Localities across the country have set aside billions of Vietnamese dongfor gifts to the poor and war heroes to help them enjoy a happy LunarNew Year (Tet) holiday.

Authorities in the MekongDelta province Dong Thap recently decided to offer 200,000 VND (9.5 USD)to every household living under poverty line and 100,000 VND (5 USD) tothose covered by social security, leading to a total spending of over10 billion VND (500,000 USD).

The VietnamFatherland Front (VFF) in Tan Khanh Dong commune and the local Red CrossSociety donated 100 gifts worth a combined 25 million VND (1,100 USD)to the needy, with each gift including 10 kilograms of rice, sugar, soyasauce and 100,000 VND in cash (5 USD).

In Tan Hong district, the VFF raised roughly 5 billion VND (250,000 USD) to be used to build 95 new houses.

War veteran associations in Tam Nong and Lap Vo districts donated 6houses, each worth 40-75 million VND (1,900-3,500 USD) to local warveterans, adding to the existing 14 houses costing over 310 million VND(14,500 USD) in the Hong Ngu township.

The “springtree” fund-raising campaign, run by the provincial Child ProtectionFund, is also raising money for underprivileged children.

In the southern province of Hau Giang, over 30 billion VND (1.4million USD) will be dedicated to providing Tet bonuses for more than10,000 State officials.

Meanwhile, the centralprovince of Quang Nam is spending approximately 38.9 billion VND (1.8million USD) on gifts for tens of thousands of war heroes, theirfamilies and those contributing to local development.-VNA