Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam, 18 August 2021 -- The Covid pandemic crisis in Vietnam is increasing more and more seriously over the last two months. So far, there are 283,696 infected cases and 6,141 deaths because of Covid virus in Vietnam (official data from the government on 17 August 2021). Especially, the government is giving the order to ‘lockdown’ many cities and has urged all citizens to ‘Stay Home’ to prevent the spread of the disease. In Ho Chi Minh City, there is a large number of immigrant workers coming from other cities or provinces around the country. They can’t go to work in their factories or companies because of the pandemic. So, they do not have money to pay for food, for renting lodgings and for other daily expenses. It’s very difficult for them during this time. Many of them have tried to go back to their home towns and areas by motorcycle, despite the distance from Ho Chi Minh City. Some others have tried to continue living in Saigon, but the situation has become more and more difficult.

Being compassionate with the workers especially with the young in this time, our Salesians from many communities have been trying to do our best to limit the difficulties for them, for the last two months. In concrete:

+ Tam hai parish: This is a Salesian parish located in Thu Đuc, Ho Chi Minh city. The parish priest together with the parishioners has helped poor families with 10,000 kilos of rice, 20 boxes of fish juice, 35,000 kilos of vegetable, 300 boxes of instant noodle, 1,500 eggs, 400,000 liters of pure water and a cash amount of 150.000.000VND ($6,000 US).

+ Xuan Hiep parish together with Rinaldi community: This is also a Salesian parish, located in the compound of the former province community. The parish priest together with the young provides pure water and food to families in the lockdown areas. These activities are carried out every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in the evening.

+ Ben Cat parish and Ben Cat community: This community is located at Go Vap district, near Saigon International Airport. The parish provided 12.000 kilos of potatoes, 4.000 kilos of vegetable every Sunday. Some poor families also did receive cash to pay for daily expenses. The total amount of money distributed so far is 300,000.000VND ($13,000USD).

+ St Joseph Can Gio parish and Can Gio community: This community together with the parish is located in suburban Saigon. Though being rather poor with 60 boarding orphans, the confreres tried to share with poor families living in the vicinity, with materials like rice, sugar, oil. Everyday, the confreres have half an hour to pray before the Blessed Sacrament for the victims of the pandemic. Moreover, during this time, the community tried to help a very poor family to have a new - built house, costing around 70,000,000VND ($3,000USD).

+ Dong Thuan community: This community is running a vocational center with 300 students. This is holidays season for the students, so there are no students here until the beginning of September. However, all the confreres during this time are invited to help the poor families nearby as much as possible. The community shared 20,000,000VND ($850USD) with 20 poor families in the area, especially the non–Catholic ones.

+ Tan Cang community and Tan Cang parish: The community has helped immigrant workers in the area: 6,000 kilos of chicken meat, 4,000 kilos of fruit and vegetable, 4,000 kilos of rice, 400 bottles of fish juice and a sum of money to buy medicines. Moreover, we invited the workers - young boys and girls in the area, attending daily living praying hours, to pray for peace during pandemic times now.

+ Dalat community and parish: Dalat is about 300 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City, and is an agricultural areas with abundant vegetables. So, our confreres asked for vegetables, rice, instant noodles… from the people around especially from the parishioners, to help poor families in the area, especially the families of poor students from the classes that the community is now running. Every Saturday and Sunday, the community offers the meals for the poor from everywhere in Dalat city.

+ K'Long Comunity: Here, we have the advantage of green vegetable gardens. The Salesians, parishioners, young people, catechists, oratorians set out to the vegetable gardens. Whether it's raining or sunny, everyone still collected vegetables and fruits to share and accompany people in Saigon to overcome the Covid pandemic. During a week, they sent more than 14 tons of vegetables and fruits to the two Salesians parishes and some other places in Saigon. With a small gesture from the community, the parishioners and young people of the K'Long ethnic group partly hope that Saigon will quickly control the epidemic and return to normal activities.

+ Tan Ha community: The community here is now running a large vocational school with more than 600 students. Although being very busy with the work of the school, the confreres have also tried to do their best to help the poor during this time. The confreres went to the families to collect vegetable and sent them to Ho Chi Minh City to help the poor families.

+ The communities from the north: From Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City is about 2,000 kilometers. However, all Salesian communities from everywhere have tried to participate in the charity movement that the VIE province promulgated during this time. For example, the Duc Ninh community in Thai Binh diocese celebrates daily mass to pray for peace in the nation, and also shared some money to help the poorest families in the area.

The help we have offered in money and materials to the poor during this time is not very much, but this is what we can do to realize Christian charity, especially for poor young boys and girls, according to the Salesian charism.