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A special programme to support fishermen on the Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagoes will be broadcast live on July 15 by HCM City Television, in coordination with the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL).
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Ten years after launching a campaign to support fishermen in distress, the fund has raised a total of VND2.5 billion to help fishermen from Quang Ngai, Phu Yen, Binh Thuan, Binh Dinh and Quang Nam.
The organizing board has also encouraged trade union members, State employees and workers across the country to send SMSs in support of the campaign through switchboard 1407.
VGCL Vice Chairman Hoang Ngoc Thanh said since early July, organizations and individuals have donated nearly VND15 billion and raised approximately VND700 million via the SMS service.
The Golden Heart Fund will allocate VND800 million to help fishermen in Quang Ngai and Quang Nam buy boats and fishing equipment to continue their work and stabilize their lives.
On the occasion, the State President presented the Labour Order, first class, to the Golden Heart Fund in recognition of its positive contributions to the process of building socialism and national defence.
Police recapture escaped prisoner after 28 years
Police in the central province of Binh Dinh re-arrested Friday a 55-year-old man who had escaped from prison 28 years ago.
Vo Tan Dung, the escapee, was born in 1957 in the province and registered his residence in the provincial capital Quy Nhon City, according to local police.
In 1984, Dung moved south to Ninh Thuan Province where he was sentenced to 4 years in prison for buying stolen property. The man subsequently escaped when serving the jail term at Song Cai prison there on July 30 the same year.
He then changed his name to Nguyen Van Chin, made himself 3 years older on the dotted line, and ‘moved’ his registered residence to Binh Dinh’s Tuy Phuoc District. Next, Dung returned to Quy Nhon, and married and had children in the city.
He has done a clutch of jobs during these years to turn over a new leaf before ending up working as a quarry worker.
Dung had always hoped his past would sink into oblivion so it came as a shock to him that he was captured again after such a long time.
Cambodia honours Kon Tum citizens
Cambodia presented its Friendship Order to outstanding individuals and members of the armed forces from Kon Tum, at a ceremony held in the Central Highland province on July 13.
Honour recipients were Ha Ban, Secretary of the province’s Party Committee, and So Lay Tang and Y Veng, two former Secretaries of the provincial Party Committee.
The province’s Military High Command and Police also received the prestigious award.
General Bou Thoong, head of the Commission on Interior National Defence under the Cambodian Senate, praised the contributions made by the Vietnamese people, including the people in Gia Lai and Kon Tum provinces, during his country’s struggles against foreign invaders and the Pol Pot genocidal regime.
He stated that both countries should work together to maintain peace and development, stressing the need to educate future generations on the importance of consolidating and strengthening the friendship between Vietnam and Cambodia.
55,000 HCMC residents get unemployment benefits
More than 55,000 people in Ho Chi Minh City have received unemployment benefits totaling VND324 billion (US$15.5 million) in the first six months of this year, said the HCMC Social Insurance agency.
They were among the more than 75,000 people who registered their unemployment status during this period, the local Department of Labor, War Invalids and Socials reported.
Compared to the same period last year, the number of jobless people nearly doubled, while the benefit payment increased by 93.5 percent, the agency said.
With such figures, the city led the country in the payment of unemployment benefits in the January-June period.
The main reason for this situation is that many businesses have gone bankrupt or narrowed their operation due to economic difficulties.
The city now has more than 1.5 million people covered by unemployment insurance, and they have paid a total premium of VND610 billion ($29.3 million).
It is expected that the number of people registered for unemployment in HCMC this year will rise by 10-15 percent from the 106,000 people who did so last year.
Last year, HCMC accounted for as much as 30 percent of the country’s total unemployment. It was followed by Binh Duong and Dong Nai Provinces, the Employment Department under the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Socials reported.
The number of people registering an unemployed status nationwide in 2011 was 335,000 more than in 2010, or an increase of 77 percent, the department said.
Students show high business acumen
Six Vietnamese high school students last Saturday won the right to represent the country in the regional finals of the FedEx Express/ Junior Achievement 2012 International Trade Challenge.
The students, grouped into three teams, will compete in the regional finals to be held in Hong Kong on August 27 – 29.
The students were chosen for the in-depth understanding of the significance of market research, creativity, planning and entrepreneurial skills in entering new markets that they displayed in a local contest, according to the organisers.
Volunteers set off on Pink Holiday campaign
Hundreds of young people who are doctors and workers in Ho Chi Minh City set off to isolated and poor areas last Saturday morning in the twelfth Ky nghi hong (Pink Holiday) campaign launched by the city’s Youth Union for offering free health check.
At 8am on Saturday adults and children arrived at the Nguyen Dinh Chieu secondary school in Long An Province’s Can Giuoc District to have a free check up.
“We are poor and unable to go to big hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City. On hearing a group of doctors from the city were coming, I was so happy and got here from early morning,” said Pham Thi Kien, who resides in the district’s Phuoc Long Commune.
Although tired after traveling for a distance of 100km, the doctors from the HCMC Thong Nhat Hospital started to work right away. Physician Le Van Quy said they had given free checkups to 500 people and prescribed them four boxes of medicine.
