Heartbeat Vietnam saves 14 children

The VinaCapital Foundation and members of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (CanCham) November 17 visited four of 14 children who received lifesaving heart surgery with funds raised from CanCham’s annual charity golf tournament. 

The operations took place last week and the children are now recuperating in Ho Chi Minh City’s Tam Duc Hospital.

Visiting the children were Mr. Patrick Wolfe, CanCham’s executive director, and Mr. Cory Vo, CanCham secretary of the Board of Directors.

The CanCham Campaign for Heartbeat Vietnam is now in its second year and has raised over US$8,000 through the annual golf tournament and donations from the 200-strong CanCham membership base.

“We were thrilled to visit the children and see first-hand the results of our campaign with Heartbeat Vietnam,” Mr. Wolfe said.

Heartbeat Vietnam, a program of the VinaCapital Foundation (VCF), has provided almost 1,200 heart operations since 2006 for children across Vietnam, as well as helping to improve cardiac and pediatric care in Vietnam via a telemedicine training series, equipment donations, and support for province-level pediatric outreach centers.  Donations made to Heartbeat Vietnam are matched 100 percent by the VinaCapital Group. 

The VinaCapital Foundation (VCF) was founded in 2006 to help alleviate poverty and improve the status of the poor in Vietnam; improve medical institutions, capacity, and access to quality medical care for poor patients in Vietnam; and to support programs that will build business knowledge and business leadership across the country to increase opportunities for investment and sustain economic development in Vietnam. 

Hanoi to host ‘Vietnam – our fatherland’ music festival

A three-day music festival aimed at tightening the ties between Vietnamese people all over the world will be held from November 22-24 in Hanoi, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on November 17.

The “Vietnam que huong toi” music festival (Vietnam – our fatherland) will showcase top local artists, including composer Nguyen Thien Dao, conductor Le Phi Phi, and pianist Ton Nu Nguyet Minh along with other overseas Vietnamese artists.

The money raised from the festival will be distributed to the Children Sponsorship Fund and the Fund for Community Support of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese.

Vietnam needs more support from GAVI

Vietnamese Vice Minister of Health, Dr. Trinh Quan Huan on November 17 attended a meeting of the Management Board of the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunisation (GAVI). 

At the meeting, Dr. Huan, one of the 21-member Management Board, asked GAVI to continue supporting the Extended Immunisation Programme in Vietnam.

GAVI’s sponsorship for the programme in the 2002-2010 period has amounted to US$72 million so far, US$16 million of which was used to improve the Vietnamese medical staff’s capacity for upgrading the medical network at grassroots level, said Mr. Huan.

One of the problems facing the Extended Immunisation Programme in Vietnam as well as in other developing countries is the recurrence of some eliminated diseases such as poliomyelitis and measles.

In addition, the rate of vaccinated people, especially in remote areas, is not high due to the fact that some people died of sideeffects.

Despite the government’s efforts, Vietnam can now meet only 60 percent of the total cost needed for the programme, while many programmes sponsored by GAVI has expired.

The Vice Minister also asked GAVI to provide Vietnam with new vaccines against Hib, mumps, rubella, rota, as well as technical assistance to improve the effectiveness of the programme.

Foot-and-mouth disease continues to spread

Both bird flu and blue ear pig disease are almost under control nationwide, however, foot-and-mouth disease continues to spread and develop new strains in northern mountainous areas and the central and central highland region, said Hoang Van Nam, deputy head of the National Steering Committee for Bird Flu Prevention and Control on November 17.

In the last two weeks, many herds infected with foot-and-mouth disease have been newly discovered.

Eleven bulls contracted the disease in Ea Bia commune, Song Hinh district, southern Phu Yen province. Unsurprisingly only 32% of the local area had been vaccinated, therefore the disease was able to spread widely and quickly.

Ten buffalos in Bac Son commune, Quy Hop district, central Nghe An province are also now infected.

At present 14 provinces including Quang Nam, Dak Lak, Yen Bai, Ha Giang, Quang Ninh, Gia Lai, Hoa Binh, Lai Chau, Tuyen Quang, Ha Tinh, Lao Cai, Nghe An, Phu Tho and Phu Yen have not yet passed the 21-day period that is needed before the area can be declared free from foot-and-mouth disease.

WB to finance educational quality project

The Ministry of Education and Training is awaiting approval from the State President on a World Bank preferential loan of 85.4 million SDR (IMF’s monetary unit), roughly US$127 million, for a project to improve education quality.

The funding will support a State primary school reform programme to open classes for the same students all day every week-day in an effort to improve the academic records of primary school children and increase the rate of those finishing school, especially among disadvantaged children.

The WB loan has a term of 40 years, including a 10-year grace period, that offers interest rate of zero percent, service charge of 0.75 percent and commitment charges of at most 0.5 percent a year.

The agreement and legal documents related to the project have already been signed by the State Bank of Vietnam Governor Nguyen Van Giau and a WB representative.

Bac Giang patients received cataract surgery by Chinese doctors

Chinese doctors from Tongren hospital in Beijing have successfully operated on nearly 100 cataract patients in northern Bac Giang province from November 14-16.

They also provided medicines, materials and equipment while Alcon Company in Vietnam supplied surgery equipment.

The eye operations were sponsored by the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO), the Vietnam-China Friendship Association and the Chinese People’s Diplomacy Friendship Association to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries (January 18).

Speaking at the closing ceremony in Bac Giang on November 17, Deputy Head of VUFO Phung Ta Kho praised the traditional friendship between the two nations and the operations provided by the Chinese People’s Diplomacy Friendship Association. He expressed his gratitude to the doctors and hoped that the operations will continue in the following years to bring light to Vietnamese disadvantaged patients.

Four killed in Vietnam by war-era bomb: police
 
A makeshift sign reads 'Unexploded bombs, danger' in a field in central Vietnam
 
Four men were instantly killed when a bomb left over from the Vietnam War blew up as they were trying to open it to remove explosive material, police said Wednesday.

The dead were aged between 24 and 27 and were two pairs of brothers, said Nguyen Van Dieu, a police official in southern Tay Ninh province.

"They were killed on the spot. District police are investigating what sort of bomb it was. The accident area was a target of US attacks in the war," the official from Don Thuan commune told AFP of Tuesday's explosion.

Over 10,500 people have been killed in Vietnam's central provinces by bombs left over from the war, which ended in 1975, according to an earlier report by the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation and Vietnam's Ministry of Defense.

PV