Kicked off in 2023, the initiative is designed to enable access to education for children living in remote mountainous areas of Vietnam, by granting funds for essential infrastructure and food supplies to the ‘The Loving Leaves’ program through the Vietnam Charity Fund.
Children living in Vietnam’s mountainous region lack access to technology and basic infrastructure including schools, restricting their access to good education. According to a survey, 16.3% of border areas still lack permanent school buildings. Recognizing this Mastercard and VPBank joined forces to support schools in these areas through the ’Nurturing Hope, Empowering Futures‘ initiative and enable a more impactful educational journey for them.
In its second year, the ’Nurturing Hope, Empowering Futures’ initiative will be kicked off with the Mastercard Kids Run in October 2024. The 600-meter race will take place on October 12 on Hoan Kiem Lake Walking Street area, with more than 500 participants, aged 5 to 10 years, expected to join. Through the route of historic streets surrounding Hoan Kiem Lake such as Turtle Tower, The Huc Bridge, and Ngoc Son Temple, the race not only offers a unique chance to enjoy Hanoi’s iconic landmarks, but also provides young participants with the opportunity to engage in an enriching experience designed to promote healthy lifestyles from an early age.
The 2023 Mastercard Kids Run has become an exciting sports event, attracting many children to participate.
Following this and during the months of October and November 2024, Mastercard will contribute 7,100 VND for every payment of 300,000 VND or above made using a VPBank Mastercard debit or credit card. These funds will be donated through the Vietnam Charity Fund to ‘The Loving Leaves’, who will conduct on-site assessments in various underserved areas and connect them to the initiative for school construction or renovation.
In 2023 the ‘Nurturing Hope, Empowering Futures’ initiative achieved remarkable results with over 500 children participating in the Mastercard Kids Run 2023 and attracting nearly 10,000 spectators. With the support of more than 3.5 million transactions from VPBank Mastercard cardholders, more than VND 4.8 billion were raised, enabling the construction of 10 rural schools and providing vital educational materials and food packages to children in these underserved regions of Vietnam.
Representatives from VPBank and Mastercard presented funding for the construction of a school for children at Hoang Lan School, Quyet Tien Commune, Quan Ba District, Ha Giang.
In the past, Mastercard has launched several programs to empower and enable marginalized communities, including the Strive Women Initiative for women led SMEs, ‘Tap to Share, Give Hope’ campaign to extend free cancer screening for thousands of vulnerable women, and its flagship Girls4Tech program to inspire young girls to choose STEM careers.
