At the meeting, both organizations reviewed their activities for the development of the society, particularly those for the development of women and children. VWU and UNICEF have the same goal to promote and protect legitimate rights and interests of women and children. Being present in Vietnam since 1975, UNICEF has carried out many cooperation programs throughout the country relating to children. UNICEF also has a long-lasting cooperation relationship with the VWU, especially in the programs for supporting mothers to raise children, early childhood development, income generation, illiteracy eradication, healthcare for women, clean water and environmental sanitation, protecting rights and interests of women and children…
Speaking at the meeting, Ms. Lotta Sylwander, UNICEF Vietnam Representative expressed her happiness for the cooperation between the 2 organizations and highly appreciated the development of Vietnam, she said: “Since 1970s, there have been many changes in Vietnam and the country has reached lower middle-income status. The school system in Vietnam has been improved and almost all children go to school. The child protection system has been promoted…”. She also mentioned such issues of UNICEF concerns as: access by households to programs on water and sanitation, rate of malnourished children; rate of maternal death in the rural and mountainous areas, trafficking in children and child labor; impacts of domestic violence on the child’s development; changing awareness and behaviors of breast breeding, increasing women’s awareness of preventing pneumonia, diarrhea for their children… She showed expectation that the 2 organizations would carry out activities focusing on addressing issues of common concerns.
Ms. Tran Thi Huong, VWU Vice-President acknowledged the UNICEF’s support and showed high appreciation of the humanity of UNICEF’s programs in Vietnam, especially those targeting vulnerable women and children. Ms. Huong agreed that the issues raised by Ms. Lotta Sylwander need to be tackled and expressed her happiness with UNICEF offer of support to the VWU in dealing with the problems facing women and children in Vietnam. She affirmed: “The issues mentioned by UNICEF Representative are appropriate with VWU’s activities. The VWU is ready to cooperate with UNICEF so that more and more women and children are supported for the sake of equality and development”.
At the end of the meeting, the 2 sides agreed on the possible cooperation in the future, tentatively focusing on 3 areas: (1) child healthcare, (2) early childhood development and (3) child protection.