Dutch-funded development project helps the poor

The 2nd phase of a community development project, funded by the Netherlands Red Cross, recently kicked off in seven poorest communes, which have been usually ravaged by natural calamities, in five provinces, the Vietnam Red Cross said on September 6.

The project, carried out from August 2007-August 2009 at the cost of over EUR 210,000, will ensure safe water supply, guide local people to keep environmental hygiene to prevent epidemics and common diseases, improve the locals' living conditions through economic development and increase the poor's income; and help the community take measures and solutions for the sustainable development.

The project will bring benefits to about 22,000 people, especially the handicapped and poor women, in the communes of Can Ty (northern Ha Giang province), Luong Can (northern Cao Bang province), Khang Ninh (northern Bac Can province), Phuoc Chien and Phuoc Khang (central Ninh Thuan province), Tan Xuan and Son My (central Binh Thuan province).

The first phase of the project, also implemented in these communes from May 2005 to October 2006 with the involvement of the local community and authorities, helped initially change the living conditions for the poorest.

Source: VNA

Ford Foundation helps settle AO problems

The Ford Foundation will give US $7.5 million to carry out Agent Orange recuperation programmes in Vietnam on the next two years, said Dr. Charles Bailey, Head of the Ford Foundation office in Hanoi.

The Ford Foundation official announced the sum while he met with Deputy Foreign Minister Le Van Bang in Hanoi to mark the end of his 10-year term of office in Vietnam.

Bailey praised the effective cooperation of the Vietnamese Government and partners in the implementation of Ford Foundation-funded projects and programmes.

Deputy FM Bang announced that the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry decided to present Bailey with the insignia “For the cause of Foreign Affairs”.

Bang highly appreciated Bailey’s great contributions in mobilising capital sources for humanitarian and development projects and programmes over the past decade, especially his work with Agent Orange in the country.

The Deputy FM expressed his belief that in his new position as Director of the US Special Initiative on the Agent Orange/Dioxin fund, Bailey would continue to work tirelessly for victims and in particular AO child victims.

Source: VNA

A shelter for disabled children

Since 2001, Que Huong Charity Centre in Ho Chi Minh City has received and nurtured over 2,000 orphan and disabled children. Its success is attributed to the great efforts of the Centre’s Director Huynh Tieu Huong who overcame her own misfortunes to build the shelter.

Visiting the Centre, one can’t help being moved when they see the orphaned and paralysed children, who look doltish with their deformities, being taken in and taught to write, sing, dance, work and play. In this great family, all the children live happily with the love of their mother, Huynh Tieu Huong.

Born in 1968, Huynh Tieu Huong suffered a miserable childhood. She doesn’t know her mother and father. At the age of six, she had to earn her own living by selling tea and cigarettes on trains travelling from the South to the Central region, cleaning cars at the Eastern Car Station, working as a waitress in restaurants or even living in gold grounds in Ha Tinh and Nghe An Provinces. For over 20 years, she lived a hard life on the streets and experienced much physical and mental anguish so she always dreamed of a shelter to herself.


With the assistance from private donors and organizations, she established Que Huong Charity Centre to help the dejected children and as she said she would do utmost to do many useful things. Although she established the Centre only six years ago, she has received orphaned and disabled children for 17 years and nurtured them with her own money. Through self teaching she learned English and Chinese and produced some products to earn money.

During a visit to the Centre, Vice State President Truong My Hoa, Honourary Chairwoman of the Vietnam Disabled Children Aid Association, highly appreciated the benevolence of Tieu Huong who is not only dedicated to children in her centre but is also active in many charity activities. Over the years, the Centre presented about 10,000 wheelchairs and 370 bikes to the disabled, 1,200 scholarships to poor students and built 75 houses for families in difficult circumstances.

The Centre was built on an area of 3,800m2 in Di An District, Binh Duong Province , with a total investment capital of 8 billion VND. It consists of comfortable bedrooms, dinning rooms, classrooms, a playground, and rooms for vocational training. It also established workshops producing mineral water and many handicraft and fine arts articles to create jobs for the children and earn money for activities of the Centre. At present the Centre nurtures about 300 children, including 38 children under five months old. Almost all of the children here suffer due to deformities. The Centre has a staff of nurses who grew up in the Centre and volunteer to take care of the children.

Coming here, we were very moved by a wall covered with papers with writings from the children, expressing their gratitude, aspiration for family affection and love for life.

Oxfam funds typhoon victims

Source: Nhan Dan Online

US $220,000 of Oxfam funding has been approved for the first relief phase, providing more than seven thousand most affected and vulnerable households with immediate cash grants to buy nutritious food and other basic needs, said Oxfam Vietnam.

