Scholarships for Cần Giờ students

In late 1998, the seaside Cần Giờ district, some 30 kilometres from HCM City, suffered a catastrophic crop failure due to a combination of severe draught, wide-spread oil spill and incursion of salt water into cultivated areas. A large number of senior high school students had to give up schooling to seek work to support their families and help them avoid starvation

Scholarship Project
The project aimed to give financial assistance to students so that they could continue with their schooling. The students who were selected were those with good academic records, of good character and with family in dire economic circumstances.

Dr Nguyễn Thiện Tống, representative of the Foundation spoke to students and parents

Students waiting for scholarships

A total of 50 full scholarships (worth VND500,000 each) and 50 half scholarships (worth VND350,000 each) were given. They were disbursed to two high schools in Cần Giờ district: Bình Khánh High School (30 full and 32 half scholarships) and Cần Thạnh High School (20 full and 18 half scholarships)

Students receiving the scholarships

Dr Tống talked with the students

Contributions
The project was fully funded by the Vietnam Foundation. Tuổi Trẻ newspaper in HCMC helped with the general management of the project, collecting applications, selection of candidates, etc.
Closing date for scholarship applications was on 28 November 1998. Dispersion of the scholarships was on 17 December 1998.