Million USD charity fundraiser

VietNamNet Bridge - In 16 years of doing charity in Vietnam, the Vietnam Assistance for the Handicapped (VNAH), founded by a Vietnamese American, Mr Tran Van Ca, has given over 100,000 artificial limbs and wheelchairs to disabled Vietnamese.

In 2003 alone, Mr Ca raised US$1.7 million to buy artificial limbs and wheelchairs for the disabled, but he always refused to talk about himself, reasoning, “What I have done is just a grain of sand in the ocean.”

Do much, talk little is the character of Mr Tran Van Ca. Though operating for quite a long period of time in Vietnam, not many people know about the quiet job of Mr Ca and his non-governmental charity organisation, VNAH.

Mr Ca travels very often between Vietnam and the US and each time he returns to Vietnam he bring ‘gifts’ to Vietnamese disabled: artificial limbs, wheelchairs or doctors who come to provide free health check-ups for the poor and the disabled.

Most recently, in March 2007, Mr Ca brought a group of volunteer Vietnamese American doctors to Vietnam to examine poor patients and disabled people in some southern provinces of Vietnam. In April 2007 he returned to Vietnam again and came to Thai Binh to present artificial limbs to the disabled there.

So far, the operations of VNAH have reached remote and mountainous areas of Vietnam, from the northern mountainous provinces of Thai Nguyen and Cao Bang to Mekong Delta provinces.

“Our programme is small in scale but it is practical and highly appreciated by the Vietnamese government,” Mr Ca said.

The return
In 2003, the Washington Post had an article praising Tran Van Ca as a benefactor.

Some 30 years after coming to the US, Tran Van Ca is now the owner of a luxurious restaurant on 5ha of land in Great Falls.

After a return trip to Vietnam and a meeting with a war invalid who had lost two legs, he was awakened to the belief that it is too selfish to only help one’s family.

Giving up a business that was developing, he founded the Vietnam Assistance for the Handicapped in Virginia in 1991 with $10,000, which was used to by wheelchairs for the disabled in Vietnam. So far, Mr Ca’s organisation has built two artificial limb producing enterprises in Vietnam.

Reader’s Digest reported that Tran Van Ca left five fast food restaurants named Taco Amigo and a villa with 8 bedrooms worth millions of US dollars to return to Vietnam to do charity.

So far, VNAH has received $5.6 million in funds from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to implement projects supporting the disabled in Vietnam.

In November 2006, the US Congress approved $400,000 for VNAH to build a health rehabilitation centre in the central city of Da Nang.

“Output” for the disabled
Mr Ca says that it is a big waste to only provide vocational training for the disabled without creating ‘output’ for them. Thus, VNAH is carrying out a vocational training - job creation model on a trial basis in Dong Anh District, Hanoi and Da Lat city in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong.

Under this programme, VNAH staff has to approach companies to ask their assistance in training and recruiting the disabled. In Da Lat, the pilot programme of VNAH has received warm support from a private company named Gia Hung. This company has helped train the disabled and promised to recruit those people after vocational training.

“Over 90% of the participants in this project have gotten stable jobs,” Mr Ca said.

In the past 16 years, VNAH has performed free orthopedic surgeries on thousands of disabled children, helped over 2,000 poor and disabled people to learn vocations and get jobs, helped over 6,000 poor children, street children and orphans to return home, study and get jobs, built 35 schools in rural and mountainous areas, and organised many free health check-up trips and many HIV/AIDS education and prevention projects.

VNAH was the first overseas Vietnamese non-governmental organisation licenced to open a representative office in Hanoi.

Talking green draws the crowds

VietNamNet Bridge - The regular get-togethers of the Talking Green club at the headquarters of the Hanoi-based World Conservation Union (IUCN) are always packed.

Today they are talking about environmental police, a newly established force in Vietnam, and their role.

Most of Talking Green’s members are lecturers and students in Hanoi who study the environment. They meet every week to talk about the greenhouse effect, acid rain, biological diversity, Hanoi’s lakes and other such issues, always in English.

