UNICEF continues to support disadvantaged children in Ninh Thuan province, especially bilingual education development for ethnic minority children, clean water, nutrition, and maternal and child care. That is the assertion of Ms. Lotta Sylwander, Head Representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Vietnam, on the occasion of her working visit to Ninh Thuan province on Feb 13. Ms. Lotta Sylwander appreciated the achievements Ninh Thuan province has achieved. Ninh Thuan is the first province, which develops socio-economic network effectively, especially the attention and care for mothers and children. Although the world economy meets many difficulties, the support of UNICEF for countries in general and Vietnam’s provinces and cities in particular is not much compared to that before, but UNICEF has raised significant capital to continue to support Ninh Thuan province to implement social policies. UNICEF hopes Ninh Thuan will pay more attention to problems such as clean water supply, nutrition for children, especially education, bilingual education development for Cham and Raglai ethnic minorities in the province. Ms. Lotta Sylwander believed Ninh Thuan would succeed in a number of fields, especially fields relating to children in which the province has committed itself. Vice Chairman of the Ninh Thuan provincial People's Committee Vo Dai appreciated the support of UNICEF as well as recognized the contribution of Ms. Lotta Sylwander for Ninh Thuan. Mr. Vo Dai affirmed that for the fields of UNICEF concern, Ninh Thuan has built and approved projects to support localities, which have ethnic people in bilingual study programs of Cham – Vietnamese and English – Vietnamese. The province also has plans to implement bilingual education programs for Raglai ethnic people. So far, the province has 85% of the population using clean water. Schools have toilets and clean water, basically meeting study needs for students in the province. Ninh Thuan is one of eight provinces in the list of maternal-children project in the period of 2012-2016 of the country approved by the Prime Minister with a total budget of over $5 million, of which UNICEF and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) support over $4 million. (www.dangcongsan.vn [1] Feb 14)
