Chairman of the Vietnamese Red Cross Tran Ngoc Tang handed over 50,000 USD to a representative of the American Red Cross in Vietnam on May 30, to support tornado victims in the US ’s southern states.

The funds were raised from the Vietnamese Government and people and were expected to contribute to helping communities in the damaged areas overcome losses and rebuild. It also aimed to strengthen friendship relations between the two governments and people.

Six hundred tornadoes and storms in the US in April this year have killed 310 people in seven southern states. In Alabama , the hardest-hit state, 210 people were killed and another 1,700 injured.

In past years, the American Red Cross has always worked side-by-side with the Vietnamese Red Cross in supporting the organisation’s charitable activities, especially in a project on school hygiene and nutrition from 2005-2008, HIV/AIDS prevention projects in Hanoi, Hai Phong and Thai Nguyen, and a current project on disaster risk reduction and emergency relief in the central coastal provinces of Vietnam./.