According to the institution, on Tuesday up to 11:00 (local time) 341.1 billion dongs (about 13. 120 000 dollars) were collected, five times higher than the target initially set at 65 billion VND.

Among the most recent donations received by the social humanitarian organization is the one made yesterday by the Vietnam-Cuba Friendship Hospital, one of the five works donated by the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, during his visit to this Indochinese nation in 1973.

The hospital, opened in 1981 in Dong Hoy, former province of Quang Binh, was at the time one of the most modern in Vietnam, and as recalled in an article the former vice foreign minister Nguyen Dinh Bin would be destined “to heal the soldiers of the South and the populations in the areas that suffered most from the atrocious war”.

Also the Vietnamese News Agency (VNA) yesterday called its officials, reporters, editors and other staff to join the campaign “65 years of Vietnam-Cuba solidarity”, launched by the Red Cross as part of the commemorative activities for the sixty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations.

The well-known statement of the leader Fidel Castro: “!For Vietnam, Cuba is ready to give even its own blood!” , embodies this unwavering loyalty, deeply rooted in the hearts of the Vietnamese people, he said.

Launched last Wednesday on the occasion of the 99th birthday of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro and in the context of the Year of Vietnam-Cuba Friendship and the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, the campaign to support the island will take until next October 16.

abo/lam/mpm