More than 5,000 people participate in a fundraising walk for Agent Organge (AO)/Dioxin victims and impoverished people with disabilities in Ho Chi Minh City on August 10. (Photo: VNA)HCM City (VNA) – More than 5,000 volunteers of the Vietnam Red Cross Society(VNRC) as well as local residents participated in a fundraising walk for AgentOrgange (AO)/Dioxin victims and impoverished people with disabilities in Ho ChiMinh City on August 10.
The walk formedpart of a month-long campaign launched by the VNRC in support of AO victims andthe disabled that began on August 5. The event has been annually held for 13consecutive years, conveying the message “Do Not Forget Them,” to raise fundsfor better care of these people.
Speaking atthe event, chairman of the HCM City Red Cross Society Tran Truong Son said thecity is currently home to close to 4,700 veterans directly exposed to AgentOrange during the war and 688children of these victims alongside more than 56,600 people with disabilities.
In recentyears, the HCM City Red Cross has provided various support for these people interms of healthcare, education, legal assistance, soft loan provision, house repair, scholarshipand more to help them have a better life, Son said.
Many AOvictims and disabled people still struggle to make ends meet every day so they needsharing and support from the society, he added.
Last year theHCM City Red Cross has spent more than 1 billion VND (44,000 USD) on presentinggift packages, wheel chairs and breeding cows and helping repair houses forover 2,000 AO victims.
On the sameday, about 400 AO victims received free medical checkups and medicines inThuong Kiem commune, Kim Son district, the northern province of Ninh Binhduring a charity event to mark the Day for AO/Dioxin Victims (August 10) andthe 58th year of the Agent Orange Disaster (August 10, 1961).
The event wasjoined by 40 doctors and nurses from the Hanoi-based Vietnam – GermanyHospital. – VNA
VNA
