VND1 billion raised at Run for Children 2010  
Around VND1 billion was raised at the “Run for Children” which was held at Hanoi’s Thien Quang Lake on November 21.

All the money collected will be sent to the Central Pediatrics Hospital, the Hanoi Heart Hospital and Heart Beat Vietnam to help poor children suffering from heart disease and cancer.

The event attracted more than 6,000 students and international friends, most notably Miss World Vietnamese 2007 Ngo Phuong Lan.

The event marked 10 years of charity work by the Terry Fox Run and was part of activities to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi, and contribute to building a peaceful Hanoi.

Over the past ten years, nearly 43,000 people have supported the Terry Fox Run and collected more than VND3 billion for cancer research and to assist poor children suffering from cancer and heart disease.

Last year, the event attracted 5,000 people and collected nearly VND900 million. The event was co-organized by the Canadian Embassy, the Hanoi Union of Friendship Organisations, the Vietnam-Canada Friendship Association, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam and Manulife Vietnam.

Meeting honours assistance from ‘Country of Roses 
A delegate of Bulgarian intellectuals and lecturers has attended a special exchange programme in Hanoi that highlighted Bulgaria’s role in training Vietnamese human resources.

The meeting held on November 20 also marked the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Bulgaria and Vietnam.

During the event, former Vietnamese students recalled memories of the days they lived and studied in ‘beautiful’ Bulgaria, particularly of Bulgarian teachers, who they said were so enthusiastic in helping them.

“When we first arrived in the remote European country, we were unfamiliar with many things but we received warm feelings from Bulgaria,” said Nguyen Van Hung, former rector of the Hanoi Construction College. “We had a chance to learn many good lessons there, for example, about the value of bread and the need to economize.”

Bulgaria received the first groups of Vietnamese students in the late 1950s. The country has so far helped Vietnam train more than 100 PhDs, nearly 2,000 MAs or MScs, more than 6,000 apprentices, and over 20,000 skilled workers.

Many of the first Vietnamese students sent to Bulgaria later returned to Vietnam to take part in the nation’s resistance wars and many of them were assigned to important Party and State positions.

The Vietnamese students also made good impressions on lecturers at Bulgarian universities. Mariya Markova, head of the Foreign Language Department of Sofia University, said Vietnamese students were diligent and eager to learn from her country’s culture. She also praised them for being excellent at mathematics.

New religious site for overseas Vietnamese in Laos  
The Phat Tich pagoda, built with donations by the Vietnamese community in Laos, was inaugurated in the Lao capital city of Vientiane on November 19.

Attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony were Somsavath Lengsavath, Laos’ Poliburo member and standing Deputy Prime Minister and Vietnamese Ambassador to Laos Luong Quoc Huy.

Started in April, 2008, the seven-storey building covers an area of 1,300 sq. m and was built at a total cost of US$450,000.

Most Venerable Thich Minh Quang, head of the pagoda said that it would serve as a new religious and cultural site for Buddhist followers in particular and Vietnamese community in Laos in general, contributing to preserving and promoting Vietnamese culture as well as strengthening solidarity between the two countries.

Vietnam, US seek to identify missing soldiers  
The Vietnamese Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on November 19 signed a memorandum of understanding on the US-Vietnam Technical Cooperation on capacity building to locate and identify Vietnamese persons missing during the war.

Under the MoU, both sides set out to collaborate on a training and technical assistance programme which aims to strengthen the scientific and technical capacity of Vietnamese government institutions and improve the ability of Vietnamese authorities to locate, identify, and document those Vietnamese soldiers missing in the war.

The activities will take the form of technical assistance and include training, exchange of information and experience, provision of equipment and transfer of technology.

Speaking at the MoU signing ceremony in Hanoi, MoLISA Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Hoa indicated that cooperation in this area reflects the good will of the two countries, and the US and Vietnam will continue to further promote efforts to collaborate in the areas of social and humanitarian assistance that aim to develop the bilateral relationship and multifaceted cooperation between the two countries in the future.

Although the war ended 35 years ago, Vietnam still lacks information on hundreds of thousands of revolutionary martyrs’ whereabouts and has not yet been able to identify hundreds of thousands of sets of remains of martyrs, said the deputy minister.

Judging from the effective results of the cooperation programme to seek the American soldiers missing in action (MIA) during the war that have brought joys to US servicemen’s families, he said he hoped the technical cooperation programme will make practical contributions to locating and identifying Vietnamese persons missing during the war, thus meeting the desire of the martyrs’ families.

This new activity comes at an opportune time as Vietnam and the US celebrate the 15th anniversary of normalising our diplomatic relationship, said US Ambassador to Vietnam Michael Michalak. “We are encouraged to see the increased mutual understanding and confidence between our two nations,” he said.

After 10 years of operation in Vietnam, USAID has contributed more than 330 million USD in support of Vietnam’s development and relief activities.

UN, Education Ministry mark Teachers Day 
The Ministry of Education and Training and the United Nations in Vietnam jointly organised a ceremony in the northern province of Vinh Phuc on Nov. 19 to mark Vietnamese Teachers’ Day (Nov. 20) and World Teachers’ Day (Oct. 5).

