Australian Navy on Goodwill Visit Donates Gifts to Needy Children

The children were also given a tour of the HMAS Darwin, a naval vessel on a five-day goodwill trip to HCM City. Lieutenant Apron Convery handed over the gifts, including pens, toothpastes, notebooks and textbooks. On Wednesday, the ship’s women’s football team played a friendly match with the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Culture at Thong Nhat Stadium in District 10. One day earlier, the ship’s sailors played volleyball with students of the VPN Technical College in District 4. The ship, commanded by Commander Christopher Smith, arrived in the city Monday, with 205 officers and crew on board. Since the establishment of defense relations between the two countries in 1999, 15 Royal Australian Navy ships have paid goodwill visits to Vietnam, said Colonel Stuart Dodds, Australian Defense Attaché in Vietnam. HCMC is the final stop on the HMAS Darwin’s tour of six Southeast Asian countries which started early last month. The ship will sail to Singapore again before heading home, Smith said.

Vietnam to Hand Over More US MIA Remains

The remains of what are believed to be US servicemen who died in the Vietnam War will be handed over to the US government on September 12 in the 111th repatriation ceremony held by the two nations. The remains to be handed over at Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport include those recovered by a
Vietnamese excavation team in central Vietnam, as well as remains turned over by Vietnamese citizens. The exact number of persons the remains account for will be released at the ceremony, according to the US Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City. US Ambassador to Vietnam Michael Michalak and US Army Lieutenant Colonel Todd G. Emoto will represent the US government at the ceremony. So far, the remains of 909 Americans have been identified in and around Indochina since US troops officially left Vietnam in 1973: 645 in Vietnam, 230 in Laos, 31 in Cambodia and three in China, according to the US Embassy in Hanoi. There are 1,737 Americans still unaccounted for from the Vietnam War, including 1,322 in Vietnam, the embassy said in a statement.

Teaching hip hop to homeless children

Source: ThanhNien News

Those who frequent stages in Saigon may be familiar with a hip hop group of 9 homeless kids called Baby Action, who have turned into dancers thanks to their teacher’s kindness. 
 

When Luu Huynh Lam first opened a small hip hop class at his residence in Nha Be district, HCM City in 2004, he saw some young kids come to watch him and his students every day. "Some of them then approached me, begging me to allow them to pay monthly tuition fees by installments – one thousand dong every day,” said the 28-year-old teacher. 

Luu Huynh Lam said these were chiefly homeless kids who supported themselves by selling lottery tickets. After inquiring about these children’s family backgrounds, teacher Lam was very touched and decided to bring them all home to provide them with hip hop lessons – as well as many other things. 

The kids are from 5 to 14 years old of age. Some are orphans. Some were sent to live in pagodas since their parents are too poor. But they all love to learn hip hop. So in the morning, Lam sends them all to Phuoc Kieng Elementary School. From 2 to 4 pm in the afternoon, they practice dancing hip hop. 

As for evenings, these are reserved for performances on numerous stages throughout the city like Trong Dong, 126, Lan Anh or Dam Sen. There are also days when they are invited to perform out of the city. One may wonder how teacher Lam pays for all of this. 

For every performance, Baby Action earns from VND300,000 to 500,000, which isn’t much, and is making their teacher worried. He said that on sunny days, he and his young hip hop dancers did all right. But on rainy ones, people aren’t inclined to go to stages to watch shows, hip-hop or otherwise. 

"So I have been calculating a great deal – about how to have enough money to give them food, pay their school fees and buy them clothes, as well as give each of them around VND700,000 every month to help support their remaining relatives,” said Lam. 

Despite material difficulties, Lam said he told the kids that if they wanted to pursue some particular career, they only needed to tell him, and he would save money to send them off on their chosen road. 

As for the short-term plan, Lam said if possible, he would buy career insurance for Baby Action, since dancing, especially hip-hop dancing, is quite a dangerous profession.

UN, Vietnam youth discuss plan for volunteer resource center

Source: ThanhNien News

The United Nations Volunteers and the Vietnam Youth Union discussed Thursday a plan to set up a volunteer resource center to provide information about local and international voluntary work.

A seminar held to set up the Vietnam Volunteer Information Resource Center (VVIRC): 3-year Strategic Plan and Acting Sectors, was presided by the first secretary of the Vietnam Youth Union, Vo Van Thuong, and director of the UNV in Vietnam, Setsuko Yamazaki.

Delegates drawing up the plan focused on three key areas – Information, Action; Mechanism, Policy, Law Enforcement; and Capacity Building.

VVIRC Established this June is the cooperation between the UNV and the Vietnam Youth Union, aiming at providing the youth with comprehensive information about local and international voluntary positions.

UNV is the UN program that supports global human development by promoting volunteerism and mobilizing volunteers. 

It was created by the UN General Assembly in 1970 and has been administered since by UNDP. It is operating among growing recognition that volunteerism makes important contributions, economically and socially, to more cohesive societies by building trust and reciprocity among citizens.

Germany offers annual scholarships

Source: VNA

Germany plans to offer 85 Vietnamese students scholarships to study at Hessen State-based universities annually.

The good news was announced by Permanent Deputy Minister of Education and Training Banh Tien Long at the end of his four-day visit to Germany on September 27.

The scholarships are part of Ho Chi Minh City ’s Germany-Viet Nam University (GVU) project. During his visit Long met with Hessen State Minister of Sciences and Arts Udo Corts to discuss the establishment of the German-Vietnam university.

They agreed that 80 percent of the faculty would be German and 20 percent Vietnamese.

The Vietnamese delegation also visited three German universities that are included in the GVU project – Justus Liebig Kiien, Kassel and Frankfurt .

A memorandum of understanding on the 3,000-student university project, which is scheduled to start next year, was signed last May.

Japan, ADB fund Vietnam vitamin A, deworming tablet program

Source: ADB

Japan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide Vietnam US$1 million for distributing vitamin A and deworming tablets to poor children under five years in 18 provinces.

The grant would help improve the health, growth, and cognitive development of poor children in the country, the ADB said in a press release Tuesday.

It would support Vietnam’s “already highly effective” vitamin A distribution program to further develop and reach a greater number of children, it said. A current government program reaches children up to three years of age.

It would also “expand the health benefits” by adding a deworming tablet to the twice-yearly distribution routine, the release said.

The 18 provinces benefiting the project are recognized as having high rates of malnutrition among poor and vulnerable children between the ages of six months and five years.

The project will be carried out by the National Institute of Nutrition in collaboration with the National Institute of Malaria, Parasitology and Entomology (NIMPE), the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the University of Melbourne, Australia.

The total cost of the project is estimated at $1.2 million with the Vietnamese government providing the remaining amount.

ADB will support the project for three years.

During that time, the government’s share of the cost will gradually increase and reach 100 percent by the time the project ends, ensuring sustainability and extended benefits.

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