Lam Dong religious followers active in caring for the poor
Religious followers who account for 60% of the population of the Central Highland province of Lam Dong have got involved in practical deeds in the past years to help the poor and underprivileged.
Since 2009, local Buddhists have raised more than VND30 billion (US$1.4 million) to give free eye surgeries, build philanthropic houses and upgrade traffic infrastructure in remote areas.
They have also engaged in communication drives to raise public awareness of HIV/AIDS prevention, erase discrimination, and assist the patients.
During the period, Catholic people have spent over VND6.7 billion (US$319,000) on helping disaster victims and raising the funds for the poor, children and Agent Orange victims.
They also aided ethnic minority people’s effort to escape from poverty and access clean water.
At the same time, Protestant priests and believers have given hundreds of millions of VND to charitable funds and HIV/AIDS prevention programmes, while those of Cao Dai sect have spent VND1.4 billion (US$66,700) on similar activities.
Lam Dong has a population of more than 1.2 million, 22% of them of ethnic minority groups.