Actionaid in Vietnam, a non-governmental organization involved in poverty reduction, has offer US$ 17,300 to southern Vinh Long province to implement the second phase of the project to prevent women and children trafficking across the border.

A group of students from the US’s Winona Senior High School are kicking off a fund-raising movement to raise US$10,000 to build a primary school in Vietnam, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

That is the goal of the visit to VWU of South Africa President’s Spouse – Mme. Zanele M. Mbeki in the morning of 24 May 2007 in the framework of the President’s official visit to Vietnam. Welcoming the President’s Spouse and delegation are Mme. Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa, member of Central Communist Party Committee, Standing Vice-President of VWU and other leaders of Departments and Units of VWU.

This is the confirmation stated by VWU’s President Ha Thi Khiet in support to the Vietnamese brides too be naturalized in Korean society, in the afternoon 6th June in her meeting with the Representative of Logos Law Company – one of leading Law companies Korea.

At the invitation of Laos Women’s Union, a Vietnam Women’s Union delegation headed by Mme. Ha Thi Khiet, President of the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU), Chairwoman of the National Committee for the Advancement of Women in Vietnam paid an official visit to Lao Women’s Union from 22nd-26th May, 2007.

With deep sadness for the friend’s death VILMA ESPIN, the WIDF – Women International Democratic Federation offers its homage to this great heroine of the Cuban revolution and the women's worldwide struggle.

In the early morning of 19 June 2007 (Vietnam time), Mrs. Vilma Espin, former member of the Cuban Communist Party’s Politburo, former member of Cuba’s Council of State, President of Cuba’s Council of State, President of the Cuban Women’s Federation, spouse of Vice President Raul Castro, passed away at the age of 77.

At the invitation of the Korean Ministry of Trade and Foreign Affairs, the VWU delegation led by Madam Ha Thi Khiet, Member of the Central Party Committee, President of VWU visited Korea from 23 -26 May 2007

At the invitation of the President of Vietnam Nguyen Minh Triet, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Hoost Kohler and his spouse Eva Luise Kohler paid an official visit to Vietnam from 21 – 23 May, 2007. On this occasion, Mme. Eva Kohler visited the Central Vietnam Women’s Union with the warm welcome from Mme. Ha Thi Khiet, Member of the Vietnam Central Committee of the Party (CCP), President of VWU, Chairperson of the National Committee for the Advancement of Women in Vietnam and Mme. Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa, Member of the CCP , First Vice President of VWU.

The wife of the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Lesley Stuttard, visited a school for children with disabilities in Hanoi on May 3 as part of a charity drive.

In the morning of 8th March 2007, Mr. John Hendra, UN Resident Coordinator visited and gave complement to VWU’s carders and members on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

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Spain’s Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Leire Pajin Iraola, arrived in Hanoi on January 17 to begin a four-day official visit to the country and is scheduled to meet with Vietnamese authorities, counterparts and partners of Spanish Official Development Assistance projects.

The first-ever Korean Cultural Center in Southeast Asia was opened Saturday in Hanoi in the presence of the Republic of Korea’s First Lady Kown Yang-suk.

The Canadian Prime Minister’s wife bought five silk scarves at the Ha Dong Silk Shop on Hang Gai Street. The Australian Prime Minister’s wife ordered five silk dresses. The Indonesian President’s wife bought embroidered paintings at the XQ Shop as souvenirs.

Vice President Truong My Hoa urged local businesswomen to actively take the advantage of the country's WTO accession and engage in the economic integration process.

The Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union of Hoan Kiem District in Ha Noi has just launched the Ao dai (Vietnamese traditional costume) week to welcome the APEC 2006 from November 11 to 19, aiming to introduce the elegant beauty of Ha Noi’s young women and the city itself to the international visitors.

Issued by the 11th APEC Women Leaders' Network Meeting
WLN Meeting Concludes with Joint Statement
Ha Noi, Viet Nam, September 21, 2006

The 11th APEC Women Leaders Network (WLN) Meeting offers Vietnamese women, especially businesswomen, an opportunity to share and learn from experiences of their partners in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

On Sept 21, the 11th Women’s Leaders’ Network (WLN) three-day meeting concluded in Hanoi. Female delegates released a statement and recommendations with 11 points. The recommendations will be presented to the APEC Small and Medium Enterprises Ministers meeting held in Hanoi on September 28-29.

The second day of the 11th APEC Women Leader's Network (WLN) meeting continued in Ha Noi with two plenary sessions focusing on the future direction of the WLN and on enhancing the competitiveness of businesses operated by women.

Since joining the APEC Women Leaders Network (WLN) in 1998, Vietnam has actively participated in the network's activities, sharing its experiences in raising the role of mass organistation in helping women escape from poverty and build small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Women Leaders' Meeting Opened by Viet Nam's Prime Minister
Ha Noi, Viet Nam, September 19, 2006

A series of important events for the APEC Year Vietnam 2006 will take place in September, especially the 13th APEC Finance Ministers' Meeting (FMM-13) and the third Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM III).

