The Consular Club of Ho Chi Minh City (Consular Club HCMC) hosted a fundraising dinner in the city on Saturday evening to raise funds for disadvantaged children, minority girls, and needy people in southern Vietnam.

The Consular Club Fundraising Dinner 2023, an annual event with the ‘Stronger Together’ theme, took place at Continental Saigon Hotel in the city’s downtown District 1, attracting representatives from 19 countries, diplomatic missions, and business communities.

The funds raised from the party, along with the proceeds from the auction of various items, including paintings and wines, will be donated to three charities, including Planète Enfants & Développement (PE&D), a French non-governmental organization (NGO) founded in 1984 to protect children from violence and exploitation and create conditions conducive to their well-being and development.

Working in Vietnam since 1992, PE&D is implementing projects focusing on the child, the family and the community, and pays particular attention to women and girls.

The second beneficiary is VietHarvest, a Vietnamese social enterprise founded in 2020, which collects quality surplus food and redistributes it to underserved communities.

The last charity is Brighter Path Girl’s Club, a project initiated in 2019 by VinaCapital Foundation, an NGO licensed in the U.S. and operating in Vietnam, which teaches sexual and reproductive health, financial literacy, leadership skills, and legal rights to girls of ethnic minorities.

Milena Padula, president of the Consular Club HCMC and also the wife of Italian Consul General to Ho Chi Minh City Enrico Padula, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the get-together was aimed at supporting disadvantaged communities and people in southern Vietnam.

Through the event, the consular community wished to express its gratitude to the Vietnamese people for their warm welcome and assistance to consular officers in the city, Padula stressed.

Over the past years, the Consular Club HCMC has sent money raised from yearly fundraising dinners to charity organizations in southern and central Vietnam to take part in giving scholarships to orphans and disabled children, supporting storm and flood victims, and mitigating the heavy impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, among other activities, she added.

CEO of VinaCapital Rad Kivette said that the Brighter Path Girl’s Club is among the social projects that are of great social significance in Vietnam, as it has helped create considerable cognitive changes among girls of ethnic minorities.

Daniel Stork, Consul General of the Netherlands in Ho Chi Minh City, told Tuoi Tre that such a gathering to do meaningful things like this fundraising dinner made him truly happy.

New Zealand Consul General Scott James expressed his hope that the event would raise as much funding as possible for the beneficiaries, adding that he would also contribute to the fundraising.

This gathering for supporting charity funds was of great significance, British Consul General Emily Hamblin commented.

“I regularly support similar programs conducted by the Italian Consulate General. I think tonight's event is very meaningful. As a business person in Vietnam, I think I have an obligation to aid the Consular Club to make the event a success,” said Le Hong Thuy Tien, CEO of Ho Chi Minh City-based Duy Anh Fashion and Cosmetics JSC.

Trang Le, founder and president of the Vietnam International Fashion Week, told Tuoi Tre that she had postponed her overseas business trip to attend the event.

“I am really honored to participate in and contribute to this extremely meaningful event hosted by the Consular Club,” the entrepreneur said.

Established in 1994, the Consular Club HCMC is a non-political and non-profit social organization whose members are representatives of consulates in Ho Chi Minh City.

The organization joins hands with diplomatic agencies and the business community in the city to raise funds for projects that improve the lives of at-risk communities in southern Vietnam and help promote gender equality and sustainable development.

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