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about us
​OUR STORY STARTED IN 2020...
​In 2020, our president Tran Tan Minh Khoi (Thomas) was a member of the VÅ©ng Tàu Charity Corps and participated in food distribution and soup kitchen events at Buddhist pagodas, schools, and underserved areas of Vietnam. Alongside the stateswomen of the Bà Rịa-VÅ©ng Tàu Charity Corps, he learned from one of the most prominent charity groups in VÅ©ng Tàu donating around 1 million USD yearly.
The VÅ©ng Tàu Charity Corps had a major transition from donating goods to the Visually Impaired People's association to donating money to build bridges. This stemmed from the fact that major areas in Vietnam had been faced with disasters such as flooding or don't have the necessary fund for this incentive. In 2021, Thomas Tran had raised approximately 20,000,000 VND to donate alongside two other people, building a bridge in a province called Bến Tre in Vietnam. This is a target region because it has many rivers and estuaries and it is also a coastal area. Accidents occur here often, ranging from marginal to large, because of the lack of appropriate infrastructure for crossing rivers, leading to students and normal civilians often having to carefully balance on sticks or swim across bodies of water to reach their destinations.
​At the time, Thomas Tran did not formally name the project in English, but rather, it was named "Nhịp Cầu Gắn Kết"—a play on words since "nhịp cầu" means rhythm but "cầu" means bridge in Vietnamese. After years of developing the website and raising money, he had formally officialised the project and publicised it through social media sites to propel the reach of the organisation. Through experiences with StandUp for Kids - Silicon Valley, Blue Dragon Children's Foundation, R.A.D 7 (Rescue Animals in District 7), Red Cross, the Government of Canada, and organisations Thomas Tran currently holds the founder position such as My Egret's Delivery Service and Silverfish Charities, he is confident in his ability to catalyse growth in rural areas of Vietnam. To recapitulate, Bridging the Gap has grown into a non-profit organisation that has built multiple bridges throughout Vietnam. Our organisation has been featured on national television for one of our events for a bridge we funded in Bến Tre province. We aim to build as many bridges as we can to help underserved communities all throughout the country.
The crux of the issue lies in the lack of infrastructure in rural areas of Vietnam which can lead to injury, road accidents, and even death, especially for structures as common and as vital as bridges. By replacing dangerous and unstable bridges, or taking on unfinished construction projects, we can ensure a safer community area for locals. Poor infrastructure greatly affects children as well as they can easily get injured in accidents and their ability to go to school can be impeded. This is an issue that is often overlooked in Vietnam despite its severity, and we aim to educate on the importance of stable and safe bridges in the countryside as well as fund bridges to be built, helping as many people as we can.
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