From the trips with HOW, FHV volunteers have written very nice blog posts, expressing their feelings towards the experience. Please pay a visit to their posts to see some original documented records
Image from Xuân Quỳnh's Blog
From the trips with HOW, FHV volunteers have written very nice blog posts, expressing their feelings towards the experience. Please pay a visit to their posts to see some original documented records
Image from Xuân Quỳnh's Blog
Unleash your imagination by Free Hugs Vietnam in collaboration with Helping Orphans Worldwide (HOW).
HOW is a US-based non-profit & humanitarian organization working for the basic rights and benefits of the children living in deprived areas of the world. Last year 2009, HOW made some interesting charity trips to Vietnam, visiting many local orphanages and also co-organized the Mid Autumn Festival Charity events with Free Hugs Vietnam (FHV). The event involved distributing gift packages to the poor and homeless around the city centre and reaped radical success. This year, HOW is back and brings with them another great volunteer opportunity this May and June for all FHV members as well as other interested young people. In an attempt to foster the solidarity between FHV and HOW in our joint community causes and help members understand more about HOW’s activities, we are now launching The Creative Design Contest: Unleash your imagination directed at all FHVers along with other non-members.
Everyone with or without official FHV membership is equally encouraged to take part in this contest. Only individual participants are allowed, no groups or teams are eligible.
Members of the organizing board (FHV and HOW managers) are not entitled to participate.
The contest will last approximately 4 weeks, as follows
There are 3 Prizes in total to be awarded, to the value of approximately 1 million VND (or 50 USD)
(*Note: The venue of the restaurant and cinema may be subject to change at the time the prizes are awarded, but the value of the prizes remains the same)
On behalf of the organizing board.
Hi all,
Firstly, again, on behalf of HOW and FHV, I would like to send my greatest appreciation to the 121 registered contestants for the recruitment this time. Without you guys, we cannot make such a great job!
Ok, for those who missed this time, dont worry, ‘cuz we will have super interesting events and activities in the upcoming time waiting for your active and enthusiastic participation.
For these 121 registered volunteers, an email has been sent to them about detailed information of the essay round.
By the way, here are the essay questions for all of our fans to have a look at :)
Let’s wish all the best to our lovely contestants !
On behalf of FHV and HOW.

Welcome to FHV!
A very good point this year is the weather. In Viet Nam it’s irritatingly likely to rain when we are going around having fun with lanterns, but today is different. It did rain a little, but the weather soon cleared up, which means none of us got wet, even though we have been going nonstop. And there are good reasons why we kept on going even as rains seemed to be coming…
It took quite sometime to gather around at Youth Cultural Center, because there were so many of us. Apart from FHV members there were also volunteers from HOW, so it was a real crowd. From 5pm, our volunteers started to stick FHV logo onto their shirts and get to know each other (by the way, FHV T-shirts are coming real soon). Dozens of carton boxes were prepared, ready to carry presents to unlucky children near the center of Ho Chi Minh city. Around 100 people were divided into two groups, starting from Youth Cultural Center to various spots such as the Municipal Theater, Turtle Lake, Notre Dame Cathedral, Bến Thành Market. Throughout the trip, we pay special attention to children that we were passing by…
Group 1 headed from Youth Cultural Center towards Notre Dame Cathedral. Group 2 headed from Youth Cultural Center towards Turtle Lake. We each learnt different lessons on the way…
Here are some pictures from our photographers:
Hello FHVers,
It has been a while we haven’t updated our blog. Anway, now we are back, with great news as expected.
Volunteers for HOW selected
This Saturday we had a very exciting interview with our shortlisted candidates for helping HOW. It was a great experience for me (and for you too, I hope), meeting and talking to excellent and enthusiastic volunteers. We would like to take all of the candidates as HOW volunteers, but they don’t have enough budget (just kidding). Our thanks and hugs to all those showed up for the interview. After our best effort to take many things into consideration, here is the final list of FHVers that will go and help HOW this time.
Congratulations!
SEAChange – Be an Agent of Change!
Guess what, FHV is now the official youth partner of SEAchange in Viet Nam!!!! The movement is to encourage youth to raise our voices and take part in changing the world around us. Response to SEAChange survey will also give you a chance to win a trip to Kuala Lumpur to attend Youth Engagement Summit this November. There are a lot of updates involving this event coming, so make sure to join us if you haven’t already.
Moon Festival
Regarding the upcoming Moon Festival, FHV members would be splitting into small groups to go around the city, giving gifts to less fortunate people. This seems to be very interesting and absolutely we need more of your help, so please listen on.
FHV in Hanoi – Talents needed
After a long time expecting and preparing ( with a lot of complains also), finally, we have FHVN in Ha Noi! The first members meetup in Hanoi will be held on Sunday, September 27.
And because we are so new, there are still rooms for talents in the management board. Basic requierements are:
More information will be updated by the Head Representative of FHV in Hanoi in the next few days. In the mean time, peopl who are interested can always send us an email to admin@freehugsvietnam.com!
FHV’s new logo

What do you think about this logo? FHV design team has finished our new logo. As you may know, we have been running volunteer activities for a while without an official logo(!). It is basically finished now, but we want to hear from you, what you like and what you don’t. You can either send your feedback to admin@freehugsvietnam.com or simply leave a comment in the form below. Your opinions and suggestions are invaluable to us.