Individuals, organizations and businesses are spending money, effort and time to clean up the Mekong River. Photographer Nguyen Viet Hung has just returned from a trip along 7,000 kilometers of coastline to take pictures of garbage. After nearly 2 months of traveling alone through 28 provinces from North to South, what he saw was garbage everywhere. He saw the beaches, nearly one kilometer long, with full of garbage and no sand. In many areas, people throw garbage into the river and the sea. According to UNEP (United Nations Environment Program), Vietnam ranks fourth in the world in volume of garbage discharged, with the volume of plastic waste into the sea hitting 0.28-0.73 million tons per annum, or 6 percent of the world’s total plastic waste. Christian Schmidt from Helmholtz Environment Research Center found that Mekong is one of the 10 most polluting rivers in the world which make up 88-95 percent of total waste into the sea. Mekong is no longer mysterious and attractive … [Read more...] about Vietnamese people join hands to save Mekong River
Plastic waste
Abandoned children find a home with nuns in Lam Dong
Most of the children at the Tin Thac Charity House are nicknamed after fruits, vegetables or animals. Nun offers home to homeless children Sister Nguyen Thi Huong with the children she took in and cared for at Tin Thac Charity House in Bao Loc City, the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong. — Photo thanhnien.vn Sister Nguyen Thi Huong, 71 years old, one of the founders of the charity house in Loc Thanh Commune, Bao Loc City, the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, said the nicknames were chosen based on the characteristics of the kids. The boy named Gau (Bear) is very fierce, another boy named Khi (Monkey) is stubborn, while most of the kids have An (Grace) in their names. So visiting the house can get pretty confusing, with shouts of "Where's Banana Grace?" or "Tell Rabbit Grace to keep it down!" Huong said that 10 years ago, she found a newborn boy weighing only 1.3 kg wrapped in a woman's shirt in a box near her house. She carried the boy home, bathed him … [Read more...] about Abandoned children find a home with nuns in Lam Dong
