On June 18th, 2016, at the General Hospital of Tieu Can district, Tra Vinh province, Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company of Vietnam, Limited ("Dai-ichi Life Vietnam") collaborated with the Sponsoring Association for Poor Patients of Ho Chi Minh City, the Red Cross in Tra Vinh, Nguyen Trai hospital in HCMC and Tieu Can General hospital, to organize the second charitable eye operation in 2016 for 150 needy patients with cataracts, while the first eye operation was offered to 150 poor patients in Lam Dong province in March.
This is the 8th time in succession that Dai-ichi Life Japan and Dai-ichi Life Vietnam have sponsored this charity program, with the total sponsoring amount valued at VND 350 million, expecting to recover sight for nearly 450 disadvantaged blind patients in Lam Dong, Tra Vinh and HCMC this year.
“Bring light to the poor patients” is one of many significant charitable programs collaboratively pioneered by Dai-ichi Life Japan and Dai-ichi Life Vietnam that aim to improve the quality of life for local communities. After 8 years initiating this program, Dai-ichi Life Vietnam has increased the total sponsoring amount to over VND 2.7 billion, helping over 4,000 patients in Vietnam with sight recovery.
Mr. Tran Dinh Quan, General Director of Dai-ichi Life Vietnam, shared: “With our vision “Thinking people first”, Dai-ichi Life Japan and Dai-ichi Life Vietnam always regard the supporting efforts for the improvement of local living quality as a significant part in our strategy to strive for the sustainable development. This year is the 8th consecutive year that we have the honor to organize the “Bring light to the poor” charity program to support and help needy patients with cataracts to recover. With realistic support from Dai-ichi Life Japan and Dai-ichi Life Vietnam, we hope that this meaningful charity program will continue and be widely spread in order to help more disadvantaged patients in Vietnam recover sight and integrate back to the community.”
“Aiming to serve the long-term interests of the community, and contributing to the development of a better society, on April 6th, 2016, Dai-ichi Life Vietnam has officially received the establishment license issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs for the CSR Foundation “For a better life”. Regular and long-term community support programs focusing on the fields of healthcare, education, environment and charity on nationwide scale will be implemented by the CSR Foundation in upcoming time”, Mr. Quan added.
In its 9-year journey in Vietnam, apart from the charity eye operation program for needy patients in collaboration with the Sponsoring Association for the Poor Patients HCMC, Dai-ichi Life Japan and Dai-ichi Life Vietnam has proudly been the pioneer in many philanthropic and social programs with contribution of over VND15 billion, such as financing eye operations for the poor blinds, providing purified drinking water for rural schools, funding scholarships for the needy and hard-working pupils, offering aids for the families affected by floods in the Central provinces, donating warm clothes for the highlands children, rural bridge building program, blood donation program,… Dai-ichi Life Vietnam was honored to be awarded the “Corporate Social Responsibility Award” twice by the magazine Asia Insurance Review, the 1st time in 2013 for the program “For a better life” – installing water purifying system to provide clean drinking water to more than 18,000 pupils of the schools in rural areas of Vietnam, and the 2nd time in November 2015 for the program “A million red bricks, bridging the happiness” – building 10 bridges to facilitate safe and convenient travel for villagers in rural areas. The recognition and honour throughout Asia have demonstrated the strong commitment of the company to the development of a sustainable society for the sake of community benefits.
On March 5th, 2016, Dai-ichi Life Vietnam was honored to receive the Merit Certificate from the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, which recognizes the company’s outstanding achievements in initiating and taking part in many social and philanthropic activities in continuous years. Together with the recognition for the company, Mr. Takashi Fujii – Chairman, and Mr. Tran Dinh Quan – General Director of Dai-ichi Life Vietnam, were also awarded the honorary certificates from the People’s Committee of HCMC for their significant contribution in many social and charitable activities.