Schools asked to continue classes on traffic safety

Traffic education courses would continue to be held in all schools next years to help curb road accidents, a workshop was told yesterday, Aug 22.

Nearly 74 per cent of traffic accidents involve motorbikes driven by young people aged 15 to 19, an official from the Department of Traffic Safety said at the workshop on traffic-law education held in HCM City yesterday, Aug 22.

The most frequent violations by students included running a red light, exceeding the speed limit, and driving without a helmet.

Duong Van Ba, a representative from the Ministry of Education and Training, said that traffic education courses would continue to be held in all schools next years.

"Schools should continue to work with parents' boards and encourage them to enforce student awareness.

"Parents should not allow children under 18 years old to drive motorbikes."

To limit the use of motorbikes, schools have been encouraged to have more buses to pick up students, he said.

The workshop also heard several presentations on traffic-safety solutions.

The city's Department of Education and Training encouraged parents to sign a commitment in which they pledged to not allow their children under the age of 18 to drive a motorbike to school.

Schools were also asked to ban motorbikes driven by students and punish any violator of the ban.

St Paul Hospital to be upgraded

The Ha Noi Department of Health will recommence the upgrade and expansion of Saint Paul Hospital, one of the inner city's central hospitals, this month following one year of inactivity.

Director of the department Nguyen Khac Hien said that based on the aspirations of parishnoners, the city authority has decided to reduce the number of floors and minimise changes to the original architectural design of the hospital. Other additional construction works will also be maintained to suit the medical facility.

Areas to be maintained under the project include the hospital's main gate and fence, three treatment areas, courtyards and ventilation and information system. A four-storey building with a total floor space of 2,000 sq. metres will also be built to supply more treatment departments to patients, he said.

Hien added that the state of the hospital had seriously deteriorated after 101 years of operation, threatening the safety of both staff and patients.

Saint Paul Hospital is among the leading hospitals in the city, employing more than 900 staff. It receives about 300,000 patients annually and more than 100 babies are born there everyday.

Bird flu spreads across Quang Ngai

Bird flu has recently been spreading widely to many localities in central Quang Ngai province, with more than 27,000 birds culled.
On August 22, veterinarians and authorities in Tu Nghia district culled 2,000 ducks at a farm in Nghia Thang commune after blood samples show that the ducks tested positive for the H5N1 virus.

There have been nine outbreaks of bird flu in Tu Nghia and Nghia Hanh districts since early August. More than 27,600 birds have died or been killed, most of which had not been vaccinated. Unfavourable weather has also been a factor in the large scale spread of the disease.

Nguyen Van Thuan, Deputy Head of the provincial Veterinary Department, said it has been working with local authorities to implement strict measures to prevent the disease spreading further by banning trading and transporting poultry in affected localities.

Quang Ngai proposed that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and its Department of Animal Health provide two million more doses of vaccine and 20,000 litres of disinfectant to sterilize poultry pens and stamp out the disease.

Dien Bien determined to fight rabies

The People's Committee of the northern mountainous province of Dien Bien has requested local governments to take urgent measures to prevent rabies.

Since the beginning of the year, five people have died of rabies after being bitten by dogs.

The Dien Bien Preventive Medicine Centre said only 38 per cent of dogs and cats in the province were vaccinated against rabies. Many poor indigenous people could not afford vaccine costs of about VND20,000 (nearly $1) per dog.

UNFPA supports youth development strategy

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) signed-off on a new project in Hanoi on August 22 to support the national youth development strategy.

The US$1.04 million project will be implemented across the country from 2012 to 2016 with US$900,000 in non-refundable aid from UNFPA. It aims to address reproductive and sexual health care, HIV prevention and domestic violence.

The immediate beneficiaries are youth and teenagers, especially those most vulnerable such as migrants and orphans, as well as those living in disadvantaged and mountainous areas.  

According to a survey on population and housing in 2009, youth aged 10-30 account for 40 percent of Vietnam’s total population and play an increasingly important role in the country’s workforce capacity.

At the signing ceremony, MoHA Deputy Minister Tran Anh Tuan stressed that youth development is an important component to ensure national sustainable development.

The project will help deal with some important issues related to youth as well as encouraging them to participate in the policy making process, said Tuan.

The UNFPA chief representative in Vietnam, Mandeep K.O’Brien, said youth policies should be implemented at all levels to ensure rights for the disadvantaged.

To fulfill this work, UNFPA is committed to assisting scientific research on reproductive health care, introducing policies to improve government agencies’ capacity to deal with youth activities, and working with healthcare and labour agencies to meet youth needs.

Woman killed by falling tree branch

A 44-year-old woman died after being hit by a falling tree branch in a freak accident at the Dinh Tien Hoang-Vu Tung cross-roads, in Binh Thanh District on Tuesday.

Witnesses said Do Thi Tuyet Hanh, from the southern province of Dong Thap, was crossing the street when a dry 3m-long branch broke away from its tree and fell on her head from a height of about 10m.

The clothes retailer was immediately taken to hospital but died on the way.

UNICEF helps analyse children situation in locality

A UNICEF-assisted research on the situation of children in southern Ninh Thuan province will help set up a source of data aiding the supervision and monitor child rights implementation that Vietnam has committed to international community.

The results of the research, conducted in 2010 and 2011 as part of the framework of a national cooperation programme between UNICEF and the Vietnamese government for the period 2006-2011, was introduced to a conference in Ninh Thuan province on April 21.

Experts collected and analysed information on the situation of children in the context of current socio-economic development and defined factors affecting the awareness of children’s rights and the implementation of the rights in reality. They also gave suggestions for the overall improvement of children in the province.

Village keeps young people closer together

The Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union’s Central Committee, along with the Lao People’s Revolutionary Youth Union Central Committee on August 22 held a groundbreaking ceremony for the Laos-Vietnam Border Youth Friendship Village.

The village will be built on a 1,034 hectare site in Kham Cot district, in Laos ’ Bolikhamsay province, 400 km southeast of Vientiane.

It will cost VND187 billion, VND65 billion coming from Vietnam’s official development assistance, and VND117 billion  being provided by the Vietnam Rubber Group and the remainder sourced from the Lao government.

Once operational, the village will serve as a cultural and trade centre with various facilities including a cultural house, a kindergarten, a nursery school, a health centre and a stadium.

Apart from the residential area, which can accommodate up to 70-80 households, the village will also have a training centre to instruct between 350-400 young Lao people in agricultural and forestry technologies each year.

At the ceremony, the leaders of both youth unions said the project is just part of a range of activities to celebrate the 2012 Vietnam-Laos Solidarity and Friendship Year.

It aims to bring young local people together and form a new sustainable residential area, serving the country’s socio-economic development and national defense while promoting solidarity, friendship and comprehensive cooperation between both countries as well as both youth unions, they said.

VNN/VOV/VNS