Minh Han injects passion into CSR

The entire staff of Minh Han Trading Limited, a business best known for its Minh Han (K-Mart) supermarket system, will never forget the poignant sensations they felt after visiting and befriending orphans carrying HIV at Labour Education Centre No 2 in Hanoi’s suburban district Ba Vi, the home of these unfortunate kids.

Nestled amid hilly area in Ba Vi, Labour Education Centre No 2 is taking care of 67 kids carrying HIV, including  15  at kindergarten age. Typically infected at birth with HIV, a virus that weakens the immune system, many of these children were orphaned young as their succumbed to HIV/AIDS.

Now many suffer from opportunistic infectious diseases associated with  the virus and now live largely isolated from society among their unfortunate peers at this special centre.

Expressing great sympathy, employees at Minh Han Trading Ltd made a one-day trip to the centre to bring warmth and friendship. The staff awakened early so that they could prepare nourishing meals for the children.  

“This is not the first time the company joins CSR activities, but it is the first time entire staff members took part in the act,” said company director Hoang Thuy Linh.

“We want to express attention towards unlucky people, thus to ease their pains and hardships striving for a more impartial life.”

The orphans’ health conditions vary, but they share a common desire: a craving for attention and affection from families and society. For that reason, the centre is divided into nice living areas that resemble family homes, each given charming names like Pigeon home, Pumpkin home or Rabbit home. The kids are grouped by age to live together in these pleasant homes.

When calling on the centre, Minh Han Trading employees are divided into two groups. One group was prepared lunch for the kids and the other went to pick up tea leaves together with centre nurses or the kids’ “adoptive” mothers.

The tea garden was grown from the first days by “adoptive” mothers when the centre was founded. When drugs are not always available, the tea leaves are an ideal medicine to heal ulcers thanks to tannin extraction from the tea leaves. This came as a revelation to the Koreans working at the company.

To the surprise of  some employees, the older children at the center returned from their studies with friendly, open-minded attitudes, and were eager to join the games and performances prepared by K-Mart employees.

The kids at Labour Education Centre No 2 had a very special day meeting the employees of Minh Han Trading Ltd. After one day full of joys, the small kids took sleep with smiles and happy attitudes.

“I wish one day there will be a panacea to save the life of all the kids,”  said Ha Thi Dong, one “adoptive mother” at the centre.