Various activities took place around the country on Jan 10 to mark the 10th founding anniversary of the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin. The association’s chapter in the central city of Danang inaugurated a centre which is expected to provide care, vocational training and rehabilitation for 80-100 AO victims and disabled children in the districts of Lien Chieu, Hai Chau and Thanh Khe. The establishment was built with a total investment of more than VND3.9 billion ($183,000) funded by the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam. Danang is home to more than 5,000 people exposed to AO/dioxin. The city currently operates three establishments providing accommodation for more than 150,000 children exposed to the chemical. The chapter in the central province of Thanh Hoa, where there are more than 24,000 victims, held a meeting with some of them along with outstanding medical workers on the same day. The chapter praised 70 AO/dioxin households for their efforts in overcoming difficulties in their life and presented them with gifts worth VND700,000 ($33.19) each. A similar meeting also took place in the southern province of Binh Duong, which is home to approximately 5,200 affected people. In the northern province of Phu Tho, nearly 2,000 gifts were presented to AO victims across the province by its Association of Victims of AO. Over eight years of operation, the association presented 404 wheelchairs to and helped build 275 houses for the victims apart from gifts. It received over $1.05 million from domestic and foreign donors. According to VAVA, U.S. forces sprayed 80 million liters of Agent Orange totaling almost 400 kg of dioxin on Vietnam’s southern battlefields during a 10-year period beginning on August 10, 1961. Preliminary statistics by Vietnamese scientists indicated about 3 million Vietnamese people were exposed to dioxin. The toxic chemical still has severe impacts on Vietnam’s filial generations today. (Vietnam News Jan 11)
