HCM CITY — The HCM City-based Audio Books for the Blind Charity Fund recently completed titles to add to its audio book library, including textbooks, reference books, history books, and fairy tales.

More than 17,000 copies of these books will be delivered to the 85 branches of the Blind People Association and schools for the blind nationwide, serving a total of 1.2 million people.

The works were carried out between March and December last year, with US$10,000 support from the Future First programme of HSBC Viet Nam.

The 23 best readers were selected from 145 volunteer staff that responded to the casting call for readers of the books.

Nguyen Huong Duong, who tragically lost her legs in a traffic accident, launched the audio books library for the blind in 1988. The library has now over 1,000 book titles, last year reaching 100,000 copies of 100 books.

The support came from HSBC Viet Nam's local Future First programme in 2010-11. US$100,000 was targeted to support non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that provide education and life skills for disadvantaged children.

The global Future First is HSBC's US$10 million educational programme for disadvantaged children. It had 314 projects in 55 countries between 2006 and 2010. Another US$15 million will serve the second five-year phase from 2011.

In the first phase, projects in Viet Nam benefited from more than US$545,000 in funding, including the Christina Noble Children's Association, Sai Gon Children Charity and KOTO, a non-profit restaurant and hospitality vocational training institution. — VNS