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12/09/2019

Bringing light of hopes to sight-impaired people

 

To most people, taking a tour to someplace may not be a big issue. Meanwhile, for the sight-impaired, especially children, packing up and hitting the road seem to only happen in their dreams, as there are not tours designed for such a special group of customers. At Saigontourist Travel Service Company, there are kind-hearted people ready to roll up their sleeves to cater to underprivilleged children, especially the sight-impaired ones.

The charity program “Thap sang niem tin” (Lighting Hopes) has been launched by Saigontourist Travel Service Company for many long years, with an aim to bring joy to the unfortunate children, and to make their dreams come true.

Ten days ago, such a tour under the company’s annual charity program was organized successfully. As many as 145 tour guides and volunteers of the program had little sleep as they had to wake up at midnight, making preparations and starting rides to pick up children at multiple schools and shelters for children with sight impairment, such as Nguyen Dinh Chieu School for the Blind, Huynh De Nhu Nghia school, Thien An Shelter, Nhat Hong Shelter, Bung Sang School, and the School for Sightless Adolescents and Orphans in HCMC among others.

In previous years, the children usually joined beach trips to Ho Coc or Vung Tau City in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau. This year’s destination has been changed. More than 500 sight-impaired students and their teachers enjoyed themselves at Dai Nam Tourist Complex in the neighboring province of Binh Duong.

First launched in 2004, “Lighting Hopes” has been the biggest annual community program of Saigontourist Travel Service Company, a member of Saigontourist Holding Company, with many activities, including beach trips, donation of scholarships, travel audiobooks, stationery and stuff for daily activities to the sight-impaired students. Also, the HCMC-based tour operator has presented facilities to their schools and shelters.

“People with visual impairment have a strong desire for learning about and experiencing the surrounding nature, particularly traveling to discover the life outside their accommodations, but they have few chances to make it. Therefore, we decided to roll out the “Lighting Hopes” as a way to bring more travelling opportunities to the students,” said Tran Quoc Bao, vice general director of Saigontourist.

After 16 years of the launch, the annual trip not only delights the students but also is a festive day for the schools and shelters to meet each other. For employees of the tour firm, this is an occasion for them to connect and gain deeper insight into the life of partially-sighted people, Bao said.

The “Lighting Hopes” initially was available at HCMC-based schools and shelters for sight-impaired kids, but now the organizer has expanded it to southern provinces of Dong Nai, Binh Duong, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

With the companion of thousands of volunteers and Saigontourist tour guides, 16 trips of the “Lighting Hopes” program have been joined by over 8,000 disadvantaged kids.

It is also noted that the event has sowed the seeds of love among the kids and participants, nurturing the “Sharing is caring” spirit in them. There are some students who joined the event when they were still two-year-old kids, and have now grown up and continued to join the trips to take care of other kids. And there are lots of tour guides who have spent their weekends catering to the kids for many consecutive years. They are now professionals in serving such little tourists.

Throughout each trip, the tour guides have to be patient storytellers, should be as detailed as possible when describing surrounding scenes so that the kids can feel the world around them like normal people, aside from playing with and taking care of them while they are dining.

Some people have been moved to tears many times as they witness the sight-impaired kids playing during the trips, hear them singing, or see them dancing happily.

“How amazing these little kids are! They are still full of energy and optimism despite the impaired vision,” says a volunteer. The program has changed people’s awareness on how to bring happiness to this vulnerable group. Apart from offering shelters, foods and schools for them, more people should reach out to them, playing, experiencing with and walking them toward the path being lightened by love, says the volunteer.

The journey “Lighting Hopes” is still taking place annually, bringing the light of hopes and the fire of love to unfortunate children who can no longer see the sunshine so that they can explore the world and have their dreams come true.

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