The Ho Chi Minh Sponsor Association for Poor Patients offered free-of-charge medical treatment to more than 1.7 million poor patients in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in 2010. The information was released at a recent meeting in the city to review the association’s works last year, state media reported. The association helped provide eye surgeries for 18,000 patients, health insurance cards for 5,900 poor people and free meals for 1.7 million poor patients during the year. Also at the event, donors pledged to grant VND46.7 billion to a charitable program to help poor patients. Ho Chi Minh City targets to help around 20,000 poor households to escape poverty and cut its poverty rate by 0.3% this year from 5.7% last year, said the municipal Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs. (Sai Gon Giai Phong – Saigon Liberation Jan 18 p3)
