While meeting with the Vietnam Red Cross (VNRC) in Hanoi on April 23, Vice President of the International Services Department of ARC, David B. Meltzer, stated that the ARC wants to join hands with the VNRC in community-based healthcare programmes and supporting people in natural calamities-affected communities in particular.  

At the function, VNRC Chairman Nguyen Van Thuong spoke highly of the assistance that ARC has given to Vietnam over the past years.  

Since 2001, ARC has lent support to children in remote and mountainous areas of Vietnam through the “Education and Child Nutrition Project” (IFEN). It has also offered assistance to the poor disabled and Agent Orange (AO) victims through financing programmes on orthopaedic surgery, presenting wheelchairs, granting credits and providing vocational training, worth more than US $850,000 in total. 

ARC also offered aid worth US $46,000 to bird flu prevention projects of Vietnam and victims of natural disasters.  

The working session between ARC and VNRC is part of the former’s five-day working visit to Vietnam, starting on April 22. The visit is aimed at assessing the efficiency of the IFEN scheme and conducting survey in preparation for other cooperation projects. 

While in Vietnam, ARC will visit the Red Cross chapter in Hanoi’s Dong Da district and a HIV/AIDS consultancy ward in Dong Da hospital also in Hanoi, and hold a working session with branches of VNRC in central Da Nang city and Quang Ngai province. (VNA)