HANG KIA, Hoa Binh Province, Viet Nam – When Kha Y Khua gave birth to her first child 13 years ago, she broke with tradition and gave birth at the local health station. Her people, the H’Mong, live mostly in mountainous, hard-to-reach areas, and are known for their close family ties and strong cultural traditions and beliefs. In H’mong cosmology, a life-soul can be snatched by evil spirits and separated from its body. Because newborn babies are so small and new to life on earth, they are especially vulnerable.

The Vietnam National Institute of Ophthalmology (VNIO) has provided free eye checks-up and medicine to 150 patients, mostly women, in response to the World Sight Day (WSD) 2009’s theme of gender equality in eye care.

UN meeting seeks to accelerate progress towards development goals for 2015

HCM CITY — A proper nutrition regime, including breastfeeding immediately after birth, will maintain brain development during the first three years of life, according to local and international leading pediatric nutrition experts.

A financial agreement worth nearly 16.7 million euro to help Vietnam improve its heathcare services was signed in Hanoi on September 18 between the Minister of Health, Nguyen Quoc Trieu, and Willy Vandengerghe, a representative of the European Commission.