As Vietnam celebrates Family Day today, a sociologist says deep-seated traditional values pushed women away from thriving both personally and professionally.

On June 24th, at the Hanoi citadel ancient relics, the Association for the Preservation of Thang Long Hanoi cultural heritage launched a social programme to build the memorial of Queen Le Ngoc Han.

With their parents’ conception “No food, no life but it's still OK to have no education”, many children in rural and remote areas are poorly educated or deprived of opportunities for vocational training.

Seeing Mai Tuyet Hoa dressed in a T-shirt and jeans and riding a motorbike, nobody would think that she is a famous singer of Xam songs in the capital of Vietnam. Actually she is well known not only for her beautiful singing and good musical instrument playing, but also for her beauty for which she has attracted many fans. Many people even said that Hoa is a "special bud" of the Vietnamese Xam performance, because in modern times there are few artists, especially young ones, who devote themselves to this special performing art.

With the aim of helping children affected by Agent Orange, project Peace for Kids was launched to raise funds for disabled children at the Thanh Xuan Peace Village in Ha Noi.

Jasmine Pham, an 18-year-old girl, who has a Vietnamese mother and a father from the Caucasus, on March 21 won 3rd place in the 2009 Miss World Canada beauty contest.

Carol Huynh, a Canadian free wrestler of Vietnamese origin, has been named as the most outstanding female athlete of British Columbia province in 2008.Huynh bagged the first gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic

With the support and permission of the Government, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Performing Arts Department, and the approval of Mrs. World Inc. the “Mrs. World Pageant 2009” will be organized in November 2009 in the beautiful Vung Tau city by the joint effort of Ba Ria - Vung Tau Provincial People's Committee, the Central Vietnam Women's Union and CIAT- Advertising & Trade Fair Join Stock Company.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs published on its website the National Report to Review Implementation of Human Rights in Viet Nam.

“Don’t Burn,” the movie based on the famous diary of Doctor Dang Thuy Tram, was introduced at a press conference in Hanoi on April 8. The movie will come out on April 30.

More than 2,500 Vietnamese victims of human trafficking were repatriated safely last year, according to the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA).

Take Back the Night is an internationally known march and rally that protest rape and other forms of violence against women. It is organized by different feminist groups. The first march was in March of 1976[1], by women attending the International Tribunal on Crimes against Women. Today, this event is organized in many cities, in many different countries worldwide.

Woman football is now developing all around the world. We also have World cup for woman football, and it soon becomes an interesting sport event. Although Vietnamese woman football has not really found its own position, our football players have brought us many exciting and interesting moments. With the bronze medal at 19 SEA Games, many people have known Kim Hong, Hien Luong and other female football players in Vietnam.

Promoting the advancement of women and gender equality has always been a fundamental policy of the Vietnamese Government which considers it as an important tool to ensure justice and sustainable development, said Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Le Luong Minh.

Vietnam plans to set up an overseas marriage brokerage to regulate a sector now run by illegal matchmakers accused of humiliating women and fueling abuse.

On the occasion of the coming Lunar New Year 2009, in January 21st 2009 afternoon, a delegation of representatives of Vietnam Women’s Union (Women’s Aids, Reproductive Health Center), American Doctors of the World (DOW) and Bright Future Group visited and delivered presents to 46 families having HIV infected children in the 3 districts of Gia Lam, Long Bien and Dong Anh of Hanoi.

In each stage of the revolutionary cause, the Vietnam Women's Union has always encouraged Vietnamese women to join campaigns on creative labour, building of happy families and contribution to socio-economic development.

Opera singer Thang Long has been invited to perform in W.A. Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’ at Norrlands Opera Theatre in Umea, Sweden.

Nguyen Ngoc Tu is Vietnam’s first youngest female writer who has been nominated to receive the ASEAN Literature Award 2008.

Representatives from 26 northern cities and provinces have attended a training workshop on the Laws on Gender Equality and Family Violence Prevention in northern Bac Giang province on Sept. 23 and 24.

Measures to enhance prevention of child accidental injury and implementation of policies for disadvantaged children were high on agenda of a two-day conference that concluded in central Da Nang city on September 18.

The Ministry of External Relations from the Democratic Popular Republic of Korea has announced the decision of suspending the activities for dismantlement of nuclear activities in the country.

On the evening of the last day of every month, Mong ethnic minorities in the Bac Yen District, Son La Province gather around their television sets to see something they’ve never seen before.

The Government on August 5 issued a decree banning transsexuality for people with perfect sex. This is applied to all organizations and individuals at home and abroad.

Vietnam strives to achieve the universalisation of junior high school education throughout the country by the end of the first decade of the 21st century.

In order to implement the second step of the plan titled “Strengthen and improve the quality of local Women’s Union activities and its members”, in the first six months of 2008, Đong Nai provincial Women’s Union organized a lot of activities to diversify the formality and contents contributing the active changes in motivating women to participate in the movement of building new lives

In the first 6 months of 2008, WUs of all levels in An Giang province had carried out many meaningful activities, below are some of those:

The Investigation Department of Social Order Crimes under the Ministry of Public Security on July 22 - 23 co-ordinated with Lang Son Province Police to organise a conference on an anti - child and women trafficking shock fight.

Doctors from the Vietnam-Cuba friendship hospital have coordinated with the US’s Operation Smile to provide surgery for 82 children with harelip and cleft palate from the northern provinces of Bac Giang, Nam Dinh and Tuyen Quang in the past two weeks.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) had adopted the UNSC Chair’s Statement prepared by Vietnam in addition to introducing orientations for new actions related to healthcare, education, and technical assistance to address long-term consequences of armed conflicts to children and speed up the implementation of related legal documents, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem said.