The volunteers present gifts to poor students in Phouvong district.

International voluntary service is an initiative proposed by the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union (HCMCYU) Central Committee. In Binh Dinh, the Quy Nhon University’s Youth Union is assigned to carry out this task.

Thanks to the educational cooperation with southern provinces of Laos, the university has a close relationship with them. In 2007, its volunteers came to Laos for the first time; however, this is only an initial step creating favourable conditions for other voluntary activities.

The university’s 14 volunteers were assigned to do volunteer works in Attapeu province this year. Locating in the south of Laos and bordering on Vietnam’s Kon Tum province, Attapeu is a poor province including five districts and one town of which the districts of Sanxay and Phouvong are two poorest ones in Laos.

During a week in Attapeu, the volunteers helped train 22 key Youth Union’s officials in youth skills, including team-work, games for youth, and dance.

They also instructed 19 young people who works in the agriculture sector how to apply advanced technologies in cultivation. What’s more, 42 local officials and students were trained in using IT skills in the document management, website establishment, and power point usage in electric lesson plans.

“The volunteers overcame the language barrier thanks to some Lao students who are studying at Quy Nhon University,” said Vice Secretary of Quy Nhon University’s Youth Union Nguyen Khac Khanh. “Attapeu’s youth union members joined the campaign enthusiastically.”

The volunteers also presented two sets of computers to the vocational technical secondary schools in Sanxay and Phouvong and gifts to poor students in two districts.

The voluntary activities brought many positive changes to the Attapeu province, according to its leaders, the youth union, and the Attapeu’s vocational technical secondary school.

Chairman of Phouvong district People’s Committee expressed the hope that there will be more volunteer programs to help the locals escape from poverty.

Joining the volunteer campaign in Laos, the university’s students and teachers experienced many aspects of Laos’ people. “I was really impressed by the thread-tying ceremony,” said Tran Xuan Viet, a student of IT Department. “They tie a thread around your wrist to wish you a good trip.”

The university’s Youth Union will give much attention to the demand of any localities where the international voluntary service will be implemented in the coming years, according to Khanh. Alongside this, many enterprises will be asked to sponsor to such volunteer works, particularly activities related to poor students in underprivileged areas.

• N.V.T