Latest Foreign Assistance Briefs

- The Pacific Links Foundation, a non-governmental organization of the US, on Aug. 4 handed over scholarships to 376 female students in the three Mekong Delta provinces of An Giang, Dong Thap and Kien Giang. The scholarships are part of the An Giang-Dong Thap Alliance for the Prevention of Trafficking (ADAPT) program run by the US organization in the three provinces for a period of seven years. ADAPT seeks to prevent the trafficking of young girls and women by enhancing their educational attainment and improving their vocational choices. Since 2005, the organization has granted nearly 3,740 scholarships to 779 female students at junior and senior high schools in the three localities. (Vietnamplus.vn Aug 5)

- The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) Vietnam donated $148,500 to three SOS children’s villages and three other projects implemented by three non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Vietnam, in Ho Chi Minh City on July 31. The funding, which is part of HSBC’s global education program ‘Future First’, provides education and life skills for street children, orphans and children in care, as well as vocational training for disadvantaged teenagers. Since its inception in 2007, the program has raised approximately 693,000 USD in funding for 26 projects, benefiting almost 53,400 Vietnamese children. According to Sumit Dutta, the CEO of HSBC Vietnam, by cooperating with NGOs in Vietnam, HSBC can use its funding more effectively to bring long-term benefits to young people. (Vietnamplus.vn July 31)

- A group of voluntary doctors from the Good Samaritan Medical Ministry offered free medical checkups and treatments to more than 3,000 poor patients in six districts and towns of the northern mountainous province of Cao Bang from July 17-27. The doctors, mostly Vietnamese residents in the US, gave operations to 90 patients who suffered from digestion, eye, aesthetic, obstetric, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. The program, with a budget of more than 500,000 USD, bore all expenses for surgeries, bed and meals. The group also transferred medical technologies to local doctors and gave modern equipment used in the program to the province’s general hospital. Good Samaritan Medical Ministry is a non-profit, non-governmental organization which holds summer missions in Vietnam. (Vietnamplus.vn July 30)