Groups of langurs spotted in Quang Binh; Regional meeting on the prevention of human epidemics; Japanese women keen to travel to Vietnam; “Dance4Life” calls on people to drive back HIV/AIDS

Two groups of 10 golden-headed langurs each are often seen in the early morning and late evening, drinking water in the Nuoc Mooc stream in Bo Trach.

Seven other groups totalling nearly 100 five-coloured langurs are also spotted in U Bo area.

Golden-headed and five-coloured langurs are rare creatures which are now in “special danger”. They are also listed in the world’s and Vietnam’s Red Books.

According to zoologists, Vietnam’s langurs only live in some parts of the Truong Son Mountain Range.

Regional meeting on the prevention of human epidemics

The Vietnam Red Cross Society and the US Agency for International Development jointly held a regional meeting on the Humanitarian Pandemic Preparedness Initiative (H2P) in Hanoi on September 14.

Speaking at the meeting, chairman of Vietnam Red Cross Society Tran Ngoc Tang said that humankind has to face continuous natural disasters and epidemics that threaten people’s lives around the world. Cooperation is, therefore, an essential need for humankind to deal with those disasters and epidemics.

Tang also confirmed the 4 purposes of the meeting. They include planning a scheme to deal with epidemics in human with the cooperation of other national Red Cross societies , the national Red Crescent societies, governmental and non-governmental oganisations in Asia; promoting the planning of the scheme at national level; jointly holding training programmes which have been globally standardised; and establishing an information exchange network to prepare better for global epidemics.

The meeting also attracted the participation of the Deputy Minister of Health, Tran Chi Liem, ambassador to Vietnam, Michael Michalak, representatives from several NGOs, and hundreds of delegates from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines and Nepal.

The meeting will last until September 16.

Hanoi allocates VND200 billion for social welfare

Hanoi has decided to allocate an additional VND200 billion (US$11.24 million) for its social welfare improvement.

Of the sum, US$34 billion will be spent on helping farmers whose land is taken over for projects.

More than VND157 billion will be used to assist workers who lost their jobs due to economic slowdown, through the city’s fund for job generation and recruitment activities in districts that have great numbers of unemployed labourers and a project to offer loans to 1,000 poor households.

Vocational training establishments will also receive subsidies from the funding.

Nearly VND8.3 billion is added to the poverty alleviation budget in order to reduce 2 percent of the number of poor households and build houses for poor families.

In addition, the Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Welfare is working with the farmers and Women Associations in carrying out projects to support poor households in breeding cows and planting trees in outlying districts, mainly Chuong My, My Duc, Ung Hoa, Quoc Oai, Ba Vi and Thach That.

Japanese women keen to travel to Vietnam

More than 60 members of the Asian-Pacific Ladies Friendship Society (ALFS) gathered for a seminar spotlighting Vietnam’s tourism potential held recently in Tokyo, Japan.

At the seminar, the Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan, Nguyen Phu Binh introduced them to Vietnam’s land and people, its cultural traditions and customs and a number of famous tourist sites.

The seminar is of great importance for 52 ALFS members who are scheduled to make a trip to Vietnam from October 25-31 under the initiative of Le Hieu Ngan, wife of the Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan.

The trip will be similar to the tour of Vietnam last February taken by Japan’s Crown Prince, Naruhito. Apart from visiting places of interest, the delegation will donate US$10,000 in aid to the northern mountainous province of Cao Bang.

Vietnam attends “Humanitarian newspaper” festival

Vietnam’s Nhan dan (People) newspaper has participated in a festival held by the “Humanitarian newspaper” and the Communist Party of France in Paris.

Nhan dan’s exhibition pavilion at the September 11-13 festival attracted much attention from French friends.

Apart from fine arts products and traditional cooking, the Vietnamese pavilion showcased a collection of photographs and documents themed “Vietnam-Land and People,” reflecting the image of a country steadfastly overcoming the economic crisis.

Photos of Vietnamese Agent Orange /Dioxin victims were a strong message to international friends, saying Vietnam is still suffering from consequences of the war, and the country is always thirsty for peace.

