On the evening of January 12, 2025, at Linh Trung I Export Processing Zone (EPZ), Thu Duc City, the Ho Chi Minh City Labor Federation organized the program "Tet Sum Vay - Xuan Doan Ket" in 2025. The program is for 360 union member households and workers who are unable to return home for Tet, with a total cost of up to 648 million VND. This is one of the practical activities to bring joy and warmth to workers during the Lunar New Year.
Present at the ceremony, Ms. Tran Thi Thien (34 years old, from Quang Binh) said that she had not returned home for Tet for 7 years due to economic difficulties.
"The cost of returning to my hometown is too high, so my husband and I decided to stay to save money for our children. Although I feel sad when I see everyone returning to their hometown, I try to create a Tet atmosphere by cleaning my rented room, buying cakes and candies, and going to the flower market. I hope to have good health and a stable job so that one day I can bring my family back to my hometown to reunite," Ms. Thien confided.
Sharing the same feeling of celebrating Tet away from home, Mr. Nguyen Van Hoang (from Nghe An) shared that although he misses his hometown very much and often receives phone calls from his parents urging him to return home for Tet, due to financial constraints, he only dares to return home on weekdays during the year.
“Every time my parents call and remind me about Tet so that the whole family can gather together, I feel sad. But the cost of travel and gifts for Tet is too high, while the money saved is needed to take care of the children, so I can only encourage my parents to try to stay healthy. On New Year's Eve, my whole family made a video call to my parents in the countryside. Seeing each other, listening to my parents tell stories about cooking banh chung and preparing the feast, I feel like I'm still at home. Even though it's far away, these calls help keep family affection warm,” Mr. Hoang shared.
Each participating family received a voucher worth 300,000 VND and 1,500,000 VND in cash. Children accompanying their families also received meaningful lucky money envelopes.
In addition, the program also organizes many attractive activities such as visiting traditional Tet space, taking instant photos, calligraphers giving calligraphy, game booths for children, and enjoying special performances.
In addition to the above event, during the Lunar New Year 2025, the Ho Chi Minh City Labor Federation also launched many outstanding activities such as the program "Workers' Festival - Charity Market" for 9,500 union members to shop at the market; the program "Charity Ticket - Spring Reunion", bringing workers home to celebrate Tet by plane tickets, bus tickets and train tickets, including "Spring Train" assigned by the union to organize for 500 worker families to return home to reunite with their families; the program "Workers' families celebrate Tet with the city" for 10,000 worker families to celebrate spring at Suoi Tien Tourist Area...