A training of volunteers working for the APEC Women Leaders’ Network Meeting (WLN) was just held by the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU) on Aug. 25, 2006

To contribute to the good impressions about a dynamic, open, hospitable, secure and stable Vietnam; promote solidarity, friendship and cooperation; and to contribute to the success of APEC Vietnam 2006 – these are the messages of State Vice-president Mme. Truong My Hoa to VWU leaders in her meeting regarding preparation for the 11th WLN meeting on the afternoon of August 14, 2006 in VWU office.

Poor Khmer ethnic women in Long Phu district, the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang, have improved their farming skills and knowledge on family care thanks to a project funded by CARE, an organisation of Denmark.

With the theme “Towards a Dynamic Community – for Sustainable Development and Prosperity” in the year APEC 2006, it is estimated 100 events will be organized in Vietnam, of which The APEC 11th Women Leaders’ network Meeting will be hosted by Vietnam Women Union at the International Conference Center – Hanoi, from September 19 to 22, 2006.

1. Preamble
WLN is a public-private network of women of all sectors representing academia, civil society, business and government of the APEC economies that plays the important role by contributing women leader's perspectives and expertise to the APEC region.

Preamble

1. We, the Women Leaders Network from APEC Economies, came together in La Serena, Chile September 28 - October 1, 2004, to reaffirm our commitment to the work advanced by the Leaders from previous meetings and to the continued and consistent integration of women and gender issues throughout the APEC processes and structures.

We, the Women Leaders' Network WLN) from APEC economies came together for the eighth time in Chiang Mai, Thailand on July 30 - August 3, 2003, to reaffirm our commitment to strengthening and deepening the partrlerships within WLN and wlth all APEC fora.

we, the Women Leaders Network from the APEC Economies came together for the seventh time in Acapulco, Mexico from August 20th to 22nd, 2002, to reaffirm our commitment and our efforts to contribute to the economic development, cooperation and prosperity of the APEC region, and to strategize to meet challenges in the new century.

We, the Women Leaders’ Network, from APEC economies came together for the sixth time in Beijing, China on August 22-24, 2001, to reaffirm our commitment and our efforts to contribute to the economic development, cooperation and prosperity of the APEC region, and to strategize to meet challenges in the new century.

The 1999 WLN Meeting contributed to the drafting of policy recommendations for presentation to APEC Trade Ministers. This was the first time the WLN recommendations were made directly to APEC Ministers for Trade.

The WLN 2000 Declaration and Recommendations, recalls the "1996 Manila WLN Call to Action; WLN Declarations of 1997 Ottawa-Hull; 1998 Kuala Lumpur and 1999 Wellington; and Recommendations from the Ministerial Meeting on Women in Economic Development and Cooperation in Manila in 1998.

The 1998 WLN Meeting Declaration and Recommendations reaffirms the "commitment to work together [with APEC] in partnership to meet current challenges, as well as challenges in the new millennium to contribute towards achieving sustainability in our regional economic recovery, prosperity and development" (WLN 1 998).

With the theme “Towards a Dynamic Community – for Sustainable Development and Prosperity” in the year APEC 2006, it is estimated 100 events will be organized in Vietnam, of which The APEC 11th Women Leaders’ network Meeting will be hosted by Vietnam Women Union at the International Conference Center – Hanoi, from September 19 to 22, 2006.

The European Commission (EC)’s decision to slap primary anti-dumping duties of 4.2 percent on leather shoes imported from Vietnam has affected half a million leather shoe workers (most of whom being women) and a high number of workers involved in supporting sectors.

From: Ha Thi Khiet

With a great passion for Vietnam, Madam Kathleen Huff gave up her position as Head of the Psychology Department at Arkansas University, America in 1998. Instead she took up work at World Concern, a non-government organization in Seatle (America), who needed an expert for their job-generation project for disabled youths in Da Nang, Quang Nam and Hai Duong, Vietnam.

“As if Uncle Ho was here on the Victory Day” – the exciting rhythms of this song often remind me of the wonderful moments right after the liberation of the South on 30th April 1975.

A meeting on anti - trafficking was jointly held by the Ministry of Public Security and the Cambodian Ministry of the Internal Affairs at Ho Chi Minh City.

As relations between Lao and Vietnam grow, Laotian learners have spent time in Vietnam during the rice harvest period to observe the speed at which rice plants grow each day.

The embroidery picture was a present of Uncle Ho to the late US colonel Stephen L.Nordlinger 60 years ago. It has been kept by his family, up to three generations, as a precious thing in the living room.

Manila, Philipines
October 2-4, 1996

In the Declaration and Recommendations of the Women Leaders' Network at its second meeting in 1997, the WLN reaffirmed the 1996 Manila Call to Action, promoted its continued and consistent implementation throughout APEC processes and structures, and reemphasized the vital contribution of women to APEC economies.