The Humanitarian newspaper Festival 2009, which took place in the context of the global economic crisis, was aimed at sharing common difficulties that the French and other people all over the world are suffering.

Tens of thousands of people visited the event, which drew the participation of over 80 international delegations.

Vietnamese women support Chinese poor students

Women who are working and living at the Vietnamese Embassy in China have joined humanitarian activities aiming to support poor students in Yunnan province.

The women participated in sale activities at the “Bird’s net” stadium in Beijing on September 12.

They sold Vietnamese specialities, including cakes from Hai Duong province, Vinamit’s dried jack-fruit, Thai Nguyen green tea, and Trung Nguyen coffee.

All the money collected from the sale was aimed at supporting poor students in the above-mentioned Chinese province.

The Vietnamese Embassy was among over 70 Beijing-based foreign embassies and international organisations taking part in the “Great love without border” campaign launched by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

“Dance4Life” calls on people to drive back HIV/AIDS

Music, dances, stories, games and dramas on HIV/AIDS were top in an international dancing programme launched in central Da Nang city on September 12 in a bid to raise public awareness of the deadly disease.

This is the fourth consecutive year, the “Dance4Life” programme has been organised in Vietnam by the World Population Fund in Vietnam and the Vietnamese Health Ministry’s HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Department.

“Dance4Life” calls on young people to take action to drive back the HIV/AIDS disease in the world. Apart from Da Nang, this year’s programme has taken place in the northern province of Ninh Binh, the northern city port of Hai Phong, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

With the message “Become the beat”, this year’s focus is on preventing the spead of HIV/AIDS as well as other infectious diseases and abolishing discrimination against HIV/AIDS patients.

More than VND38 billion for disasters’ victims in 2008

The money was presented to 70,800 families which were heavily suffered from disasters.

The Vietnam Red Cross Central Committee held a meeting in Sam Son, Thanh Hoa province, on September 12 to review activities to help disasters’ victims in 2008.

In 2008, nine provinces which suffered losses worth VND1,200 billion from natual disasters: Hoa Binh, Vinh Phuc, Hanoi, Ha Nam, Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh. The Vietnam Red Cross provided emergency aid worth VND1.150 billion and other international Red Cross organisations and foreign governments contributed nearly VND37.5 billion.

The money helped local people overcome the consequence of disasters and stabilise their lives and resume production.

Remains of US servicemen repatriated

A ceremony was held at Hanoi’s Noi Bai international airport on September 12 to repatriate the remains of US servicemen who died during the war in Vietnam.

US Ambassador Michael Michalak and representatives of the Vietnam Office of Seeking Missing Persons (VNOSMP) and the US Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) attended the ceremony.

This is the 111th hand-over of remains of missing American servicemen since 1973.
Vietnamese officials transferred two boxes of remains discovered during Vietnam’s unilateral excavation from June-July, 2009 and handed over by Vietnamese citizens.

Those remains have been jointly reviewed by Vietnamese and US forensic specialists who concur that they might be associated with US servicemen missing during the war in Vietnam and recommended they be sent to Hawaii, US, for further study.

Addressing the ceremony, a representative of the US government expressed thanks and appreciation for the Vietnamese government and people’s humanitarian policy, goodwill and efficient cooperation.

Vietnam to develop 5 int’l standard universities by 2025

Vietnam will make heavy investment in improving the quality of education and aims for five international standard universities by 2025, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan said on September 12.

He told a conference on education in central Da Nang city that along with international universities, Vietnam will attract 300,000 Vietnamese students, who are studying abroad to work at home.

The Deputy PM, who is also Minister of Education and Training, emphasised that in order for Vietnamese universities to be listed among the top 100 universities in the world, there should be joint efforts by both the education sector and the community. Vietnam now has a total of 376 universities, institutes and colleges.

The country is developing four universities meeting international standard thanks to a 400 million loan from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. They include the Vietnam-Germany University, which was set up in 2008.

The Prime Minister has agreed upon the building of the Hanoi Science and Technology University. Two other international universities will be built in central Da Nang city and Mekong Delta Can Tho city.

PV