Sympathy abounded and a lot of money was raised for Agent Orange victims during activities held across the country on August 8 in response to the Day “For Vietnamese Agent Orange/dioxin victims”. The Hanoi Association of Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin (HAVA) and the Hanoi Radio & Television hosted a meeting called “Gratitude to comrades-in-arm” for AO victims, their families and international friends in the city.
Sen. Lieut. Gen Nguyen Van Rinh, President of the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin (VAVA), spoke highly of the spirit of surmounting difficulties by 35,000 AO victims in Hanoi and called on every individual, business and organisation in the city to continue lending their helping hands to those disadvantaged people.
The VAVA President affirmed that the Party, State and people are standing side by side with three million AO victims nationwide in the fight for justice.
More than 1 billion VND was raised in the meeting, of which 600 million VND came from war veteran-turned- businessman Nguyen Ngoc Khoi, Director General of the Hanoi KAT Trade Group.
The war veteran pledged another 2 billion VND to repair dilapidated houses of AO victims and donated 2,000 sq.m of land to the HAVA for building a rehabilitation centre for AO victims.
The same day, representatives of the Vietnam News Agency (VNA)’s Relief Fund for AO Victims and the HAVA visited and presented gifts to 10 AO victims in Hanoi’s outlying communes of Phuong Cach and Dai Thuong. The VNA also presented five wheelchairs and money to AO victims in Hanoi. In the central city of Danang, 38 passengers aboard the Peace Boat of Japan met and presented gifts to representatives of AO victims and disadvantaged children in the city. The guests, many of whom are offspring of victims of atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, expressed sympathy over pains that Vietnamese AO victims are suffering and condemned the use of massive destruction weapons which left devastating aftermaths on many generations. This was the eighth visit to the Danang Association of Victims of Agent Orange /dioxin by members of Japan’s Peace Boat, which is planned to sail through 19 countries during its 80-day trip. In the northern city of Haiphong, an artistic performance raised 2 billion VND from philanthropists and businesses and people of all walks of life for AO victims. On the occasion, the municipal authorities decided to set up a fund for its AO victims, who now number 17,000 with only 5,300 receiving the State’s monthly subsidies and the rest living in difficulties. The VAVA’s chapter in the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa presented 200 gifts, each worth 1 million VND, to families of AO victims. According to President of the provincial Association of Victims of AO/dioxin Tran Quang Tuyen, more than 10,000 people in Khanh Hoa have been exposed to AO/dioxin, of whom 800 are benefiting from the State welfare. (www.vietnamplus.vn [1] Aug 9)
