As reported at the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS)’s 9th National Congress by Senior Venerable Thích Đức Thiện, Vice Chairman cum General Secretary of the VBS Executive Council, the VBS has contributed over 7,133 billion VND to social charity during the 2017-2022 tenure.
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Senior Venerable Thích Đức Thiện speaks at the VBS’s 9th national congress
Accordingly, during the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in localities, Buddhist monks, nuns and lay followers from pagodas, monasteries have made practical contributions to the Covid-19 preventive work by providing medical supplies and equipment to hospitals, offering volunteer services in the frontline against the epidemic at isolation centers and hospitals.
Buddhist pagodas and monasteries in the epidemic-hit areas have offered thousands of meals every day to disadvantaged people, as well as nurses, doctors, medical staff and soldiers, etc in the frontline forces.
The Buddhist Sangha currently has 165 Tue Tinh medical clinics, 33 traditional clinics for acupuncture, acupressure, physical therapy, and 10 modern consulting clinics with 206 herbalist and 40 doctors. These medical clinics have provided free health-check and medicines to hundreds of thousands of patients, valued at tens of billions VND.
A resident receives medical examination at Linh Quang medical clinic (Da Lat City, Lam Dong province)
Currently, the VBS has 120 charity classes across country with 5,678 pupils, 199 teachers, 64 centers providing semi-boarding preschool to children, orphans and children with disabilities licensed by competent authorities; 15 centers nurturing 527 elderly and lonely people; 46 sponsoring centers with 1,429 orphans, children with Agent Orange, and one rehabilitation center.
The VBS Executive Committees in several provinces have opened free vocational training centers for children of Buddhist families and poor households and people with disabilities. Currently, 10 vocational schools are providing free training in sewing, embroidery, knitting, computing, foreign languages, car repair, barbering, etc, including the vocational schools in pagodas of Long Tho and Tay Linh (Thua Thien Hue province), Long Phuoc pagoda, Long Thanh (Long An province), and in provinces of Quang Tri, Ba Ria - Vung Tau and Dong Nai, etc.
Over the past five years, the VBS executive committees in provinces and cities and Buddhists monks, nuns and lay followers have raised fund for sending relief supplies to flood victims in the North, the central and Highlands and the Mekong River Delta, sponsoring tens of thousands of cataract surgeries and dozens of heart surgeries, supporting the construction of thousands of charity houses, building concrete bridges and wells, presenting wheelchairs to people with disabilities, and supporting the poor and ethnic people in the remote areas, etc.
In particular, VBS in Ho Chi Minh city has donated 3,500 billion VND; the VBS’s sub-Central and provincial committee for nun affairs have offered 1,170 billion VND; the VBS’s Central Committee for Buddhist Guidance have contributed 420 billion VND; the VBS’s Central sub-committee for the External Affairs and International Relations have donated 30 billion VND, etc.
PH
