US support for disadvantaged people in Thua Thien Hue

The US charitable organization TCF will provided VND810 million in non-refundable aid for a project in support of disadvantaged people in Thua Thien-Hue, central Vietnam.

This was announced by Hoang Ngoc Khanh, head of the provincial People’s Committee office on March 11.  

The project aims to improve the quality of life for those living in remote areas.

Under the project, doctors will provide free medical check-ups in three districts and reduce surgery costs for ten patients.

In addition, there will be a training course in nutrition and emergency treatment for kindergarten teachers and orphanage centres to help disadvantaged children in Phu Vang district.

Clear Path International recently granted 140 scholarships worth VND210 million to children of bomb and mine victims in Phong Dien district.

KOICA-funded water supply system comes into use

Around 80,000 local residents will benefit from a new US$4.5 million water supply system in Buon Ho Town, Dak Lac Province.

The Korea International Co-operation Agency (KOICA)-funded construction will generate 5,600 cubic metres of safe water per day for local residents and help advance the town's process of socio-economic development, said Resident Representative of KOICA Kim In.

Only 30 per cent of residents of Buon Ho Town have access to safe water, while the remainder has to use water from the polluted river or wells. The province has nearly 1.8 million people, of which around 31 per cent belong to ethnic minority groups.

Mekong invests in schools, dormitories

Provinces in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, especially Kien Giang, have invested heavily in schools, housing for teachers, and dormitories for students, especially of ethnic minority groups.

Dinh Hoa Secondary School in the province's disadvantaged Go Quao District, where 66.5 per cent of students are ethnic Khmer, for instance, received nearly VND1 billion (US$47,610) for building a computer room and laboratory and buying equipment.

A similar amount was received for building new classrooms and toilets, Pham Van Ut, the school's principal, said.

The Ethnic Boarding School in Chau Thanh District is one of five ethnic schools in the province to get assistance from the province.

Every year the school admits nearly 200-250 ethnic students from the districts of Chau Thanh, An Minh, An Bien, Vinh Thuan, and U Minh Thuong.

It teaches ethnic language in addition to Vietnamese.

Ly Hoa, its principal, said the authorities provided funds to build two more rooms for teachers and a canteen in the 2012-13 school year.

Speaking to visiting Ministry of Education and Training officials last Thursday, Nguyen Thi Minh Giang, head of the province education department, said Kien Giang has 610 schools with 323,000 students.

Of them, ethnic students account for 38,474, she said.

The number of dropouts was down this year at all levels compared to last year, she said.

The province still has 60 communes and wards without kindergartens, and has to "borrow" 419 classrooms at primary schools, she said.

The ministry should allocate more funds to the province for building kindergartens in these places, she said, and tweak policies to attract teachers to island communes.

Kien Giang has 15 island communes of which seven are remote and face shortages of basic amenities like water and electricity, she said to explain why island schools find it very difficult to hire teachers.

Limit on university enrolment quotas

Twenty-three universities and colleges will have their enrolment quotas cut by between 10 and 100 per cent because of failures to meet required conditions on lecturers and facilities, the Ministry of Education and Training has announced.

The move aims to ensure training quality as well as equality in admissions between public and private universities and colleges.

Most universities slated for such cuts are public schools.

The HCM City Industrial University, which tops the list of schools having the deepest cut in enrolment quotas, will be allowed to enroll 7,500 students this year, compared to last year's target of 17,505 students.

The Mekong University suffered a 120 per cent admission cut, while the HCM City University of Food Industry will be allowed to admit 4,000 students this year, half of its target set last year.

Southern doctors treat poor for free

Southern Hau Giang Province's police healthcare centre yesterday co-operated with the Can Tho General Hospital to provide free check-ups and medicine for 600 people in Phung Hiep District's Hoa An Commune.

The elderly, poor and Khmer ethnic minority people were also given advice on house hygiene and safe cooking.

Drug traffickers sentenced to death

Two men from the mountainous Son La Province's Moc Chau District were sentenced to death for drug trafficking, the Ha Noi People's Court announced on Sunday.

Nguyen The Bay, 43, and Mui Van Ha, 42, were arrested last April while carrying over 1kg of heroin to sell to a woman in Ha Noi.

National park officials disciplined

The central province of Quang Binh has taken disciplinary action against two Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park senior officials.

Park director Luu Minh Thanh has been reprimanded and the deputy director, Nguyen Van Huyen, dismissed.

The pair had failed to protect the forest from lumberjacks who chopped down three ancient Sua trees, worth billions of dong, last April.

Former diplomat gets certificate of merit

This central city's People's Committee presented a former US ambassador to Viet Nam, Pete Peterson, president of the Alliance for Safe Children, a Certificate of Merit for contributions to SwimSafe.

Da Nang's programme has helped 22,000 children to swim over the past few years.

Portable swimming pools have been set up throughout the city, which create an opportunity to learn swimming during summer.

Peterson was ambassador between 1997 and 2001.

VNN/VOV/VNS