Smaller scale, bigger hearts – VIR ramps up for 14th Swing for the Kids

The Swing for the Kids annual charity golf tournament has already collected more donations than last year

This year’s event will tee off on November 21 at Kings Course of BRG Kings Island Golf Resort in Dong Mo, Son Tay district, Hanoi. The registration fee is VND3 million ($130) per golfer. The tournament is expected to attract 144 golfers.

Different from previous events when the tournament was organised at two courses, the organising board has proactively downsized the tournament to accommodate fewer golfers to ensure safety in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, in compliance with the government’s directions.

However, according to Le Trong Minh, VIR’s editor-in-chief and head of the organising board, although the tournament will be smaller in scale, the enthusiasm and kindness of businesses and sponsors to provide life-changing scholarships to talented but disadvantaged students have not reduced and have in fact increased against the previous season.

Le Trong Minh, VIR’s editor-in-chief and head of the organising board

“The organising board appreciates all acts of kindness, especially now that all of us are impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our sponsors have risen above these challenges to accompany the tournament,” Minh said.

“I fervently hope that the students who have received Swing for the Kids scholarships will give back to the fund when they grow up, graduate, and have a job,” he said.

This tournament is organised in the special context of unprecedented storms sweeping through the central region, including Thua Thien-Hue and Quang Binh. To react to the natural disasters, the organising board of the tournament decided to reserve VND1 billion ($43,500) from this year’s fund to students in this region.

In the framework of the press conference, Tran Kim Nga, chief executive of Vietnam Beverage, a Vietnamese unit of ThaiBev – the representative of the Sliver Sponsors – decided to donate VND50 million ($2,173) of her private funds to the VND1 billion fund for students in the central region. Besides, she also represented two professors in Germany who donated VND100.2 million ($4,356) for this fund.

Huong Lan, a representative of the communications department of BRG said, “Along with scholarships for talented but disadvantaged students, BRG also sends support in the form of occupational training scholarships for students who have medium learning results but have demonstrated a strong drive to change their life.

At the pre-event press conference today, the organising board granted two scholarships worth VND10 million ($435) each for two talented students – Do Thi Tham from the Academy of Journalism and Communication and Nguyen Le Huong from Hanoi National University of Education.

Five other scholarships worth VND6 million ($280) each were handed out to students of Hanoi National University of Education. Despite the hardships they have endured, the students have overcome them to achieve good study results.

Thai Viet Dung, a representative of Exness Vietnam said, "We admire the CSR activities through the Swing for the Kids golf charity tournament hosted by Vietnam Investment Review and Exness is honoured to join helpful activities to contribute and fulfil the dreams of talented children held back by money issues in Vietnam. We feel privileged to join the tournament and support its noble cause."

Padungsak Thanakij, head of Banpu Pcl. in Vietnam, said, "The children are the future of the world. Supporting education has been on Banpu’s sustainable development agenda since our establishment. This is the first year Banpu is officially present in Vietnam and was lucky enough to find Vietnam Investment Review and the Swing for the Kinds Fund as our strategic partner in implementing CSR projects in Vietnam."