LIN’s distinguishing Program to break down barriers to resources for change – Narrow the Gap – continues counting positive impacts being made on rural communities in the deep south of the Mekong Delta region, extremely vulnerable to climate change effects.
The disastrous and turbulent year of 2020 makes LIN’s pick of theme for Narrow the Gap which is “Planet for the next generations” even more relevant and meaningful. NARROW THE GAP pools resources of finance, time, and skills from companies and individuals, to award to local, grassroots nonprofit organizations (NPOs) to address their communities’ needs. Thirteen local nonprofit organizations answered LIN’s call for proposals with diverse and impressive community initiatives. LIN additionally welcome 15 members to the Grant Allocation Committee for the program through whom our NPO applicants received rich and insightful advice to develop their initiatives holistically. Making to the final round in 2020 were three exciting community initiatives being implemented in Ca Mau, Kien Giang and An Giang provinces to address issues around the shortage of clean water and deforestation in the Mekong Delta, widely known as a disaster-prone area in Vietnam. These include:
- “Find clean water for my villagers” by the Nguyen Viet Khai Commune Women’s Union
- “WASH and Action Campaign Against Covid-19 for Knmer Schools” by the Center for Rural Research and Development of An Giang University
- “Bambusa vulgaris” by the Herbal Medicine Group
Click HERE to learn more about their Planet saving projects and why you should give a hand to support them.
A sum of VND 360 million was granted to our selected NPOs, and yet, fundraising activities still continue from September to December 2020 to provide more comprehensive support for the successful delivery of these impactful initiatives. In late October, LIN took to the initiative locations to conduct a documentary and joyfully learned the implementations are underway, making great progress toward the completion stage. The feedback from the local beneficiaries were positive, and implied how crucial and meaningful these initiatives were to them in giving them access to clean water supply and improving their living conditions.
Dao Thi Thanh An – core member of the “Find clean water for my villagers” in Nguyen Viet Khai commune, Ca Mau province shared her experience working for the people’s right to clean water in her community.
“…The water is not only contaminated with salt, but also looks yellowish and smells bad. I hope we would have enough money to ask for a proper water testing in order to determine if the water is safe for people to use or not. And all the people here would like to show our deepest gratitude to the community for supporting, helping and facilitating us in this initiative. [I] hope that the Narrow the Gap program, as its name implies, will be able to narrow the distance of finding freshwater and will ease their burdens. Hopefully, more and more communities, like us, will be reached and provided with support by LIN through its helpful activities. The most important thing I like to share is about the benefit of raising people’s awareness. The sense of community participation has been elevated by this initiative. That achievement is itself praiseworthy, the people acknowledge their responsibility to overcome challenges by themselves and learn how to support each other instead of just waiting and relying on external help.”
- Online donation: Click here (Payment methods: Credit/Debit Cards, PayPal). Please select your donation amount on the right table on the website.
- Bank transfer:
Account Name: LIN Center for Community Development – TRUNG TÂM HỖ TRỢ PHÁT TRIỂN CỘNG ĐỒNG LIN
VND Account #: 007.100.5091855
USD Account #: 0071375091874
Name of Bank: Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, HCMC Branch (Vietcombank HCM)
Bank Address: 05 Me Linh Square – Ben Nghe Ward – District 1 – HCMC – Viet Nam
Swift Code: BFTV VNVX 007
Description: Support Narrow the Gap
Together, Narrow the Gap – Expand the Love
About the program: NARROW THE GAP community program pools resources of finance, time, and skills from companies and individuals, to award to local, grassroots nonprofit organizations (NPOs) to address their communities’ needs. Since 2009, 121 grants have been provided to humanitarian and community development projects (addressing various issues in education, environment, inequality, disabilities, health care, and more). Over 95,000 people have been positively impacted by Narrow The Gap community program in Southern Vietnam.
