Since its launch on August 13, the initiative has received more than two million individual and collective contributions totaling approximately 523 billion dong (more than 19.8 million dollars at the current exchange rate).

Hanoi—One week before the end of the campaign to support Cuba, launched last August by the Vietnam Red Cross, the campaign has achieved significant results, according to statistics released today in Hanoi.

Since its launch on August 13, the initiative has received more than two million individual and collective contributions totaling approximately 523 billion dong (more than $19.8 million at the current exchange rate), both through the bank account established for this purpose and through the Red Cross system in provinces and cities.

“This humanitarian initiative demonstrates the solidarity, loyalty, and steadfastness of the Vietnamese people toward the sister people of Cuba,” said Nguyen Thai Hoc, deputy secretary of the Communist Party of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (CPV) and central organizations committee, at a press conference.

The party leader, quoted by the Juventud newspaper, emphasized that the program, developed under the theme “65 Years of Vietnam-Cuba Friendship,” achieved its initial goal of raising 65 billion dong in just 30 hours and doubled that goal in 48 hours, raising 130 billion VND.

For his part, Nguyen Hai Anh, President Ai of the Vietnam Red Cross Society, noted that this short-term campaign has achieved the largest scale and number of participants ever undertaken, with nearly 2.2 million people supporting it.

On its Facebook page, the organization noted that “the number is more than two million donors, but the heart belongs to millions of Vietnamese people, because a transfer sometimes involves the help of agencies, organizations, and companies, to which many people contribute a small portion, sending love to the Cuban people.”

Another post from the humanitarian organization itself also emphasized that, even as the country faces the consequences of devastating floods, “the Vietnamese always know how to share, because the intention, kindness, and spirit of helping oneself have never faded.”

The campaign, which was launched by the Cuban Red Cross on August 13th, to mark the 99th birthday of Fidel Castro, the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, and in the context of the Vietnam-Cuba Friendship Year and the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, will conclude on the 16th.

On that occasion, Do Van Chien, a member of the CPV Political Bureau and Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, emphasized that this action demonstrates the Vietnamese people’s tradition of humanity and the deep friendship between the two nations.

The program not only seeks to provide material support to overcome the immediate difficulties Cuba is facing, but also to strongly spread a message of empathy and international solidarity, Van Chien noted, reiterating that, under any circumstances, the Vietnamese people always stand with the Cuban people.

This, he emphasized, is a traditional connection of affection that spans 65 years and in which “fraternal affection has overcome all geographical distances and economic conditions to become an enduring spiritual value.”