The Hanoi Association of Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin (HAVA) and the Hanoi Radio & Television hosted a meeting entitled ‘Gratitude to Comrades-in-arms’ for AO victims, their families and international friends in the city.
Sen. Lieut. Gen Nguyen Van Rinh, President of the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin (VAVA), spoke highly of the spirit of 35,000 AO victims in Hanoi in surmounting difficulties and called on every individual, business and organisation in the city to continue lending helping hands to those disadvantaged people.
The VAVA President affirmed that the Party, State and people are standing side by side with three million AO victims nationwide in their fight for justice.
More than VND 1 billion was raised at the meeting, of which VND 600 million came from war veteran-turned- businessman Nguyen Ngoc Khoi, Director General of the Hanoi KAT Trade Group.
The war veteran pledged another VND 2 billion to repair the dilapidated houses of AO victims and donated 2,000 sq.m of land to HAVA for building a rehabilitation centre for AO victims.
The same day, representatives of the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) Relief Fund for AO Victims and HAVA visited and presented gifts to 10 AO victims in Hanoi’s outlying communes of Phuong Cach and Dai Thuong.
The VNA also presented five wheelchairs and gift of money to AO victims in Hanoi.
In the central city of Da Nang, 38 passengers aboard the Peace Boat from Japan met and presented gifts to representatives of AO victims and disadvantaged children in the city.
The Japanese guests, many of whom are offspring of victims of the atomic bombs that fell on in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, expressed sympathy over the pain that Vietnamese AO victims are suffering and condemned the use of weapon of mass destruction which leave a devastating aftermath on many generations.
This was the eighth visit to the Da Nang Association of Victims of Agent Orange /dioxin by members of Japan’s Peace Boat, which plans to sail through 19 countries during its 80-day trip.
In the northern city of Hai Phong, an artistic performance raised VND 2 billion for AO victims from philanthropists, businesses and people from all walks of life.
On the occasion, Hai Phong’s municipal authorities decided to set up a fund for its AO victims, who now number 17,000. only 5,300 receive State monthly subsidies and the rest are living in difficulty conditions.
The VAVA chapter in the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa presented 200 gifts, each worth VND 1 million, to families of AO victims.
According to the President of the provincial Association of Victims of AO/dioxin, Tran Quang Tuyen, more than 10,000 people in Khanh Hoa have been exposed to AO/dioxin, of whom only 800 are benefiting from State welfare.
