Mr. Huynh Van Hieu - a pioneer in volunteering and entrepreneurship

In 2012, Mr. Hieu started his journey at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education, majoring in Mechanical Engineering. Since he was a student, he has actively participated in voluntary blood donation and volunteer movements, associations, groups, and clubs organized by the school.

 

These activities helped him deeply sympathize with difficult circumstances, especially orphans and homeless people in Ho Chi Minh City. From there, he decided to establish the “Heart of Friendship” Club, aiming to connect his hometown friends and university friends to support the community together.

The club focuses on organizing volunteer activities to help orphans, homeless people and poor households in Ho Chi Minh City and the southern provinces. At first, the programs were mainly small, short-term activities such as: Giving gifts to homeless people and street children, often organized on holidays and Tet.

To have funds for activities, Mr. Hieu and his members have proactively raised funds by doing many extra jobs after school hours. In addition, the club also receives contributions from volunteers. Thanks to that, the club has financial resources to organize activities more sustainably and long-term.

2015 marked an important turning point when Mr. Hieu was selected to participate in the national campaign “Red Journey” directed by the Ministry of Health and organized by the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion. This is a large-scale communication and blood donation campaign, recruiting volunteers nationwide.

Mr. Hieu is honored to be one of the 120 most active volunteers, participating in communication activities and blood donation campaigns nationwide. During his participation in the “Red Journey”, he realized that the voluntary blood donation movement in localities has not developed evenly, many places do not have a strong movement and many people do not clearly understand the purpose, meaning and humane value of blood donation.

“While still in school, in addition to studying, you should actively participate in social activities. This not only helps us shape our self-worth, but also trains soft skills, which are essential when entering life.

Participating in social activities also helps you realize that there are many people in more difficult situations than you, thereby creating motivation to make more efforts. These experiences will be valuable assets, helpful for your future life and work" - Mr. Hieu's advice to young people.

After completing the campaign, from 2015 to 2018, Mr. Hieu was elected as Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Voluntary Blood Donation Club. In this role, he focused on organizing propaganda activities, blood donation campaigns and gala programs to raise public awareness. He also actively organized training sessions for students at universities and colleges in the city.

From 2018 to 2020, he was elected as the Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City “Red Journey” Club. During this period, he established a team of volunteer blood donors to promptly support emergency cases such as surgery, accidents or pregnant women with severe blood loss, especially cases requiring rare blood types. He was called the “Volunteer Blood Call Center” because of his dedication and ability to coordinate quickly.

By 2020, Mr. Hieu had moved to work for a company and was no longer a regular volunteer. However, he continued to participate in voluntary blood donation and charity work; at the same time, he aimed for activities with more sustainable and long-term values. He founded the “House of Love” Project and served as the Head of the Steering Committee. The project focuses on supporting families with difficult housing circumstances by building or repairing houses. To date, the project has built 9 houses.

In addition, Mr. Hieu also supports scholarships and study programs for students in difficult circumstances through the "Next Step to School" scholarship, helping them to continue their studies until grade 12. The total cost of supporting house construction and scholarships that he has mobilized from benefactors is nearly 500 million VND. Currently, although he has transferred the role of coordinating "Red Journey", Mr. Hieu still actively participates in voluntary blood donation with 32 blood donations.

UNIQUE LIVESTOCK FARMING MODEL

In 2022, Mr. Hieu decided to return to his hometown to start a business to be closer to his family and take advantage of the available advantages. With the desire to challenge himself, he chose a unique livestock model: Raising bamboo rats and black H'Mong chickens. He realized that this was a new model with more development potential than traditional saturated models.

Mr. Hieu (left) participated in presenting funds to support the construction of charity houses, a project he founded and holds the role of Head of the Command Board.

With the dynamism of youth, he researched and realized that the demand for enjoying highland specialties such as black H'Mong chicken and bamboo rats in the Mekong Delta was quite large. Therefore, he decided to bring the breed back to his hometown to breed and supply to the market.

After a period of construction, his breeding model developed well, the amount of breeding stock supplied to the market could not meet the demand. Initially, he traveled all the way to the Northwest highlands such as Ha Giang, Son La, Dien Bien to buy about 30 black H'Mong breeding chickens. Up to now, he has developed more than 2,000 black H'Mong chickens. With bamboo rats, from the initial 20, he now has 2 farms with about 300 breeding chickens.

The initial difficulties were inevitable because he had no expertise in animal husbandry. The change in living environment from the Northwest to the plains caused the chickens to suffer from heat shock and illness. It took him the first 2 months to stabilize the flock. The first batch of 20 bamboo rats he raised for trial all died due to the unreliable supply.

After that, he researched more carefully and chose more reputable suppliers. Through persistent research on the Internet and learning from practical experience, Mr. Hieu gradually mastered the techniques of animal husbandry. Currently, his animal husbandry is going very smoothly.

Current selling prices of livestock products: Black H'Mong chicken meat: 180,000 VND/kg; Black H'Mong chicken breed 30,000 - 50,000 VND/bird. Meat bamboo rats 750,000 VND/kg; bamboo rats breed from 1.8 - 2.8 million VND/pair. Mr. Hieu's livestock model is large-scale, helping to stabilize output compared to small-scale livestock households.

He supplies products to restaurants in the province and plans to expand the market. In the near future, the company will have a sales team to connect with livestock farmers in other provinces and cities and expand the consumption market.

Mr. Huynh Van Hieu shared: “In daily life, I am always disciplined. In addition to living for myself, I also lead a team of like-minded people and business teammates according to the set direction. For society, when I create value for myself, I am always willing to contribute. Because I come from a poor family, when I meet people in difficulty, I sympathize and want to share within my ability.”

With his continuous contributions, Mr. Huynh Van Hieu has been recognized and rewarded by all levels and sectors. The "Humanitarian House" Project Club founded by him was recognized as an excellent volunteer club in 2024 and was honored to receive a Certificate of Merit from the Central Committee of the Vietnam Youth Union. He was also awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee for his outstanding achievements in building Cho Gao district to meet advanced new rural standards in 2024.

At the same time, he was also awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Provincial Youth Union for his many contributions to the work of the Union and the youth movement in 2024. In particular, in 2025, Mr. Hieu was honored to be an excellent delegate commended at the 8th National Congress of Advanced Youth Following Uncle Ho's Teachings in 2025.

Mr. Huynh Van Hieu shared: “I am very happy and proud of myself when my efforts in social activities are recognized and praised. For me, as long as I see something suitable and useful for the community, I am ready to do it.

That not only motivates me, but also spreads the spirit of dedication to other young people. In the future, I will continue to stabilize my personal life and develop my career to have more opportunities to contribute to society."

LY OANH
 

Source: https://baoapbac.vn/xa-hoi/202505/anh-huynh-van-hieu-tien-phong-trong-hoat-dong-tinh-nguyen-va-khoi-nghiep-1043229/