After having checkups with the doctors in the classrooms, several people checked out some mobile shops selling cheap and high-quality products run by volunteers in the school yard. Almost 200 products including books, clothes, house wares and food were discounted at 10-30 percent. Nguyen Thi Loan said she was content with a new mini gas stove sold 20 percent cheaper than the market price.
It is part of a national campaign to advertise Vietnam-made goods to Vietnamese consumers.
“Seeing everyone’s smiling face as they buy cheap products, I feel happy too. At least I could contribute a little, helping society take care of the people’s life in countryside,” said Dang Chi Thao, a worker at the city’s Co.op Mart Hung Vuong.
As the adults did their shopping, the children tried their art talents while painting small statues. Six volunteers from the Saigon Water Corp. kept busy giving the kids brushes and color palettes.
“This is the first time I’ve painted something,” said 7-year old Dinh Quang Tuan.
Ly Buu Nghia, an organizer in Long An’s Can Giuoc District, said they gave out 100 gifts worth VND300,000 (US$15) for families under preferential treatment policies, a friendship house worth 20 million ($1,000), 1,000 notes books and VND5 million ($250) in cash for the district’s education fund.
That same day, doctors at the Nhan Dan Gia Dinh Hospital and the National Hospital of Traditional Medicine arrived in Trang Bang and Ben Cau districts in the southeastern province of Tay Ninh to check up and give medicine to 800 locals.
Together with young people in the area, organizers of the Pink Holiday campaign have painted and renovated charity houses for Vietnam’s heroic mothers. The volunteers also handed out 2,000 notebooks and 150 gifts worth VND300,000 each to poor households in the two districts.
Four die in two accidents
A motorcyclist and his passenger died when they fell off their bike and were run over by a car in central Quang Ngai Province.
The two men, both 62, were on their way to Binh Nguyen Commune when they had a minor brush with another bike going in the same direction and fell off. The car that ran over them was also going in the same direction.
They died at the scene of the accident which is one of eight "black spots" on Highway 1A.
On the same day, a car carrying two men plunged off a cliff in mountainous northern Lao Cai Province.
The car reportedly belonged to Si Ma Cai District Armed Forces. The two men included the head of the forces and a car driver.
Authorities are investigating to determine the cause of the accident.
Woman dies at Chinese clinic, doctors disappear
A 34-year-old woman died at the Maria Clinic in Hanoi last Saturday, and the Chinese doctors who treated her disappeared after the incident, health authorities reported.
The victim was Nguyen Thi Thu Phong, 35, of Hanoi’s Ha Dong District, who died at about 9:30 pm on July 14, said the Hanoi Health Department’s chief inspector, Nguyen Viet Cuong.
Within today, July 16, the department will issue a decision to suspend the clinic to investigate the death, Cuong said.
Phong arrived at the Maria Clinic, at 65 Thai Thinh, Dong Da District at about 6:50 pm Saturday for examination as she felt unwell after getting home from work.
Doctors at the clinic diagnosed Phong with cervicitis in cervical ectropion, vaginitis, and pelvic inflammatory disease. They then performed a blood test, an electrocardiogram test and transfused five bottles of fluid into her body, along with several other procedures.
A couple of hours later, after paying a total of VND8,670,000 (US$416) to the clinic, Phong felt very fatigued and called home about condition. But when her relatives came to the clinic, they couldn’t find any doctors, while Phong had died of unknown causes.
The victim’s relatives reported the case to district police, who came to the scene and after much delay met some people reported to be the managers of the clinic.
Colonel Bui Quang Dai, chief of the district police, told media that when police officers came to the rented houses of two doctors who had directly treated Phong, they found that the houses had been locked.
The police thus immediately proposed that competent agencies ban the two doctors from leaving Vietnam, Dai said.
The police have also summoned the leaders of the clinic for questioning and are coordinating with the department’s Inspectorate in investigating the cause of the death.
Repeat offender
The clinic has been registered in the name of a Vietnamese person but it employs Chinese doctors who were once fined for practicing without a practitioner’s license, said chief inspector Cuong.
On June 26, 2012, Hanoi health inspectors ordered the clinic to repay a woman, D.T.K.Q., nearly VND24 million (US$1,150) that it had overcharged her. The agency levied an additional VND11.5 million penalty for collecting health service fees that had not been posted as required, insufficiently keeping patients’ medical records, and marketing services beyond the clinic’s license.
Q., who lives in the capital’s Dong Da District, reportedly visited the health center in April to have her contraceptive ring examined. After a series of ultrasounds and tests of vaginal fluid, urine, and blood, Dr. Lei Hong diagnosed Q. with genital warts – a sexually transmitted disease - and warned it would develop into cancer without treatment.
Q later went to a public hospital for re-examination, where doctors asserted that she had no gynecological diseases, prompting her to file a complaint with the Health Department.
She was treated by a Chinese doctor, Lei Hong, but the doctor who signed her in to the clinic was a Vietnamese named Pham Thi Minh Trang.
This past February Nguyen T.M.H, 23, from Hai Duong Province, arrived in the clinic and was diagnosed with genital warts and infertility. H. was charged VND150 million and risked ending her marriage with the news.
However, when she visited the Medicine and Pharmacy University Hospital for re-examination, doctors there confirmed that her health was normal, and she had neither contracted genital warts or suffered from infertility.
VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre
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