Representatives of Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic deliver facemasks for Vestec. Photo by Hong Ky/ VNS.
As soon as the Czech Republic detected the very first COVID1-19 infection cases on March 1, the Vietnamese community called on people to sew facemasks, donate money for hospitals, provide free fast food and drinks for the home country’s functional forces.
Vietnam News Agency’s correspondent in Praha cited Winter as saying that, the initiative of sewing facemasks was originated from a group of young mothers from non-profitable organization lamchame.cz. The move immediately spread and received responds from other Vietnamese community’s organizations or in other sayings, almost all Vietnamese family in the country join in the activity.
Furthermore, they were willing to share free snacks and drinks to the functional forces to support them in the combat to COVID-19 pandemic.
This program is an initiative, represented by the heart symbol affixed in front of Vietnamese shops and restaurants in Czech to support the local public employees. It all came from the kindhearted intimacy of Vietnamese individuals. For example, the Vietnamese community in Cheb city supported the hospital and the fire force for a total of 700,000 Korun, the community in Plzen supported 300,000, while the Vietnamese community in Ustí nad Labem also donated 300,000 Korun for support to buy ventilator for Masaryk Hospital.
Notably, the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic also donated as many as 40,000 facemasks showing that they are a part of the Czech society, consider the Czech as their beloved country in emergency situation, thereby they were willing to help and together with the Czechs overcome the difficulties caused by the pandemic.
It is not only shown in the Vietnamese community in Czech Republic, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in his talk with his Czech Republic counterpart Andrej Babis by telephone also affirmed that Vietnam stands ready to collaborate with the Czech Republic and all of its partners to fight the epidemic, adding that no country could unilaterally act to overcome such a global-scale public health crisis.
Winter stressed that it is a should to deliver congratulation and thanks to the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic. He expressed his desire and expectation that the Czechs would acknowledge the support of Vietnamese people not only in the COVID-19 combat but also other previous events including the Chrášťany flood or the Vejprty fire. The Vietnamese community showing their support with a desire to engage in the life in the host country and the good deeds are rooted from not only organizations, associations but also the series of Vietnamese families living in the Czech Republic.
Noting the traditional assistance of Vietnamese in Czech, Winter sharing his personal experience who has worked with Vietnamese partners for 23 times and has been to Vietnam 48 times. He affirmed that the Vietnamese people show their kindness and sharing right from their sub-conscience. In social life, Vietnamese people put forth working to earn the best living for their families and offsprings as well as helping their parents and that is the long-standing tradition of Vietnam.
As many as 216.000 Vietnamese people living and working in the Czech Republic considered the country like their second home that show how they proud to live, work and study in the Czech Republic.
Standing as a person who have good understanding of both the Czech and Vietnam, Winter shared that the Czechs always appreciate Vietnamese community that showed in recent messages from the Czechs to him on Facebook expressing thanks to Vietnamese people’s good deeds and saying “the Vietnamese people are us”.
VNF
