The chairwoman of Austria’s Federal Council Sissy Roth Halvax arrived in Ha Noi today on a six-day working visit to Viet Nam from May 22 to 27.

Hearing two word “Vietnam”, Lil Green’s face becomes radiant as she smiles. She seems to return to the events and memories of more than 40 years ago.

Over the past years, the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU) has had several programs on health care, supporting children in mountainous and remote areas with stationery and learning materials and granted thousands of scholarships to difficult pupils who are talented at learning. For example:

On the afternoon of 18 April 2006, a meeting was held in the VWU head office for the female delegates to the 10th National Party Congress.

On the afternoon of 18 April 2006, a meeting was held in the VWU head office for the female delegates to the 10th National Party Congress.

Being a mother but never giving birth, orphaned but still having mother. This is happiness and reality to hundreds of children and mothers in Danang SOS Children Village.

After the class, Nguyen Thi Ha, the eighth grader from Nghi Thiet Junior Secondary School, Nghi Loc district, Nghe An province, returns to her little house in the middle of rice field in Bac Thinh village. The house, without hands of a man but is very tidy and clean.

The "Midwife in the Village" programme implemented by Tu Du Hospital has become popular and helped to improve reproductive heath care for women in remote areas in Central Highlands.

Vietnam has seen much progress in terms of gender equality compared with other countries in the region, said Klaus Rohland, World Bank Country Director in Vietnam, at a mid-term conference to review the implementation of the National Strategy for Vietnamese Women's Advancement in Hanoi on May 12.

Accounting for more than half of the 600,000 sightless people, blind women face many difficulties and challenges.