Every month, they invite environmental experts from local universities, the IUCN and international organizations to speak at the club.

“The club is not only for learning English but also raising public concern for the environment. We have worked with several organizations to carry out voluntary projects in this field,” Talking Green’s vice president told us.

Their first endeavor was an IUCN wetland project in the northern provinces of Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh and Hai Phong. Club members went to the wetlands to talk with the local inhabitants about the value and importance of wetlands and how to exploit them in a sustainable way.

Talking Green is implementing the Japan International Cooperation Agency’s 3R (Reduce-Reuse-Recycle) project in Vietnam, and will work with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and similar organizations.

“Our English has greatly improved since we started going to the club, and we have also had the opportunity to take part in voluntary projects,” exclaimed two Chinese students from the Vietnamese Faculty of the Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

Nowadays the club is attracting students from other majors, and even high school kids are starting to turn up.

Talking Green’s president, Nguyen Thanh Tung, says the club’s ambition is to establish a non-governmental environmental organization in Vietnam.

Swedish development agency to stage plays for needy children

Source: ThanhNien News

With a fund from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), Vietnamese poor children will get the chance to enjoy a multitude of stage events set for 2007-2009.

Under the program ‘Children’s Voice’, SIDA will provide the three playhouses – Hanoi-based Tuoi Tre, Ho Chi Minh City Playhouse and HCMC-based 5B stage, each VND700 million (US$43,722) annually to create and arrange plays for the little ones.

Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Playhouse Tran Khanh Hoang said his playhouse would provide funds of VND120 million ($7,495) for equipment and actor training.

Hoang said, in 2007, there would be 100 plays for kids staged within the city’s 24 districts.

He added the coming plays would focus on sexual equality among other social themes geared towards children.

A US$280,000 educational project funded by Japan's Nippon Foundation

The Foundation has helped train teachers for the hearing-impaired in the southern province of Dong Nai.

Three elements of the project included teaching hearing-impaired high school students, teaching analytical skills using sign language, and selecting certain students to become teachers for other hearing-impaired students.

The project, to promote sign language teaching and interpretation, kicked off in May 2000 and will continue to 2012 at Dong Nam Teachers Training College.

According to the dean of the college, Nguyen Gia Bao, after six years in effect, the project has achieved promising results with 25 of 68 enrolled students earning their high school diplomas through exams alongside non-disabled students.

"The project has a positive social effect by providing a professionally-trained teaching staff for hearing-impaired children," Bao said. "We hope it will expand to universities across the country." There was a shift in the initial focus of the project, according to project director James Clyde Woodward, because few deaf children in Viet Nam had previously passed on to high school. Now, he said, "we must select high school students to participate in the project." The 68 hearing-impeared students in the project were drawn from around the country and became full-time students of the project following sign language interviews. Free of charge, they are given accommodation and taught the high school curriculum, while also receiving additional training in analytical expression and symbolic language using sign language. Among the students who have passed through the programme are Nguyen Tran Thuy Tien, now a freshman student at Lac Hong University, and Nguyen Hoang Lam, currently studying in the 11th grade with honours. This term, Woodward and his assistant, Tran Thi Hoa, have instructed certain excellent students to compile a Vietnamese-English-sign language dictionary and study guide.

Besides studying, students also have an opportunity to access educational, job orientation and recreational programmes to improve their ability to integrate into society while accumulating signing experience. The project has sought additional support, as well as employment opportunities for hearing-impaired graduates, from organistions and individuals. In the first term of the 2006-2007 school year, Lac Hong University and Dong Nai Province's Study Promotion Association presented 10 computers valued at VND80 million to the project. "I will make an effort to set up a fantastic project with the co-operation and assistance of enthusiatic international friends and teaching staff from local high schools participating in the project," Woodward said.

