A charity founded by artists and entrepreneurs plans to fund heartsurgery for 1,500 poor children, build 50 homes for flood victims andhelp children and teachers in remote areas attend school this year.

The charity will fulfill it aims by spreading a message of love,understanding and happiness through several programmes that will alsoraise funds, including a TV talk show, a "behind the scenes" TV showfeaturing famous people, an outreach programme for high schools and ashort-film-making contest.

Called Understanding the Heart,the charity will also raise funds by selling copies of a book releasedlast year that carries its name. The book tells 50 moving daily-lifestories of people struggling against adversity.

They willspread the message the book among many more youth and their parents, andmobilise money to fund heart surgeries for around 1,500 poor childrenthis year, the charity's representatives said on March 29, launchingtheir programme for the second year.

Tran Huu Tam,permanent deputy chairman of the Sponsoring Association for PoorPatients, said last year the organisation had collaborated with HeartBeat Vietnam run by the VinaCapital Foundation to carry out heartsurgeries for 100 children.

The organisation expects to support 1,500 such surgeries this year, he said.

They plan to sell 100,000 copies of the book by the end of this yearand use the proceeds for the free heart surgeries, said actor Pham GiaChi Bao, director of the programme.

The charity will alsocontinue to co-ordinate with Dat Trading JSC and VTC Intecom to producethe Ngau Hung Cung Sao (Sudden Inspiration with Star) TV programme thatwill have stars and their families talk about life behind the scenes.

During the programme, the audience will be asked to send the message"TT" to 1404 to make their donations. Each message donates 8,000 VND tothe charity.

"After beginning in February, we have, as ofMarch 25, received more than 80,000 messages, raising 642 million VND(32,000 USD)," said Mai Quyen Linh, actor and MC of the programme.

"We expect to raise 8 billion VND (about 400,000 USD) for the fund by the end of this year," Linh added.

The charity has also coordinated with the Vietnam Data CommunicationCompany and the video advertising platform and video ad network YuMe tocarry out a campaign named Trieu Loi Yeu Thuong (Million Words of Love),calling on the public to access website www.vnn.vn/hieuvetraitim fromMay to the end of December and send messages to disadvantaged Vietnamesechildren.

"Each message means you donate 300 VND for the fund," Bao said.

A 52 episode talk show series, also called Understanding the Heart,will be broadcast on StyleTV every Saturday night, helping both youngpeople and their parents learn the value of life through moving andinspiring true-life stories, he added.

Yet anotherprogramme called Understanding the Heart, to Live in Love and Happinesswill be organised at six high schools in the provinces of Khanh Hoa, HaTinh, Kien Giang, An Giang, Long An and Binh Dinh.

"The programme is expected to help pupils recognise and appreciate what they have and to live happily," Bao said.

To spread the message of "love and happiness" further, ashort-film-making contest will invite interested youth to script andshoot films based on the 50 stories carried in the book Understandingthe Heart.

The charity will collaborate with the DuongMinh Foreign Language School to build 50 houses for people inthe flood-stricken regions in Quang Binh, Ha Tinh and several provincesin the Mekong Delta.

It also plans to create "essentialconditions" for 500 pupils and 200 teachers in remote and mountainousareas to go to school, Bao said. /.