HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Anew website created by university students provides information to relativesabout war martyrs and their graves at HCM City’s Martyrs Cemetery in District9. 

The website //tphcm.anhhunglietsi.vn/ was launched on July 26 bythe city-based Vietnam Student Association, which includes students at HCM CityUniversity of Social Sciences and Humanities and University of InformationTechnology.

The students spent three months seeking information for the database anddesigning the website, according to Truong Van An, deputy secretary of Ho ChiMinh Communist Youth Union at the HCM City University of Social Sciences andHumanities.

Through the search function, visitors only need to type the full name of themartyr or heroic mother buried in the cemetery.

The site will then reveal the martyrs’ birth year, birthplace, day ofsacrifice, burial position in the cemetery, and their site of fighting in thewar. 

Pictures, videos and songs about martyrs on the website are also included, saidLe Viet Hung, Chairman of the Vietnam Students Association at the University ofInformation and Technology.

The website also offers information about the place where the remains ofunidentified martyrs were initially found.

“Through the information on the website, we hope that people can help usidentify them and their families,” said An of the HCM City University ofSocial Sciences and Humanities.

Many martyrs buried at the cemetery are unknown and have not beenidentified. 

An said that he and his schoolmates, who study history and are now taking partin the Green Summer Volunteer programme, visited the cemetery to collect informationabout the martyrs but sufficient data was lacking.

More sources at the city’s libraries and in newspapers had to be researched, Ansaid.

“In the upcoming time, we will contact experts and researchers, martyrs’friends and family members to update information on the website,” he said.

Hung of the University of Information Technology said: “We knew that thiswebsite would be good and useful, but we realised that it would be difficult todo because we had not sample to follow, but we never gave up."

After digitising information about more than 14,000 graves of martyrs andheroic Vietnamese mothers at the cemetery, they plan to launch website forother martyrs’ cemeteries.

“Setting up the website is an opportunity for us to practise what we learned inclasses and gain more experience in programming,” Hung said.

At a meeting to prepare for the 70th War Invalids and Martyrs Day, Le HoangMinh, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Students Association, said the website wouldbe a meaningful addition to the special day on July 27.

“The website provides a large database that helps educate young people aboutthe patriotic tradition in the country,” Minh said.-VNA