Impoverished children in Vietnam need your help to overcome the effects of poverty, ill health, lack of schooling, unmet medical needs, and unsafe drinking water. Vietnam, a country of 86 million, is desperately poor. The per capita income in 2008 was $1,024, and 21 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line (US $1.25 per day). Children under age 5 have a mortality rate of 19 per 1000 live births (compared with 7.6 for the USA). Thousands of children live in orphanages. A number of charitable and relief organizations are at work in Vietnam, but still much remains to be done to alleviate suffering.

Areas needing attention are nutrition, basic health, fresh (safe) water, aid to handicapped, school tuition for children, and support of poor families. Problems associated with unsafe water are particularly serious. Fresh water in rivers and streams in Vietnam is often a source of cholera, dysentery, typhoid fever, and amoebiasis. Tragically, unsafe water is also beginning to cause cases of poliomyelitis, eliminated long ago in the United States. Safe fresh-water wells can be placed in operation for as little as $700 each.

Poor children in Vietnam also need charitable assistance if they expect to go to school, since families must pay tuition for them to attend. Charities at work in Vietnam believe that the children of today, particularly those who are orphans or who have been abandoned, need extra help to grow and to become productive members in Vietnamese society. Most charities devote 90 percent or more of contributions toward programs to directly aid children. Contributors to charities that benefit Vietnamese children often include American veterans of the Vietnam conflict and naturalized Vietnamese-Americans. Others include religious groups and individuals who wish to do something positive to alleviate the plight of orphans.

On Friday, March 5, U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission, Virginia Palmer hosted Women in Vietnam: Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities, a panel program discussing the lives and challenges of women in Vietnam today. In recognition of International Women’s Day, more than 80 participants joined in a lively discussion with Ms. Palmer and panelists, Madeline Felix, Fulbright English Teaching Assistant, Luu Hong Anh, Student, Hanoi and Raffles University, Le Hong Tam, Student, Foreign Trade University and Le Hong Diem, Student, Hanoi University. This event also kicked off a program series to be hosted by the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi in partnership with the U.S. consulate in HCMC to explore the issues that are impacting the lives of women in modern day Vietnam. As part of the yearlong series, events with students, academics, journalists, business and political leaders, men and women will be held on issues such as health, sexuality, leadership in business and politics, and domestic violence.

.Reference resource: Click Here.