SOCIAL IN BRIEF 7/6
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UNICEF funds campaign to support children’s rights
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has donated US$40,000 to Dong Thap province to raise public awareness of children’s right to be loved and cared for.
The “Wonderful Childhood” campaign, which runs from June to December, focuses on the importance of providing a healthy, safe and loving environment for children, especially during the first three years of their lives.
It encourages parents and other family members to spend time playing with children and helping children to understand the world that surrounds them. Other messages highlight efforts to bring up children in a physically and mentally healthy way and to equip them with social skills and a code of ethics.
“Being thoughtful and considerate to children during their early years will help to avoid complicated problems as well as later wastes for society,” said Nguyen Thi Thanh Nga, an educational specialist from UNICEF.
This message will be broadcast by television channels and radio stations as well as with assistance from local volunteers, speakers at meetings held by mass organisations and nurses at day-care centres across the province.
Environmental Police Department launches website
The Environmental Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security on June 5 organised a ceremony to launch its website at the address http://www.canhsatmoitruong.gov.vn on the occasion of World Environment Day.
The website will assist the environmental police force to look up information and receive guidance on the implementation of government’s decrees and circulars on environmental protection and punishment of breaking environmental law.
The website is also an information channel for people to contribute their opinions to organizations and individuals in charge of protecting the environment.
Kon Tum orphans to receive Australian support
The Australian Government will grant VND3.5 billion for a two-phase project to assist disabled people and orphans in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum to get jobs and develop local production.
The project’s first stage, lasting from June 2009 to June 2010, will receive VND2.5 billion to help disabled people and orphans who have not benefitted from any other projects in Kon Tum town and Dak Ha and Dak To districts.
As planned, a sum of VND886 million will be used for rehabilitation, medical surgery, wheelchairs, vocational training and generating jobs for the disabled.
Another VND812 million will be spent on developing household industries and building ramps for wheelchairs in buildings and public places such as bus and railway stations and hospitals.
In addition, VND325 million will be allocated for information campaigns to raise public awareness, conduct surveys of the disabled and hold training courses for the project’s management staff.
The second phase, continuing until June 2011, will receive VND1 billion.
At the project’s launching ceremony on June 5, Australian Ambassador Allaster Cox presented wheelchairs and gifts worth VND200,000 each to 30 local disabled people and orphans.
Kon Tum province now has 11,000 disabled people and 5,000 orphans, including 1,200 disabled and 1,100 orphans living in Kon Tum town, and Dak Ha and Dak To districts.
UK funds HIV/AIDS programme in Vietnam
The UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) on June 5 approved funding of US$30 million from 2009 to 2012 to help Vietnam curb the spread of HIV/AIDS.
According to the DFID, the sum will be added to the ongoing US$33 million World Bank programme, to form a joint programme to enhance the country’s efforts to combat HIV/AIDS.
This joint programme, to run until December 2012, has a stronger focus on infection reduction and expands its reach to up to 40 cities and provinces.
Head of the DFID Vietnam Fiona Louise Lappin said “Helping the Government to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS has been one of DFID’s priorities in Vietnam.
“The US$30 million invested in this programme will prevent an estimated 28,000 new infections and consequently create US$97 million net savings on direct treatment costs,” the official said.
The programme will support the Government’s targets to keep the rate of HIV amongst intravenous drug users below 20 percent and amongst sex workers below 3 percent.
Lappin added that “We are filling the current funding gap but expect the Government to strengthen its capacity to embed effective delivery mechanisms and to mobilise additional resources to sustain HIV prevention activities by the time this programme ends.”
The DFID earlier provided US$31 million to the “Preventing HIV in Vietnam ” programme, which ran from 2003 to June this year.
The programme has helped to achieve some ground-breaking results including the introduction and rapid increase of access to free needles and syringes (from zero in 2004 to 15 million in 2008); distribution of 230 million condoms, the start of a methadone treatment programme; and a new law on HIV/AIDS that gives a clear legal basis for infection-reduction measures and removing the stigma attached to people living with HIV/AIDS.
Dak Lak reburies 81 martyrs killed in Cambodia
The Central Highland province of Dak Lak on June 4 held a solemn ceremony to rebury the remains of 81 Vietnamese soldiers who laid down their lives in Cambodia during wartime.
The remains were discovered during the 2008-09 dry season by Dak Lak province’s K51 search team in Keo Sa Man district of Cambodia’s Mondunkyri province. Only 12 sets of remains were identified.
During 2008-2009, the team found and repatriated 111 sets of remains from Cambodia.
Korean youth join exchange programme in Vietnam
A delegation of 20 young people from the Republic of Korea have been participating in a youth exchange programme between Vietnam and the RoK held in Vietnam from May 27 to June 6.
