HCM CITY — Harsher punishments should be meted out to those who exploit children, according to Le Thi Xuan Lang, deputy chief inspector of HCM City’s Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (DoLISA).

Collaboration Among Leading Public and Private Sector Organizations Formed to Bring International Attention to this Injustice

NAM DINH — The People’s Court of Nam Dinh Province has put 16 people on trial for allegedly selling 266 babies for foreign adoption.

Although there are only 10,000 Vietnamese people in Africa and most of them are now resident in Angola, they have made a great contribution to the development of their host countries in many different fields.

HA NOI — Lawmakers yesterday pored over the draft law for People with Disabilities with the aim of encouraging businesses and social organisations to improve relations with disabled persons.

Vietnam plans to spend VND 97.4 billion on a national action plan for children affected by HIV/AIDS from now until 2010 in a bid to ensure that most of them will have their needs met by 2020.

Sexual and reproductive health materials for the deaf contain nothing more than male and female physiologies and hygiene and puberty. More is needed as Ta Thu Giang reports.

More than 5,000 people in HCM City’s district 1 participated in a charity walk on September 20 to raise funds for poor children.

(CPV) - Young people are an important labour force of society, and have a big impact on the development of the country and the future of the nation. Therefore, it is alarming when the trend of people infected with HIV in Vietnam is becoming younger.

NAM DINH — The People’s Court of Nam Dinh Province has put 16 people on trial for allegedly selling 266 babies for foreign adoption.

Following previous note-worthy events two years ago, GE movie night 2009 particularly for underprivileged children took place in Hanoi on September 25 and in Ho Chi Minh City on September 26.

Ta Oi and Van Kieu ethnic minority children have new kindergarten rooms built by the sweat of US veterans in partnership with Boeing Company and the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation.

The former Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Dr. Yakin Ertürk, has brought her term as mandate holder to a close with a call to States to accept the challenges of accountability, implementation and compliance which would give full effect to measures prohibiting violence against women.

A young girl from Vietnam, 13-year-old Nguyen Dac Xuan Thao, from Nguyen Hue school in the central city of Da Nang, won the second prize at UPU’s 2009 international letter-writing competition for young people, for a “beautifully structured letter.”

A boy was killed and his father seriously injured Tuesday when a bomb exploded near them as they dug a pond in Ha Tinh Province.

Many factory workers forced to do extra work without extra pay - and unions often take no action.

A festival of communication for youth clubs examining population, family planning and HIV/AIDS combat organized by the Northern Adolescents Center under the Communist Youth Union Central Committee in Thanh Hoa province on August 29.

Female labourers are still not treated fairly by many companies in HCM City and Dong Nai Province, even though the State has created policies to protect them, women workers and their representatives told the National Assembly’s Committee for Social Issue last week.

Taking place on August 26-28 in Hanoi, WITFOR 2009 has been long awaited with opportunities to learn from management experiences and calling for cooperation, investment and support for information technology and communications in Vietnam.

The women’s union of the southern province of An Giang joined with two women’s unions from Cambodia to launch an educational campaign to combat trafficking in women and children on August 12.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 30 (IPS) - For the last 10 days, experts from the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) have been reviewing the status of women's rights in 11 countries.

More than a hundred children and young people from 21 provinces around the country took part in a two-day (August 5-6) sensitization workshop on the topic of climate change and children in Hanoi.

This was the theme of a seminar held in Hanoi on August 5 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Film star Hong Anh will begin a three-week acting course in the US on July 15 at the invitation of the John F. Kennedy Centre for Performing Acts.

Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Tran Nam has announced the number of poor families who will enjoy housing support based on the Prime Minister’s Decision 167/2008/QD-TTg. Accordingly, over 480,000 poor families will be given support for housing, with a total capital of over VND 7.7 trillion.

The pageant aims to honour women who are beautiful and successful and have much contributed to the society.

More than 150 representatives of women’s union chapters from 63 provinces and cities nationwide gathered at a seminar in central Hue city on July 26 to discuss solutions to prevent trafficking of women and children.

Ha Noi — Under the leadership of Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly, Tong Thi Phong, the NA Standing Committee yesterday discussed the draft Law on Health Examination and Treatment and the Law on the Elderly.

The first-ever pageant for married women in Vietnam will see the participation of several beauty queens of previous pageants for single women. However, their names will be announced after the preliminary round, August 15, said the organising board.

Twenty-six out of 85 countries have registered to send contestants to the 2009 Mrs World Pageant, which will be held in the southern coastal province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau in November, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

A program to give savings books to Vietnamese heroic mothers and wounded soldiers on the occasion of the 62nd anniversary of the Vietnamese Day for Wounded Soldiers and Martyrs (July 27) has received the support of 30 enterprises across the country, with a total capital of VND 1.585 billion VND.

A project to help increase knowledge of the law among poor women, with support from the UK’s CARE International organisation, proved to be useful, said a seminar held in Hoa Binh province on July 17.

A two-month campaign to tackle the trafficking of women and children starts next week.

Three Vietnamese models – Nguyen Hong Nhung, Nguyen Ngoc Oanh and Nguyen Phuong Mai – will represent Vietnam at the Asia Supermodel 2009 competition in China from July 17-25.

49,718 mothers have been awarded and posthumously awarded with the title ‘Heroic Mothers’ since 1995, according to the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs

Investing in women and girls during the global financial crisis will help set the stage for economic recovery and reduce inequality and poverty, according to Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. falls on Saturday, 11 July.

Women and girls were the majority

An old Thai woman in the central province of Nghe An has made important contributions to preserving the Thai ethnic group's ancient art of folk singing.

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.

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.