Vietnam Joins International Convention on Rights of People with Disabilities

Vietnam has more than 5.3 million people with disabilities, accounting for 6.4 percent of its total population. Of this total, about 69 percent are of working age. Disabled people have the rights to healthcare services, education, and cultural and vocational training activities which will aid them in seeking employment, receiving equal treatment and fully integrating into the community.

The United Nations General Assembly, on December 13, 2006, adopted the International Convention on the rights of people with disabilities. The convention is the first global document in human history, affirming the rights of disabled people. It asserts that disabled people are recognized as having full rights and human dignity, like other members of our communities and should enjoy equal treatment and opportunities in society. In addition, on March 20, 2007, in New York, as many as 81 UN-member countries signed up to the convention.

At present, Vietnam has more than 5.3 million people with disabilities, accounting for 6.4 percent of its total population. It’s worth noting that about 69 percent of disabled people are of working age. Disabled people need suitable and comprehensive healthcare services, education, and cultural and vocational training activities in order to aid them in seeking employment, receiving equal treatment and fully integrating into the community.

Currently, Vietnam has adopted policies on disabled people with regulated documents showing due attention of the Party and State to disabled people, such as the ordinance on disabled people, issued in 1998, the Labour Code, the Law on Education, the Law on Information Technology and the Law on Vocational Training, which all have special articles mentioning disabled people. As planned, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs will develop the Law on disabled people to submit to the National Assembly for approval in 2008.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Vietnam’s efforts in supporting the disabled have been in the international spotlight. The country has formulated a project to help the disabled in the 2006-2010 period, which was approved by the Prime Minister by decision No 239/2006/QD-TTg, dated October 24, 2006. The National Coordinating Council on Disabilities (NCCD) including 17 ministries and agencies and various organizations for the disabled has so far operated effectively, contributing to raising people’s awareness. Vietnam is implementing its commitments to the Millennium Framework for Action towards an Inclusive, Barrier-free and Rights-based Society for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific (2003-2012).

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs has asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Education and Training, and the Ministry of Public Security to conduct research and give opinions on Vietnam’s participation in the International Convention on the rights of people with disabilities. Relevant ministries agreed that the content of the convention is in accordance with the Party and State’s policies and reflects Vietnam’s committements to ensuring all human rights and essential needs to eliminate discrimination against people with disabilities.

Director of NCCD, Nghiem Xuan Tue said, once Vietnam signs the convention, it proves that the Government of Vietnam respects the rights of disabled people.

Foreign NGOs Operate Effectively in Vietnam

Foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have made a growing presence in Viet Nam with increases in number and the value of their aid over recent years, said an official of the People's Aid Coordination Committee (PACCOM).

PACCOM Deputy Head Don Tuan Phong told a Vietnam News Agency reporter that the committee has so far granted 574 licences for foreign NGOs in the country to open representative offices, project offices and operate .

The two latest licences were given in mid-March to the US-based Orbis International specialising in eye treatment and the Viet Nam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF).
Viet Nam has established relationship with around 650 foreign NGOs, more than 500 of which are conducting regular activities in the country with long-term commitments, said PACCOM. In 2006, these NGOs funded and helped carry out 2,700 aid projects in the country with a disbursement value of more than 216 million USD, a year-on-year rise of 20 percent. Their aid focused on the medical sector, education, the settlement of social issues and economic development in war-devastated regions as well as in rural, remote and mountainous areas inhabited by ethnic people.

Phong said the humanitarian development aid has contributed to not only building the friendship between the Vietnamese people and other nations worldwide but also eliminating hunger, reducing poverty and improving living conditions of people in beneficiary areas.

The Prime Minister has issued a national programme on mobilising foreign NGOs' aid in the 2006-2010 period. The programme is aimed at effectively utilising this resource in accordance with the country's plan for socio-economic development, hunger eradication and poverty reduction as well as with each sector and locality's development priority.

WB, ADB increase aid to Mekong sub-region

The World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have pledged to provide additional funding to help develop the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) at a seminar in Hanoi Friday.