They said consideration would also be used for activities such as cleaning wells to help villagers get better access to safe water, and providing hygiene and sanitation information and support to reduce public health risks from communicable diseases and contaminated water supplies.

This new project is planned to consist of two phases implemented over the next eight months in the 12 communes in two mountainous districts, Vu Quang and Huong Khe.

The second phase of the project plans to focus on rehabilitation activities, helping the most affected households to restore their farmland or vegetable gardens, ready for the coming crops.

“The project aims to support the local government response and to work in partnership with them,” said Mr Provash Mondal, Oxfam Humanitarian Programme Co-ordinator in Vietnam.

Vietnam’s Typhoon No 2 brought heavy rains causing severe flooding in the six provinces, killing dozens of people. Ha Tinh and Quang Binh in the Northern Central region were the hardest hit provinces.

The flood was reported as the most devastating since 1944. About 130,000 people or ten percent of the resident population have been severely affected by the floods in Ha Tinh, with 80% of these people inhabiting the mountainous districts of Vu Quang and Huong Khe.

Thai group offers $43,200 in scholarships

Siam Cement Group granted 350 scholarships worth a total of VND700 million (US$43,200) to disadvantaged high school students in southern provinces last week.

Students from Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Tay Ninh, Binh Thuan and Ho Chi Minh City each received a VND2 million scholarship.

This scholarship program, called “Sharing the Dream,” works in partnership with Tuoi Tre newspaper’s “For Tomorrow Development” Program.

The program is one of the first initiatives started by SCG’s corporate responsibility program in Vietnam. These scholarships benefit outstanding underprivileged students to help them pursue higher education.

Source: VNA

Innovative Approaches to Flood Risk Reduction in the Mekong Basin

A two-day Regional Workshop on Innovative Approaches to Flood Risk Reduction in the Mekong Basin on 17-19 October 2007 in Thailand, which is being jointly organized by MRC and ADPC with funding support from Die DeutscheGesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH

The workshop objectives are to:

- Share local and regional knowledge, experiences and innovations in flood risk reduction approaches;

- Provide a platform to foster new regional partnerships as well as strengthen the existing ones to promote flood risk reduction in the region

In this regard we would request any organizations interested to participate in this workshop.

For further inquiries on the Workshop, please visit:
http://www.adpc.net/regionalworkshop.asp

and contact: E-mail: regionalworkshop@gmail.com

For more information on FEMS please contact:

Mr. Thanongdeth Insisiengmay, ADPC Program Manager

MRC’s Regional Flood Management and Mitigation Centre (RFMMC)

364 Monivong Blvd. Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Tel.: 855-23 726 622, Fax: 855-23 726 633

E-mail: thanongdeth@adpc.net

Canada helps storm victims in central region

Source: Nhan Dan Online

The Embassy of Canadian announced today a grant of VND 3,05 billion (equivalent to CAN $200,000) in response to the needs of localities affected by typhoon Pabuk (Storm No 2).

The grant will be disbursed through the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives, to help restore production; repair and rebuild houses and small social welfare infrastructure in provinces most affected by the typhoon in the Central Vietnam, said the Embassy.

In December 2006, the Embassy of Canada also granted CAN $200,000 through the Canada Fund to help victims of typhoon Xangsane in Da Nang City, Thua Thien Hue and Quang Nam Provinces.

The Canada Fund was established by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and is administered by the Canadian Embassy in Hanoi to strengthen local communities by supporting small, but innovative development projects.

Since 1991, it has supported over 400 projects in various sectors of mainly local and non governmental groups in Vietnam.

Globalization, Regional Development & Local Initiatives

This conference will be held from 25 November to 2 December 2007

The Weitz Center for Development Studies, founded in 1963, has been engaged since its establishment in local and regional development planning in Israel and, within the framework of MASHAV (Center for International Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel).

More than 3,000 professionals have taken part in the Weitz Center training programs, whose objective is to enhance the ability of participants to improve conditions in underdeveloped regions of their countries through an integrated development strategy and the application of appropriate methodologies for planning and implementation.

Please click here for more information

US Aims to Double Vietnamese Scholarships

New US Ambassador to Vietnam Michael Michalak said he aimed to double the number of US scholarships granted to Vietnamese at Fulbright Vietnam’s 15th anniversary ceremony on Saturday.

The US ambassador also said such a program could help Vietnam reach its goal of
training 20,000 new doctors within the next 10 years.

