Head nun Thich Nu Nhat Khuong reported that there are more than 25,000 Buddhist nuns and nearly 7,000 pagodas of nuns nationwide at present.
With the religion’s spirit of mercifulness, nuns across the country have carried out a number of charity activities such as presenting gifts on the occasion of major Buddhist and national anniversaries to help ease difficulties facing underprivileged people.
She also highlighted their assistance for flood victims, presentation of scholarships to poor students, help with the building of houses for the disadvantaged, opening of nursing centres for children and the elderly with disadvantages, and provision of free health examination and treatment for the poor.
The nuns have made donations to the COVID-19 combat, contributed to preschool education, and carried out various environmental protection programmes. They were also granted some international awards in 2017 and 2023, hosted the 11th Sakyadhita International Conference on Buddhist Women in 2009, and attended other Sakyadhita conferences, leaving good impressions on international friends, she added.
Speaking highly of the enormous contributions by the VBS, monks, nuns, and Buddhist followers both at home and abroad, Deputy PM Quang asked the nuns to continue upholding solidarity, setting good examples, and complying with and encouraging Buddhists to adhere to the Party’s guidelines and the State’s policies and laws.
He called on Buddhist nuns to keep joining hands with the VBS to step up people-to-people diplomatic activities, especially religious diplomacy, to help popularise images of Vietnam and the country’s policy of respecting and protecting the right to religious and belief freedom for all, while affirming the Vietnamese Buddhism’s stature in the international arena.
