Vietnam Women's Union

Speaking at a national conference on dioxin-related disabilities in Hanoi on December 18, Ton Nu Thi Ninh, Head of the Vietnamese delegation to the Vietnam-US Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin, said humanitarian aid and effective measures to address the consequences of dioxin were important and strenuous task for many countries.

She said that the group was drafting a project to strengthen the accessibility and the quality of services for AO/dioxin victims and their families through systems of health care, rehabilitation, education, vocational training and job generation.

The project will be implemented on a trial basis in southern Dong Nai province which is home to over 13,000 AO/dioxin victims. It will then be expanded to northern Quang Ninh and Thai Binh provinces and the central city of Da Nang.

To reduce the harmful effects of Agent Orange/Dioxin, Vietnam needs to pay more attention to creating a safe and clean environment by preventing the toxic chemicals from spreading to surrounding areas, said Charles Bailey, Director of Ford Foundation’s Special Initiative on Agent Orange/Dioxin.

He also pledged to give continued support to Vietnamese AO/dioxin victims and said his fund would provide US $7.5 million for related projects in Vietnam in the next two years.

Between 1961 and 1971, around 80 million litres of toxic chemicals were sprayed over central and southern regions of Vietnam by the US troops, bringing harmful effects to the environment and the health of millions of Vietnamese people.

As many as 4.8 million Vietnamese people were estimated to have been exposed to dioxin with over 3 million of them eventually becoming AO/dioxin victims.

The conference, jointly held by the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations and the Vietnam-US Dialogue Group, aimed to create an opportunity for organisations for the disabled, especially those relating to dioxin, to share experiences in developing policies and programmes in support of AO victims.