Tran Xuan Thao, director of Fulbright Vietnam, added that if Vietnamese authorities co-sponsored 20-30 percent of the Fulbright program, many more Vietnamese graduates would be able to attend schools in the US. Over 100 Vietnamese formerly sponsored by the Fulbright scholarship attended the anniversary event in the central historic city of Hue. The Fulbright Program was established by the US Congress in 1946 and aims to increase transnational understanding through educational and cultural exchange. The Fulbright Program in Vietnam, administered and coordinated by the Public Affairs Section (PAS) of the US Embassy in Hanoi, works with appropriate Vietnamese and American educational and governmental organizations to provide opportunities for study and research in the social sciences and humanities.

Vietnam Need $481 Million for Classroom Consolidation by 2010

Vietnam is in need of an additional VND7.7 trillion ($481 million) to replace all temporary classrooms nationwide between now and 2010, the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) estimated.

The country launched a national plan to replace makeshift classrooms with permanent buildings with the total cost of more than VND9.3 trillion ($581million) sourced from the central and local budgets as well as donations from businesses and individuals. More than 74,000 classrooms have been built through the plan, benefiting three million children, said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thien Nhan at a conference in Hanoi August 23

Nhan, who is also Head of the school building plan's Steering Board, affirmed that the policy has helped promote equal access to education and reduce the gap among regions. However, he noted the cost has not been utilized efficiently by localities. Many provinces even wrongly used the allocated capital, pushing lots of school construction projects into sluggishness.

"Localities should pay more attention to the significance of the plan rather profits making from it," an official from the ministry said, revealing that tens of hundreds of children are still sitting in three-shifted and dilapidated classrooms.

Earlier, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung decided to allocate the remainder of the proceeds from bond issuance in 2005, worth VND112.71 billion ($7.04 million), to refurbish schools in three provinces, where schools have been hit hard by a host of natural disasters namely the northern mountainous province of Lai Chau, the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong and the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang.

Up to the 2005-2006 academic year, Vietnam had 2,300 secondary senior schools, 10,900 pre-schools, 14,700 primary schools, and 10,300 secondary junior schools. The country earmarks VND67 trillion ($4.2 billion) for education sector this year, a rise of more than 20% in comparison to 2006.

Energy, Environment, Climate Change and Sustainable Development

13th ASEAN Summit People Singapore "Energy, Environment, Climate Change and Sustainable Development" is a key theme of discussions at the upcoming 13th ASEAN Summit and its related meetings in Singapore held in November 2007.

At the 40th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting held in July 2007 in Manila, the ASEAN Foreign Ministers also welcomed Singapore's proposal, as the Chair of ASEAN to focus on "Energy, Environment, Climate Change and Sustainable Development as a key theme of discussions at the upcoming 13th ASEAN Summit and its related meetings in Singapore held in November 2007. In line with this theme, we look forward to the ASEAN Leaders' Declaration on Environmental Sustainability to be signed at the 13th ASEAN Summit and a proposal to work on a Singapore Declaration on the Environment to be issued at the 3rd East Asia Summit.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok by the five original Member Countries, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Brunei Darussalam joined on 8 January 1984, Vietnam on 28 July 1995, Lao PDR and Myanmar on 23 July 1997, and Cambodia on 30 April 1999.

The ASEAN region has a population of about 500 million, a total area of 4.5 million square kilometers, a combined gross domestic product of almost US$ 700 billion, and a total trade of about US$ 850 billion.

For further enquiries on media accreditation:

Email: media@13thAseanSummit.sg

The Strength of Many, the Heart of One

The Vietnamese American NonGovernmental Organizations (VA NGO) Network is proud to announce the Third VA NGO Conference from September 28 - 30, 2007 in San Diego, California.

Since the first conference in 2004, the Network continues to attract more partners, groups and individuals who are working with the common mission to improve and save the lives of disadvantaged Vietnamese. The Conference actively seeks the participation of multiple generations of Vietnamese living both in Vietnam and elsewhere in the world. We invite you, our colleagues, who are organizations, groups, and individuals that fund, support or operate projects in Vietnam, to come share and learn at this conference.

At this conference, we will:

- report Network activities and achievements since Sonoma 2005 Conference
- enlist and partner with the next generation of humanitarian and development workers
- showcase members collaborative efforts and tools, and
- provide capacity building workshops on fundraising, financial efficiency, and program implementation.

The conference fee covers lodging and all meals. We encourage participants to attend the entire conference and remain on-site. VA NGO Network members will receive special discounts for registrations.

To become a member, please refer to the Membership link at http://www.va-ngo.org/

The Conference Planning Committee, consists of

- Catalyst Foundation http://www.catalystfoundation.org/
- Children of Peace International http://www.childrenofpeace.org/
- Kids Without Borders http://www.kidswithnoborders.org/
- Our 1 World http://www.our1world.org/
- Pacific Links Foundation http://www.pacificlinks.org/
- Vietnamese American Nurse Association

For more information about the VA NGO Conference, please contact us at
conference@va-ngo.org