From 1925 to 1939, there were around 60 Vietnamese students who studied at the Communist Synthetic University, rendering for oriental laborers (KUTV), Institute for Peoples and Colonies belonging to KUTV (NIINKP) and Lenin International School.

After the Chosun Daily made public the articles about Vietnamese brides on April 21 that led to reactions by Vietnamese readers, many Korean newspapers reported on a demonstration of a group of Korean citizens and Vietnamese people in front of the office of the Chosun Daily, and Vietnamese public opinion about the articles

On the sideline of the 39th session of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, Minister of Justice Uong Chu Luu talked with the press about the Chosun Daily case, from the legal aspect related to marriage with foreigners.

This was the affirmation made at the meeting between Mme. Ha Thi Khiet, President of Vietnam Women's Union (VWU), and Mr. Kim Euki, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Vietnam, on May 4, 2006 at the VWU's central office regarding the article "Vietnamese Young Women Coming to Korea – A Land of Hopes" posted by the Chosun Daily Newspaper on April 21, 2006.

A Republic of Korean diplomat has just apologized to Vietnamese women after protests at home slammed a local newspaper as “cold and insensitive” in portraying the women as merely dying to marry a Korean man.

The European Union is a crucial partner, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai said after he received the visiting Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, in Hanoi on April 21.

Labor unions should help women get jobs, a Vietnamese labor official said at a conference in Hanoi Tuesday on the role of the unions in preventing trafficking of women and children.

The Republic of Korea (ROK) National Assembly approved the nomination of Han Myung-sook as the country's first female prime minister on Wednesday afternoon.

Welcome 11th APEC Women Leader’s Network Meeting in Hanoi

The Russian Government on April 18 presented Vietnam with a number of documents on the relations between the former Soviet Union and Vietnam.

Labor unions should help women get jobs, a Vietnamese labor official said at a conference in Hanoi Tuesday on the role of the unions in preventing trafficking of women and children.

The Viet Nam-US Society has expressed its condolences over the death of William Coffin, a well-known peace activist and leader of the Anti-Vietnam war movement in the US during the 1960s and '70s.

A woman of small business has made a contribution to founding the overseas Vietnamese Group and opening a Vietnamese school in Cambodia. When getting older, she opened a Vietnamese newspaper stall in Phnom Penh and became a sponsor for Vietnamese misleading girls.

Poverty alleviation is Vietnam's overriding concern and the Government's approach to this issue has been praiseworthy, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) has said in a report on March 30 of the results of its economic and social survey of Asia and the Pacific in 2006.

The Associated Press (AP) on April 2 carried an article saying that the poignant wartime diaries of a Vietnamese military surgeon, named Dang Thuy Tram, have reconciled the US and Viet Nam after a US intelligence officer saved them from being burned.

In the 1950s, there were only few Vietnamese language classes in America. Since then, several Vietnamese Studies Departments have been established at famous US universities and have educated many scholars in Vietnamese studies. In recent years, many of these scholars have visited Vietnam on study tours.

Visitors to the first international photo festival opened in Sarcelles city, 20 km east of Paris, France, on April 8, signed their names into a petition, expressing their support to Vietnamese Agent Orange/dioxin victims in the lawsuit against US chemical producers.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has decided to provide Vietnam with US $15 million to help in contagious disease control.

The Roever Educational Programme of the US, REAP International, has presented 40 scholarships, each worth 600,000 VND, to poor students in southern Binh Thuan, Ben Tre, Dong Nai and Tra Vinh provinces.

A get-together was held in Hanoi on April 7 to celebrate the traditional New Year festival of Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar, drawing a crowd of diplomatic corps, officials and students of these nationalities.

The Vietnamese State and Government always helps facilitate the overseas Vietnamese community in Laos in conformity with Lao legal regulations.

Vietnam's water puppetry has attracted almost 1,000 French children to each show presented at the on-going Imagine Festival in Paris, said the festival's organising board.

The US plans to donate US$3.3 million to support the continuation of mine removal in Vietnam in fiscal year 2006, its embassy in Hanoi said in a press release on Tuesday.

Shin Sakurai, former Chairman of the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD), spoke highly of Viet Nam's achievements in population affairs, hunger elimination and poverty reduction at a seminar in Ha Noi on April 5.

Brunei's Crown Prince Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah and his wife Wednesday donated US$50,000 to the Vietnam Association for Agent Orange Victims to help its poor members.

Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Bill Tweddell yesterday waved a flag to start a race called ChallengeMD! with the participation of 32 Australian riders to raise money to help fight Muscular Dystrophy (MD) and raise awareness of MD.

Australian artist Nerine Martini opened an exhibition in Hanoi Friday displaying her sculpture based on a traditional boat from the central Vietnamese town of Hoi An.

Vietnamese, Thai and Lao women shared experiences in ensuring gender equality and improving women's roles in society.

Twelve expat Vietnamese youngsters arrived in Vietnam Monday sponsored by the US Catalyst Foundation for a 10-day trip to help local underprivileged kids and discover their home country in the process.