Addressing the ceremony, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Vinh Hien emphasised teachers’ key role in forming children’s lives and socio-economic and knowledge development of nations.

The ministry has actively carried out many programmes to further improve teachers’ working conditions, Hien said.

To ensure sustainable educational development, the ministry has developed teaching staff and education managers in both quantity and quality, encouraged young people to become teachers and authorised teachers in implementing educational programmes, he added.

UNESCO chief representative in Hanoi Katherine Muller-Marin affirmed that the UN is assisting the ministry in building teacher training models to help increase teachers’ understanding about a number of issues in education.

UNESCO welcomes the Vietnamese Government’s commitment to improving overall conditions for teachers and is willing to cooperate with the ministry in enrolling teachers and improving teachers’ capability, she said.

Also at the ceremony, the ministry and UNESCO presented awards to the winners of the photo contest, “Teachers’ portraits in daily life and at work” launched from Oct. 28 to Nov. 15, 2010, nationwide.

The first prize was handed to Nguyen Van Thuong’s photo “The class in a border area” and the second prize to Phan Van Hien’s photo of a Cham ethnic class while the two third prizes went to photos by Ngo Van Tinh and Nguyen Van Thuong.

Environmentally-friendly bags come into use  
Vietnamese people are familiar with plastic bags and rarely use environmentally-friendly products in their household. According to the HCM City Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, the city’s people eliminate nearly 50 tonnes of plastic bags per day, of which 90 percent are dumped in the environment.

Scientists say it takes 20 - 1,000 years for a plastic bag to disintegrate and this becomes one indirect cause of cancer and neurological disease in the meantime.

Nguyen Khoa, deputy head of Chemical Technology Institute says there are tonnes of plastic bags discarded as rubbish in southern Vietnam which seriously pollutes the environment. The additive composing in the plastic is especially harmful to human health.

So far, 11 enterprises in HCM City have joined the “Month of environmentally-friendly bag use” by persuading their customers to minimize using plastic bags, presenting them with eco-friendly ones and granting coupon for customers using environmentally-friendly bags. 

The Maximark has used this kind of bag since January, 2009 in spite of its business costs increase of 18-22 percent. The Saigon Coop is also involved in the programme. Phuc Le Gia Limited Company has pledged to finance 4,000 disposable bags and 2,000 tonnes of paper for the campaign. 

Some people say they know plastic bag is poisonous, but it is difficult to buy and use an environmentally-friendly bag in the city. “Most supermarkets use plastic bags, and eco-friendly bags are very uncommon”, says a customer.

Vietnam currently has no standard for the environmentally-friendly bag, and businesses operating in this field must choose materials as well as the quality of their products. They also have to compete with the plastic bag in terms of price and counterfeits.  Supermarkets and shops lack certainty in choosing their providers of eco-friendly bags.

Business representatives said the country needs a nationwide campaign on using the environmentally-friendly bag. They said State agencies should keep the public fully aware of the need to use disposable bags.

Nguyen Sy Anh, vice director of Kim Nhat Packing Company Limited, says his company has decided to use the environmentally-friendly bags for the sake of environment protection.

The businesses hope the Directorate for Standards, Metrology and Quality will carefully consider a new tax level imposed on the sale of nylon bags in the market and confirm the properties of environmentally-friendly bags that need to be used instead before making a final decision in late November.

Deputy PM urges close supervision of flood discharge  
Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai on November 19 led a government working delegation to the central province of Quang Nam to direct the work of dealing with the recent flood.

In the province, Mr Hai extended his condolences to the families of flood victims and asked the local authorities to continue their search for the missing, prevent famine and landslides, and prepare seeds and animals for the next crop.

He underscored the need to closely manage the process of discharging floodwater from the province’s reservoirs.

Vice President of the Quang Nam People’s Committee Le Phuoc Thanh reported that the recent floods killed five people, wounded four and left three missing. They also submerged nearly 8,500 houses, offices, and schools.

The provincial people’s committee has asked for financial aid from government to build anti-landslide walls and embankments.

Japan aids Quang Binh’s disabled children
 
The Japanese Government will fund US$95,476 to a project on boarding-house construction for Dong Hoi disabled children home in the central province of Quang Binh .

The aid agreement was signed between Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Yasuaki Tanizaki and the director of Dong Hoi disabled children home Nguyen Xuan Trien in Hanoi on November 18.

Under the agreement, the money will be used to build a two-storey house with six rooms, helping to improve living conditions of the children living at the facility.

Dong Hoi’s disabled children home was established in 1990 aiming to shelter disabled children and give them general education and vocational training. More than 100 children are attending training courses at the home, but the facility can only provide accommodation for some of them due to limited housing space.

Singaporean volunteer schoolgirls to work in Dong Thap  
More than 30 teachers and school girls from Nanyang, Singapore have arrived in Cao Lanh district of Dong Thap province to join in volunteer activites for community from November 19-27.

They come from the ECO-VN Group and will join hands with young people in Phuong Thinh Commune to present gifts to disadvantaged households, plant trees and repair roads in the area.

They will also open English classes and provide 9 scholarships for excellent students.

PV