Addressing the seminar on GMS economic cooperation strategy, WB Country Director Ian Porter said his bank will focus its investment on such fields as water resource management, electricity trade, transport and human resources development.

The WB is also likely to assist GMS in the areas of environment, forestry, healthcare and risk management, he added.

Ayumi Konishi, ADB Country Director, also pledged loans and personnel support to GMS and continued that his bank will coordinate with the WB to reduce risks that may arise during the project implementation process.

Noteworthy in the GMS economic cooperation strategy is a regional electricity market project, which is aimed at increasing electricity trading between GMS members.

This year, the WB is expected to extend support to a project to build electric grids between Cambodia and Vietnam as well as between Cambodia and Laos. It also plans to map out a feasibility study for a project on a high-voltage electric grid connecting Vietnam with southern China.

The GMS includes Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and two Chinese provinces - Guangxi and Yunnan.

Initiating and heeding public opinion – a reciprocal tie

Several cases in recent years have shown that listening to public criticisms against infrastructure projects allows leaders to improve upon and deliver timely and effective decisions that affect the lives of many.

Reviewing its activities between 2003 and 2006, the Ho Chi Minh City Union of Scientific and Technological Associations said that it had taken part in offering counterarguments and assessing 79 projects in the city.

Contribution to only 79 projects is a modest number compared to the thousands of projects in HCMC over the past four years; however, counterarguments have helped create considerable positive social effects.

Regarding this, Hoang Anh Tuan, vice chairman of the HCMC Union of Scientific and Technological Associations quoted the project to move the Saigon Port as an example.

He said the Ministry of Construction and Transport, authorized by the Government to map out the project, originally intended to move the port along the Saigon River to Cai Mep in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province.

Thus relocating the project to the new site would mean the port will no longer bear its renowned trademark – Saigon Port.

Scientists spoke out in opposition to the designed project and supplied a solid foundation and reliable data proving that if relocating the Saigon Port in Cai Mep the city would incur losses in revenue of some VND28 trillion (US$1.74 billion) a year.

Meanwhile, they suggested if moving the port to Cat Lai and Hiep Phuoc in HCMC’s outskirts the port would still have a chance to maintain its trademark and incur losses of only VND2 trillion ($124.1 million).

After verifying the scientists’ counterargument, the government finally decided to choose Cat Lai-Hiep Phuoc as the venue for the Saigon Port relocation.

Phan Khanh, Secretary General of the HCMC Irrigation Scientific and Technological Association quoted another example.

He said when submitting the Son La hydropower plant project at the National Assembly’s session in 1998 for consideration, the project owner proposed to build the dike with a height of 265 meters.

However, following strong counterarguments from the Vietnam Irrigation Association and the Vietnam Union of Scientific and Technological Associations the National Assembly in 2002 approved the construction of the Son La dike at lower height, 215 meters.

This decision helped reduce the risk of a “permanent danger”, Khanh said, explaining that with the proposed height of 265 meters the Son La reservoir would contain 24 billion cubic meters of water, triple than the Hoa Binh reservoir of the power plant of the same name.

Both hydropower plants share the same river system with the Son La reservoir upstream and Hoa Binh downstream, so if the Son La dike was breached, it would be disastrous for the lower river section area and even the whole the Red River delta as well, Khanh explained.

Also thanks to public counterarguments many “antiscientific” projects were cancelled like the one to replace the water of the West Lake in Hanoi or split the Truong Son mountain range to help reduce flooding in the Mekong Delta, Khanh added.

Listening a must
It is easy to see how counterarguments, particularly those by scientists with a firm foundation in fact have contributed greatly to creating not only economic efficiency but also positive social effects.

This can only be achieved if opinions are heeded by authorized agencies.

But it is still the case that most counterarguments are ignored, though logical and reasonable.

In a recent working with the Presidium of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee, Prime Minster Nguyen Tan Dung stressed the VFF should raise its role in heeding and rationalizing public input.

