On April 22nd 2004, on behalf of VWU leaders, vice president Nguyen Phuong Minh presented the medal "For the cause of women’s emancipation" to Mr. Christian Vanwert, representative of the "Nord-Sud Cooperation" (Belgium) to recognize his essential contribu­tion for Vietnamese women’s advancement.

After several years of meeting and photographing people who have been affected by Agent Orange in Vietnam, photo¬grapher Phillip Jones Griffiths has just published a book entitled "Agent Orange Collateral Damage in Vietnam” (Trolley Publishing House).

She gave birth to nine babies, of which five died at birth. the four surviving children are either disabled or brain¬less. many years after the end of the american war the consequences of her husband's exposure to agent orange, as a soldier fighting in the war, still haunts the life of her family. the pain seems to be unbearable but somehow she still lives and strives to raise the family

At the end of April 2004, Jaap Voeten, a lecturer-cum-advisor of maastricht school of management (MSM-Holland), a technical consultant to vwu project on "Training women about small and micro enterprises", was presented with the medal "for the cause of women's emancipation" by VWU Vice President Nguyen Phuong Minh for his great contribution to the advancement of women and women entrepreneurs in Vietnam. through his cooperation with VWU over the past ten years, his skills have developed along with the development of VWU.

VWU recently organized a solemn meeting to support Agent Orange (AO) victims in Vietnam filed a lawsuit against the US chemical companies. VWU president Ha Thi Khiet, the Vice-President of the Association of AO victims of Vietnam, Do Xuan Dien, and many other cadres of VWU’s central office were present at the meeting.

The 54 national groups in Vietnam have many extraordinary traditional costumes that are regarded as part of the precious, intangible cultural heritage of Vietnam.

The projecton “strengthening of the institutional capacity of the Vietnamese Women’s Union in managing credlt/savings in favor of the rural poor women” (shortly as Vietnamese - Belgian credit project) has been implemented its activities since 1997 and covered 207 communes in 17 provinces nationwide. with the fund from government of Belgium, 900 women’s unions’ cadres at levels have been joined training courses to improve their awareness and experiences on meeting requirements of the computerized management system and ensure rotation of the credit fund.

 

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working on women’s issues have been very active during the ten years since the 4th World Conference on Women (the “Beijing Conference”) held in Beijing in 1995. They have worked to implement the Beijing Platform for Action for Equality, Development and Peace and to gather data and opinions on women’s emerging issues in order to pressure the United Nations as well as its member states to ensure responsive policies.

The United Nations’ Fund for Women’s Development (UNIFEM) was established in 1976 with the mission to provide direct support for projects promoting women’s participation in decision-making process of development programmes