2011 NSW Premier’s Vietnamese Community Awards Profiles of winners

(left to right) Minister for Citizenship, John Hatzistergos, Paul Lynch, Minister for Industrial Relations, Ms Annabelle Vo accepted the award on behalf of her father Minh Tri Vo (Trade and Industry Award), Vi Phat (Arts and Culture Award), Tri Vo (Community Service Award), Than Van Nguyen (Community Service Award), Dr Sang Giang Phan (Lifetime Achievement Award) and The Premier Kristina Keneally.

NSW Vietnamese community leaders have been recognised for their volunteer work, community service and achievement at an official ceremony at NSW Government House on the 3nd of March 2011.

Lifetime Achievement

Dr Sang Giang Phan

Dr Sang Giang Phan is recognised for a lifetime of caring for the health of his community well beyond the call of his daily professional duties.

He has volunteered for the Vietnam Vision programme, helping to cure poor people in rural areas of Vietnam suffering from cataracts. Many people in the Vietnamese community have maintained good health simply because of the efforts of

Dr Sang over many years.Dr Sang has also lectured and written books on health lifestyles and medicine that aim to increase awareness of health issues in the Australian environment.

Trade and Industry

Mr Minh Tri Vo

(left to right) Minister for Citizenship, John Hatzistergos, Ms Annabelle Vo accepted the award on behalf of her father Minh Tri Vo and The Premier Kristina Keneally.

Mr Minh Tri Vo is acknowledged for the way he has turned his business success to the benefit of the Vietnamese community and the wider Australian community. By any standards, he has been very successful in the catering and function business over the past 28 years and likes to repay Australian society by donating to and organising events for, bushfire and flood relief appeals.

Mr Minh’s financial support for community activities, which contribute to the ongoing improvement to the lives of many in his community, reflects his gratitude to Australia for his business success.

Arts and Culture

Mr Vi Phat

Mr Vi Phat is acknowledged for the way in which he uses his artistic skills to build bridges between the Vietnamese community and the broader community of New South Wales.

He has carefully photographed the history of the Vietnamese people in NSW by attending community and government functions to capture the images of events and people.

Mr Vi Phat also received a Gold Medal from Pope Benedict at the World Youth Day 2008 for community engagement and support.

Community Harmony

Mr Tri Vo

After serving four years as President of the Vietnamese Community, Mr Tri Vo was named Young Citizen of the Year by Marrickville Council in 2004 for his contribution to the community.

He established two community welfare offices in Cabramatta and Bankstown, established sports competitions for soccer, tennis and table tennis and he was directly involved in establishing refugee and war monuments in Bonnyrigg, to help people better understand Vietnamese refugees.

Community Service

Mr Than Van Nguyen

Than Van Nguyen is recognised for his leadership of the Vietnamese community from a young age.

After only two years of involvement with the NSW Chapter of the Vietnamese Community in Australia, he was elected President at the age of just 29, the youngest leader ever. He has continued his leadership in other roles, taking on responsibility for organising the Tet New Year Festival which every year attracts some 40,000 people over three days. He also founded the Republic of Vietnam Young Descendant League.