Early in 2002, the Vietnamese Government issued Decision 22/2002 to institutionalize consulting, arguing and assessing activities of the Vietnam Union of Scientific and Technological Associations and its affiliated units.

However, many scientists said that “legalizing social counterarguments and assessment” was necessary.

The law should stipulate which projects need to be reconsidered through direct counterargument from public opinions or through the mass media.

Specifically, regulating the responsibilities of the persons who directly sign investment projects is a must.

Such key measures will help increase ‘listening’ of public ideas by concerned agencies, to enable right and timely readjustment.

Source: ThanhNien News

Agriculture Vietnam to Contribute $500,000 to International Agro Development Fund

Vietnamese Prime Minister just approved $500,000 from the State budget for contribution to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in the 2007-2009 period.

The PM asked the Finance Ministry, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and relevant bodies to evaluate implementation of projects financed by IFAD during the past, and suggest solutions increasing project effectiveness. IFAD leaders expressed the desire that Vietnam would be an important partner in Southeast Asia, at the FAO Committee on Forestry's (COFO) 18th meeting which concluded in Rome Mar 16. At the meeting, IFAD decided to pour $38.7 million into a project to help Vietnam reduce poverty. Of the sum, around $24.73 million is loans and $630,000 is non-refundable aid. The agreement raised total projects supported by IFAD in Vietnam to 6, worth $105 million.

Australian Journalist Supports the Poor

An Australian journalist has donated nearly VND 175 million (nearly $11,000) to help the local poor in A Luoi district, central Thua Thien-Hue province, implement a cattle raising project.
The aid was granted by Bruce Montgomery to 50 underprivileged households in Hong Kim and Hong Quang communes, according to the provincial People's Committee. It is not the fist charitable act performed by the journalist, who is a co-founder of the Australia-based Viet Nam Association of Victims of Agent Orange, whose aim is to support Agent Orange victims in Hue city. Between 2003-04, he, in collaboration with the Vietnamese Embassy in Australia and the provincial Red Cross Association, presented 30 wheelchairs for the disabled in A Luoi.

Bill Gates does charity in Vietnam

Microsoft Chairman and his wife visited a health station in the outskirt of Hanoi Monday morning. That’s the health station of Trung Mau Commune, Gia Lam District, where receives aid from the Bill & Melinda Gates fund for vaccinations.

Vu Thi Oanh, chief of the Trung Mau commune health station, said that April 2 was the day for vaccination of seven types of vaccines for children from 0-12 months.

During two hours (8-10am) in Trung Mau commune, Bill Gates, Melinda Gates and Vietnamese health officials inspected the vaccination, management task and working procedures of the health station.

Bill Gates and his wife directly witnessed the operations of doctors and nurses and the vaccine maintenance equipment at the health station.

They also came to some local families to ask about the extended vaccination programme in the commune and to see how is the health of local women and children.

At 6.15pm of April 2, Bill Gates met with officials of the Ministries of Health, Finance and Planning and Investment at the Hilton Hotel to talk about funding for Vietnam.

At a party held by Bill Gates and his wife, Deputy Minister of Health Trinh Quan Huan proposed Bill & Melinda Fund to provide vaccines for the extended vaccination programme of Vietnam as well as support the HIV/AIDS control programme in the country.

In a talk with reporters, Mr Huan said that Bill Gates highly appreciated the expanded vaccination programme of Vietnam.

Today, April 3, Bill Gates and his wife will meet with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and worked with the Central Hygiene and Epidemic Prevention Institute on vaccination programmed funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Fund. They signed a project worth $245,000 to vaccinate HPV to prevent cervical cancer for around 800 girls from 11-13 years old.

HPV is the only cancer prevention vaccine used in 59 countries. This kind of vaccine may be officially sold in Vietnam this year’s end. However, it is difficult to spread the use of this vaccine since its price is high, around $100/injection while each woman needs up to three shots.

Source: VietNamNet