Dang Hoai Phuc, lecturer at the informatics center Sao Mai in Ho Chi Minh City, led his group to create the project, one among only eleven that awarded at the Samsung Digitall Hope contest 2005.

By winning the award, the project qualifies for sponsorship funding from Samsung Electronics totaling US$50,000, to convert it for use for hundreds of visually-impaired learners in Vietnam.

The contest drew hundreds of projects from six Southeast Asian countries and Australia and only eleven qualified for some $500,000 in total funding.

This is third annual Samsung DigitAll Hope 2005 contest in the region, with other winning projects this year including a ‘Cyber Coach’ - a mobile multimedia unit for Tsunami disaster victims; an education technology centre for the blind; an e-skills development training program for disadvantaged youth; an e-street map for vans.

“It is exciting to see the creative and innovative solutions that this year’s 11 winners have developed to help better the lives of the disadvantaged in their own communities,” said Mr Sang-Jin Park, Regional CEO & President, Samsung Asia.

The winning projects were evaluated by an independent judging committee comprised of acknowledged authorities in the community, and youth and info-com technology (ICT) development. The judges included Vietnamese professor Dao Van Luong, director of the department of science and technology at Vietnam national university in HCMC.

Reported by To Tam – Translated by Minh Phat