The Sri Lanka-Vietnam Friendship Foundation has launched a charity program to raise funds to provide medicines and wheelchairs for Vietnamese Agent Orange (AO)/dioxin victims. The event was a declaration of solidarity towards the Vietnamese people, the foundation’s Vice Chairman Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa said at the launching ceremony in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo. He called on Sri Lankan people’s efforts to help Vietnamese victims in daily lives as well as fight for justice for them. Ambassador Ton Sinh Thanh has thanked Sri Lanka for supporting Vietnam during its revolutionary struggles in the past as well as in its current process of socio-economic development and especially for the country’s AO victims who still need more support from the international community. AO victims are regarded as the most vulnerable among disadvantaged groups in Vietnam as they are direct, second or third-generation victims of the toxic chemical spreading. Vietnam reports an estimated 4.8 million people suffering from the impact of 80 million liters of defoliants including the highly toxic AO, which was sprayed on over 10% of total areas in the southern region by the U.S. troops from 1961 to 1971. (Vietnamplus.vn Sept 21)
