Da Nang (VNS/VNA) - A group ofyoung people from the central city of Da Nang led by Ho Ngoc Thanh haveset up a volunteer programme to help poor sick people get to hospital.

The programme "Chuyen Xe Khong Dong"(0 VND Bus Trip) is a special charity work which offers free transportationfor poor and disadvantaged patients when they have to move to a newhospital for different treatment.

Although it has just been put into operation fora few months, the bus has spread love, community cohesion and dedicated supportto poor and lonely patients.

The 32-member group uses more than 10 carsoffered by the members themselves as well as kindhearted individuals andbusinesses to transport the patients.

They operate across cities and provinces inthe central region, including Hue, Da Nang, Quang Nam and Quang Ngai.

In the first two weeks alone, 24 patientsin difficult circumstances were transferred from home to hospitals or fromhospitals to hospitals with no charge.

In some cases, the group offered financialsupport worth between 500,000-1 million VND (22-44 USD) to those inserious conditions and without money for transportation.

The case of patient Phan Van Hoa was an example.

Hoa, 45, was suffering from a broken neckvertebrae, quadriplegia and had been treated at Da Nang General Hospitalfor a long time until the doctors said he could be cared for at home.

His family was facing hardship after a longtime of caring for him at the hospital and had run out of money, so they askedfor help from the programme.

The charity group met Hoa and hisfamily and decided to help. They brought him from Da Nang GeneralHospital to his home in Que Son district in the central province of Quang Nam.

His wife, Vo Thi Be Loan, was very touched toreceive the support of the volunteer group.

“The group and their trip have really encouragedme much. They not only helped warm my heart but also lifted part of thefinancial burden from my family’s shoulders during our hard time. We hopethe programme can spread widely with more people to join so they can help manyothers like us to get out of difficult circumstances,” Loan said.

The group's founder and leader Thanh saidhe came up with the idea of running the "0 VND Bus Trip" programmeafter joining many voluntary projects at hospitals.

Thanh, 33, who is also the chairman of a charityclub named "Bep Com Van Tinh"  (Kitchen with Love) in Da Nang’sSon Tra district, said through his charity work at hospitals, he saw the hardshipsand miserable conditions of the patients, some of whom were homeless orunemployed.

“Some young volunteers and I decided to setup the programme to contribute our small resource to help unfortunatepeople. Although our actions were just the very first steps and wefaced challenges, we all put our charity and humanity spirit on top so wewill never stop,” Thanh said.

One of the group members, Le Tu Hoang Tuan fromSon Tra district, said to complete a trip successfully, all the members had toface hardship but they were all happy whenever receiving thanksfrom patients and their relatives.

“All hardship ends and I am more motivated tocontinue since I see the affectionate eyes of the patients after each trip,”said Tuan.

Meanwhile, another member, Trinh Dang Quyen alsofrom Son Tra district, said the 0 VND Bus Trip programme was not just forhelping poor patients, but also helped spread the warmth of love throughoutsociety.

Quyen added that with such goals, theirprogramme had received a lot of support from the community since some donorshad learned about the programme and were ready to pitch in.

When Thanh announced the programme on hispersonal Facebook page, he received support from many friends and thewider social networking community.

In the first post, there were more than 1,600likes, nearly 500 comments and more than 3,800 shares.

Many people expressed appreciation for thismeaningful and practical work and suggested it should be done elsewhere aswell.

A Facebook user named Tran Thuy said itwas a noble gesture and wished the group members health and happiness tocontinue their noble work.

User Hao Phan suggestedspreading information about the group with the member's phone numbers soneedy people could approach.

The programme founder said to make theprogramme serve the right people in need, a board has been set up to beresponsible for organising trips for the patients' families.

“The beneficiaries should be the patients andtheir families who are really poor and can't afford to hire an emergencycar for transportation. They should have a certificate for theircircumstances granted by local authorities,” said the founder./.