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.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem called for a long-term and comprehensive solution to children affected by armed conflict (CAAC) at an open debate of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in New York on July 17.

The report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says Vietnam, together with Myanmar, is the country that have made remarkable progress in implementing the UN Millennium Development Goals.

Over 5,400 Vietnamese heroic mothers are provided with care by agencies, organisations, enterprises and individuals.

Cam Giang spends time with a special club in Vinh Tuy Ward, where old folks infected with HIV get a new lease on life through vocational training and activities such as baloon folding.

Many conferences and workshops have been held and many extensive campaigns have been launched against human trafficking. However, the criminals are still at large. How can the country find an effective measure to stop this serious crime?

The face of an eight-year old girl in a pink dress brightens when she talks about her class and her games with friends. She also likes singing. Looking at her, no-one would imagine that this optimistic and happy girl, Nguyen Thi Xuan is living with HIV/AIDS.

In Vietnam,’ empathy clubs’ are helping to ease the stress felt by older carers of people living with HIV and AIDS.

Vietnam Military Telecommunication Corporation (Viettel) has committed in partnership with the Operation Smile Vietnam organisation to funding operations for about 100 - 120 children suffering harelips and cleft palates, who are living in the northern rural areas, in July, 2008.

As of late May 2008, about 181,600 ethnic minority households with nearly 767,000 people in the whole country still suffered hunger. This is announced at a conference held in Hannoi on July 1 on deploying the Government's Decree 60/2008/NÐ-CP.

Industry experts say education, intellect becoming just as important as looks at international beauty pageants – Vietnam should take note.

Vietnam wants to contribute to the full and effective implementation of UN resolutions, including those adopted by the Security Council, aimed at creating “A World Fit for Children”.

Ton Nu Thi Ninh, former Deputy Chairwoman of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Committee, who has been well known in Vietnam and the world as the wonderful diplomat, says that she wants to prove that Vietnamese people are not only industrious and skilful, but also very creative.

On March 8th, 1948 the first bulletins credited to a Vietnamese women’s newspaper were circulated in Viet Bac – the holy revolutionary base of Vietnam during the resistance against the French colonialists.

That Vietnam is selected to host the United Nations Day of Vesak and the fifth International Buddhist seminar is a pride of the whole nation, President of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front (VFF) Huynh Dam has said.

A senior government official reiterated Vietnam’s policy on freedom of religious beliefs, saying that Buddhism and other religions enjoy equality in development in Vietnam and they have markedly contributed to national development.

Vietnam’s security chief has called for Law on Drug Prevention and Combat revisions and supplements to be considered to provide a legal system able to deal with the realities of combating drugs.

A programme that has established rehabilitation centres, vocational training provision and job generation for former drug addicts in seven provinces and cities has recorded encouraging results after five years of implementation.

Northern mountainous Yen Bai province has got better TV programmes from central station thanks to a project funded by the Spanish government.

The Belgium-based Donxa organisation will finance surgeries for 32 poor disabled children in northern Vinh Phuc province, which is estimated to cost two million VND each.

Making national occupational security and hygiene ( OSH ) programmes for ASEAN countries was the theme of an international symposium opened in Hanoi on May 12 with the host Vietnam setting an example.

With an alarming number of homeless children in Viet Nam, one Vietnamese couple is trying to follow the commandment "love your neighbours as yourself", bringing disadvantaged children into their own home.

Left for dead and mauled by wild animals, little Phung Thien Nhan’s early days were filled with tragedy. But today the two-year-old is enjoying a positive twist to his unhappy fate - and the promise of a new start in life.

Sung A Cau’s one-year-old son was kidnapped by human traffickers in Mu Sang Ward in Lai Chau Province while his wife was visiting relatives.

With fewer women born and more of them marrying foreigners, a lot of men may be left feeling lonely.