The programme is part of a cooperative agreement on youth between the RoK Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs and the Vietnam National Committee on Youth in the 2009-2013 period.
The event is also part of activities to promote friendship between the two countries’ young people as well as strengthening mutual understanding for the development of both countries.
The visit is also a good opportunity for Vietnamese young people to introduce Vietnam’s traditional culture to their Korean friends and further expand friendship between the youth of both countries.
During their stay in Vietnam, Korean students held exchange activities with many universities and colleges in Vietnam and went sight seeing in Hanoi and in the northern province of Quang Ninh.
Da Nang goes green with environmentally friendly buses
Central Da Nang City will spend 5.5 million Euros from its budget and borrow 15 million Euros from the German bank KFW, for a project to provide environmentally friendly buses for its citizens.
Da Nang authorities have reached an agreement with GTZ, the German Organisation for Technical Cooperation, to provide training and enhance capacity building for the project, which is estimated to cost around 1.5 million Euros.
The city plans to develop a fleet of 75 buses that will meet with international environmental standards, including exhaust fumes that come up to the Euro 4 standard.
The buses will be designed to be easily accessible for people with disabilities, who along with students and pupils, will pay discounted fares.
Capable of transporting up to 100 passengers at a time, the buses will run on Euro IV-standard diesel at first but may use LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) or CNG (compressed natural gas) for fuel later.
The city authorities are expected to put the buses into service in early 2011.
Finland to supply fire fighting equipment to Vietnam
Vietnamese firefighters will be provided with Finnish fire fighting equipment to improve their capabilities after signing a contract in Hanoi on June 4.
The Sammutin Oy Company, part of the Finnish Group Kitokori, will provide the Firefighting Department under the Ministry of Public Security, with 5 vehicles fixed with extendable ladders, each 32 metres long, 20 fire engines, 3 vehicles for search and rescue purposes, 40 sets of firefighting suits, 40 BA sets and 12,000 metres of fire hoses.
In addition to that, the Finnish company will hold training courses for Vietnamese firefighters as part of the VND247 billion contract, which is covered by the Finnish Government’s soft credit scheme.
“The contract will help to ease the lack of fire fighting equipment facing the Vietnamese Firefighting Service as well as enhancing the force’s capacity to deal with fires that have recently occurred in large numbers,” said Colonel Do Van Son, Chief of the Firefighting Department.
Nearly 3,000 people walk for “peace and blue sea”
Nearly 3,000 students from universities and colleges in Nha Trang city in the south central province of Khanh Hoa took part in a walk for “peace and blue sea” on June 4.
The event was co-organised by the HCM Communist Youth Union and Nha Trang City’s youth union to respond to the World Environment Day (June 5) and the 2009 Nha Trang Sea Festival.
Hundreds of members of the city’s war veterans association also joined in the 5-km walk from 2/4 Square to Tran Phu Bridge.
While addressing the launching ceremony, the secretary of the youth union in Khanh Hoa called on young people to actively respond to World Environment Day, and “Green Week” campaign to help protect the maritime environment by clearing beaches of rubbish and clean up the city’s streets.
On June 5, thousands of people from Nha Trang city will also join hands to collect rubbish along the city’s beaches. This is the first activity under the 2009 framework of Nha Trang Sea Festival.
Environmental and development contest underway
An environmental and development contest for 2009-2010 was launched in Hanoi on June 3 in response to World Environment Day on June 5.
The contest, entitled “Adapting to Climate Change,” aims to raise awareness and understanding in the community, especially people living in coastal areas, about the environment and maritime pollution.
With support from international organisations through the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the contest aims to honour initiatives that are practical for protecting the environmental.
Entries need to be sent to the organising board from June 10, 2009 to April 30, 2010.
On the morning of June 3, Deputy Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Nguyen Van Duc presented the first prize for the 2008 Environment and Development Contest to an initiative to build an environmentally-friendly welfare network in rural areas.
The contests organising board also presented 18 other prizes to unique and feasible initiatives selected from almost 5,500 individuals and groups nationwide.
Vietnam’s movie to join two international film festivals
The movie ‘Trang Noi Day Gieng’ (Moon at the Bottom of the Well) by Nguyen Vinh Son will compete at two international film festivals due to be held in Sydney, Australia and Munich, Germany respectively.
The movie is based on a story by writer Tran Thuy Mai, telling about a woman who devotes all her life for her husband and children but in the end her husband lives with another woman.
The film won the Silver Kite of the Vietnam Cinematography Association 2008 and its main actress Hong Anh won the Golden Kite. Also with the role, Hong Anh won the Best Actress at the Dubai International Film Festival 2008.
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