A new cafe run by young people in HCM City is wooing the latest trend for in-house libraries and winning a reputation for its extra special ingredient – philanthropy.
First set up on December 15 last year, Y-Life cafe at 345/1, Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street, was the brain child of charity organisation Uoc Mo Xanh (A Green Dream), a group of young people dedicated to raising money to help the poor get an education. So far the cafe has collected over 20,000 books, director Hai Dang says.
"Through things like our Uoc Mo Xanh scholarship, our charity aims to provide poor students with some financial support to get them through schooling. We needed a way to make money for our organisation and came up with the idea of the Y-Life cafe."
With no experience and very little capital, opening a cafe was a serious step for the group, Dang says.
"We were nervous at the beginning! And we rarely get any encouragement from businesses. But we do get support from individuals, especially Vietnamese people living in Toronto, Canada. Our website http://www.uocmoxanh.org/ has really helped us raise money.
The charity has certainly struck a chord in the hearts of other young people, Thanh Mai, who is head of collecting books, says.
"Hundreds of young people have donated their books to us, we have everything from foreign literature and history to comics."
With so many books the cafe can afford to give many of them away, but only in the spirit of a true philanthropist.
"We’ve got a lot of double copies so we plan to send the extras to children in mountainous areas. Last time we gave them away to kids in the southern provinces of Ben Tre and Tra Vinh," Dang says.
Reading trends
Sen (Lotus) Cafe in Da Nang City, Era in HCM City, AiM and Intello in Ha Noi – book cafes are sprouting up all over the country as an antidote to the brain-frying world of TV, Internet and online games. Not the most obviously lucrative form of business, many of the cafes are hoping for different kinds of profits.
"We want to raise money for charity via our cafe but we also want to get young people back into books," Dang says.
Similar set-ups are all the rage abroad, says Do Le Thu Ngoc, owner of book cafe Intello, Ha Noi.
"When I was a student at Harvard University I always used to hang out in book cafes. All my friends would sit and drink coffee while reading a good book. It was great. When I returned to Viet Nam I couldn’t find any but I knew there was a market for them, so I and my friend Pham Quang Minh decided to open one," she says.
"Ha Noi has many cafes but not many of them offer a quiet atmosphere where customers can settle down to a good book undisturbed."
Minh agrees. "Intello refers to Intellectual or Intelligence, we want our cafe to be a meeting place for people who want to find knowledge."
It’s not so much about making money and more about sparking young people’s interest in the joys of the written word, she says. "In terms of business, well, we aren’t billionaires yet. But in terms of culture, I think we’re doing a pretty good job encouraging young people to read."And the plans don’t stop there. "We want to work with publishers and publish new books. At the moment we hold seminars and invite book reviews. We’re pretty busy!"
"Delicious drinks don’t fill you up intellectually," Minh says. "It’s food for the mind that counts and when the profits of a business go way deeper than the till, it makes the whole business so much more worthwhile."
Located at 109, Linh Lang Street, Ha Noi, the book cafe AiM has been founded a year ago by South Korean Kim-kyung. Being a businesswoman, Kim finds that Viet Nam’s economy is developing but Vietnamese younger lack for cultural playing ground.
"I decided to open a book cafe. At first, I want to create good conditions to study and relax for South Korean people and introduce my national culture to Viet Nam," said Kim, "but now, I buy new Vietnamese books regurlarly with the aim of welcoming Vietnamese people."
With quiet atmosphere, AiM is arranged to bring to visitors the feeling that they are reading books at home. — VNS
First set up on December 15 last year, Y-Life cafe at 345/1, Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street, was the brain child of charity organisation Uoc Mo Xanh (A Green Dream), a group of young people dedicated to raising money to help the poor get an education. So far the cafe has collected over 20,000 books, director Hai Dang says.
"Through things like our Uoc Mo Xanh scholarship, our charity aims to provide poor students with some financial support to get them through schooling. We needed a way to make money for our organisation and came up with the idea of the Y-Life cafe."
With no experience and very little capital, opening a cafe was a serious step for the group, Dang says.
"We were nervous at the beginning! And we rarely get any encouragement from businesses. But we do get support from individuals, especially Vietnamese people living in Toronto, Canada. Our website http://www.uocmoxanh.org/ has really helped us raise money.
The charity has certainly struck a chord in the hearts of other young people, Thanh Mai, who is head of collecting books, says.
"Hundreds of young people have donated their books to us, we have everything from foreign literature and history to comics."
With so many books the cafe can afford to give many of them away, but only in the spirit of a true philanthropist.
"We’ve got a lot of double copies so we plan to send the extras to children in mountainous areas. Last time we gave them away to kids in the southern provinces of Ben Tre and Tra Vinh," Dang says.
Reading trends
Sen (Lotus) Cafe in Da Nang City, Era in HCM City, AiM and Intello in Ha Noi – book cafes are sprouting up all over the country as an antidote to the brain-frying world of TV, Internet and online games. Not the most obviously lucrative form of business, many of the cafes are hoping for different kinds of profits.
"We want to raise money for charity via our cafe but we also want to get young people back into books," Dang says.
Similar set-ups are all the rage abroad, says Do Le Thu Ngoc, owner of book cafe Intello, Ha Noi.
"When I was a student at Harvard University I always used to hang out in book cafes. All my friends would sit and drink coffee while reading a good book. It was great. When I returned to Viet Nam I couldn’t find any but I knew there was a market for them, so I and my friend Pham Quang Minh decided to open one," she says.
"Ha Noi has many cafes but not many of them offer a quiet atmosphere where customers can settle down to a good book undisturbed."
Minh agrees. "Intello refers to Intellectual or Intelligence, we want our cafe to be a meeting place for people who want to find knowledge."
It’s not so much about making money and more about sparking young people’s interest in the joys of the written word, she says. "In terms of business, well, we aren’t billionaires yet. But in terms of culture, I think we’re doing a pretty good job encouraging young people to read."And the plans don’t stop there. "We want to work with publishers and publish new books. At the moment we hold seminars and invite book reviews. We’re pretty busy!"
"Delicious drinks don’t fill you up intellectually," Minh says. "It’s food for the mind that counts and when the profits of a business go way deeper than the till, it makes the whole business so much more worthwhile."
Located at 109, Linh Lang Street, Ha Noi, the book cafe AiM has been founded a year ago by South Korean Kim-kyung. Being a businesswoman, Kim finds that Viet Nam’s economy is developing but Vietnamese younger lack for cultural playing ground.
"I decided to open a book cafe. At first, I want to create good conditions to study and relax for South Korean people and introduce my national culture to Viet Nam," said Kim, "but now, I buy new Vietnamese books regurlarly with the aim of welcoming Vietnamese people."
With quiet atmosphere, AiM is arranged to bring to visitors the feeling that they are reading books at home. — VNS
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