Vietnamese in South Africa help African countries fight COVID-19

Waiting for COVID-19 testing in South Africa (Photo: AFP)

Pretoria (VNA) – The Vietnamese Embassy in South Africa held a ceremony on July 29 to present 50,000 medical masks to representatives from the Embassy of the Kingdom of Eswatini in the country to help its residents fight COVID-19 pandemic.

The activity was part of a programme to hand over 1 million masks donated by the Vietnamese community and representative agencies in South Africa in support of the host residents and several adjacent countries in southern Africa in particular.

Chargé d'Affaires of Eswatini in South Africa Vulindlela S. Kunene thanked the Vietnamese Government and people for the gift amid the wide spread of the pandemic. He added that his country with over 1.1 million people has recorded nearly 23,800 COVID-19 cases.

Vietnamese Ambassador to South Africa Hoang Van Loi said masks will be also offered to several schools, localities and communities in South Africa. He also contacted representatives from other nations to share gifts to them.

According to him, the Vietnamese embassy raised donations from the Vietnamese community and representative agencies to support the national COVID-19 prevention and control fund at home.

Both sides also discussed cooperation opportunities between Vietnam and Eswatini.

Also as a part of the programme to hand over masks to schools in South Africa, the Vietnamese embassy on the same day held a ceremony to present 30,000 masks to Waterkloof primary school and 25,000 masks to Pro Arte Alphen Park high school, where many children of the Vietnamese community are studying./.