Meaningful 'Summer Tet' of friends for Vietnamese children

The Friends for Vietnamese Kids group recently organized a "Summer Tet" activity in the city of Gent, Belgium with the aim of introducing Vietnamese culture and raising charity to help poor Vietnamese children.

The campus of Sint-Paulus Primary School in the city of Gent was unusually bustling on this day, with graceful women in Vietnamese ao dai and children of mixed Vietnamese and Belgian descent. Even the Belgian grooms were dressed in traditional Vietnamese ao dai. Everyone's faces were happy and excited.

Audiences enjoy watching the lion dance performance. (Source: VNA)

In the auditorium, peach and apricot blossoms are made from brightly colored fabric, creating a space of the Spring Festival. Red parallel sentences are hung solemnly on the wall. Conical hats are skillfully arranged along with postcards introducing the landscape of the S-shaped country. Banh tet, pork rolls and lion dances... all bring the exciting atmosphere of Vietnamese Tet.

Outside, the smell of fried spring rolls and grilled meatloaf is delicious. Notably, the chefs are all Belgian men and they have been participating in this program for many years.

Filip Tondeleir and Johan van Praet are enthusiastic volunteers of the Tet Viet program. They carefully put each spring roll into a pan of hot oil on a charcoal stove, watching the pan to make sure the oil does not get too hot and flipping each spring roll at the right time so that the spring rolls are cooked and delicious.

Mr. Johan van Praet is the person with the most experience in frying spring rolls. He has been involved with the Vietnamese Tet program since the beginning and is also involved in organizing the event.

They were all very happy to participate in the event to join hands to help disadvantaged children in Vietnam.

Belgian volunteers participate in the program. (Source: VNA)

Mrs. Aan Van der Meulen, 91 years old, is also a regular guest of the program. She is very happy to join her Vietnamese friends, enjoy the cuisine and share with the Vietnamese community. Mrs. Aan Van der Meulen said she hopes that more people will join to support more disadvantaged children in this country.

To prepare for the event, two months in advance, the Organizing Committee announced on social networks "online Tet markets" for everyone to contribute and sell goods to raise funds.

The market was very bustling as people contributed pots of herbs, some Vietnamese food and spices, coffee and green tea packages, paintings, or books… all of which were sold to contribute to the charity fund for poor children in Vietnam.

Ms. Quynh Iris de Prell, living in the capital Brussels, said she went to the market several times to buy enough for the usual Tet tray with fresh tropical fruits.

She brought to the program a whole memory of the grocery stalls at the markets in her mother's hometown with full range of dried goods and vegetables, rice paper packages, salted roasted peanuts...

Quynh Iris de Prell also brought a coconut shell and carefully prepared a pot of steamed sweet potatoes, a pot of ancient tea buds from Ha Giang and peanut candy so that everyone could feel the warm atmosphere of their homeland, Vietnam.

baoquocte.vn