordinated well with many units to create many effective projects.

"Close coordination is a prerequisite, not to mention the need to consult well with local leaders to support the activities that play a very important role of the Union" - Ms. Hang stated.

The sooner the survey, the more effective it is.

Mr. Vo Duy Kha - Deputy Secretary of Phu Yen Provincial Youth Union - highly appreciated the project of bringing water to the villages for people in difficult areas worth billions of VND, recently completed by Green Summer soldiers of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education. Although the school has been associated with the locality for many years, every year it proactively conducts early surveys and selects key tasks to do. "Thanks to that, the projects and tasks help people solve urgent local problems, bringing high efficiency" - Mr. Kha said.

Sharing more, Chairman of the Student Association of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education Pham Ngoc Quy said that it was through early surveys that the local people were aware of the scarcity of water resources, and that even if they dug wells, they could not do so due to the difficult natural conditions. From there, the school sought support to carry out the above project.

The result was overwhelming in the joy of everyone after 15 days of implementation, a 10km long pipeline brought water to Xuan Quang 1 commune, Dong Xuan district (Phu Yen). Thanks to that, about 700 households here have a source of water to use. "People are happy, soldiers also see their work as meaningful. The close connection between the locality and the volunteer force is the experience for us to do better in the coming period" - Ngoc Quy concluded.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tinh-nguyen-la-tinh-cam-khat-khao-cong-hien-20240806083740766.htm