Gamuda Land pumps funds into heart health with 3K run

The 3K jaunt around the Yen So park will delight runners young and old

Following the success of the first ‘Run for the Heart 2015’ organised at Gamuda Land’s Celadon City in Ho Chi Minh City on November 8, the second event will be held at Gamuda City in the Yen So park, Hanoi on December 6 to raise funds for poor children who suffer from congenital heart diseases across the country.

With a route of three kilometres around the Yen So park, ‘Run for the Heart 2015’ is expected to attract 10,000 attendants, raising about VND1 billion ($44,500). Several popular faces will be at the event, including the Ambassador of the Heart Beat Vietnam Fund, 365 Band, and famous singers such as Duy Khoa, Tran Lap, Minh Vuong, Quynh Nga, and Thuy Trang. The Golden Ball 2008 Ngoc Tram, Master Chef 2014 Minh Nhat, and actress Ngoc Thanh Tam will also make appearances.

“We are well aware that sharing can give poor children with heart disease a chance to live. As a result, we are proud to organise this meaningful event with the Heart Beat Vietnam Fund,” said Cheong Ho Kuan, general director of Gamuda Land Vietnam.

CEO of VinaCapital Foundation Robin King Austin, one of the event’s sponsors, shared: “We are very excited about the upcoming event at the Yen So park, a beautiful venue with lush greenery and lakes. Currently, we have over 5,000 children on the waiting list for operations. We hope with help from the community, more poor children will be cured.”

The first ‘Run for the Heart’ event in 2013 attracted over 3,000 attendants, raising VND345 million ($15,300), which was then spent on 15 children’s operations. In 2014, this event raised about VND1.3 billion ($57,800), funding free operations for 61 children.

Besides ‘Run for the Heart’, Gamuda Land has also organised many other community activities, like a water protection event named ‘Action for Water – Action for Your Future’ or a kite festival titled ‘Flying with Dreams’.

“With the mission of creating value for society, we will always be the first to organise social activities on our projects,” said Kuan.

Located in the gateway of south Hanoi and considered the capital’s ‘green lung’, the Yen So park includes green trees, five intact lakes, and public infrastructure. Since April 2014, the park was handed over to the Hanoi People’s Committee and opened to the public.

The well-maintained and lushly landscaped park provides recreational facilities that include an art gallery, a boathouse, an amphitheatre, a maze garden, a traditional village, and a vast variety of decorative landscaped gardens. The Yen So park won the Malaysia Landscape Architecture Awards in 2011 by the Institute of Landscape Architects Malaysia (ILAM).

Formed in 1995, Gamuda Land Vietnam is the property development division of Gamuda Berhad, Malaysia’s leading construction and infrastructure group. Besides the Yen So park, the company has also invested in the construction of Gamuda City, an upscale new urban area which covers 500 hectares in the south of Hanoi.