HCM City (VNA) – A ceremony to mark the 63rd anniversary of the Day for Agent Orange (AO)/dioxin Victims (August 10) was held in Ho Chi Minh City on August 6.
Speaking at the event, held by the city's Association for Victims of AO/dioxin, Chairman of the association Major General Tran Ngoc Tho laid tress on the devastating impact of the catastrophic AO disaster that left hundreds of thousands of people dead, and many others struggling with fatal diseases and deformities.
He called on individuals and organisations to provide support for the victims, helping them overcome challenges and gradually integrate into the society.
Over the past time, the association, in collaboration with many organizations, have run various support programmes for AO victims, including presenting 7,600 gifts and providing medical examinations worth over 6 billion VND (238,700 USD) for 105 people.
On the occasion, a fund raising programme was launched to provide further support to AO victims.
On August 10, 1961, the US began spraying Agent Orange in Vietnam, in a campaign called “Operation Ranch Hand” to clear out the dense tracts of tropical jungles that served as the hideouts of the Vietnamese military forces.
Within ten years, it dumped about 80 million litres of herbicide on southern Vietnam, 61% of which was Agent Orange, containing about 366kg of dioxin, on of the most toxic chemicals known to man.
The chemical warfare conducted by the US destroyed more than 3 million hectares of forest, affected more than 22,000 villages with 4.8 million people directly exposed to toxic chemicals. Three million people have grappled with debilitating diseases including various types of cancers, neural damage and reproductive failures. Birth deformities and mental impairments continue to haunt even the third and fourth generations of descendants of those originally exposed to dioxin, nearly 50 years after the war ended./.
The Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang is home to more than 11,800 Agent Orange/dioxin victims, most of them live in poverty, according to the provincial association of AO/dioxin victims.
Chris Geyskens, a Belgian woman, has worked dedicatedly over the past decade in a bid to improve living conditions of Agent Orange (AO)/dioxin victims in Hoi An city in the central province of Quang Nam.
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Media must not only serve as a channel for information but also act as a vanguard in shaping public opinion, combating misinformation, upholding the Party’s ideological principles, and reinforcing unity between Vietnam and Laos.
In Vietnam, the voluntary blood donation movement was first launched on January 24, 1994. In 2008, the Prime Minister established the National Steering Committee for Voluntary Blood Donation.
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The court announced that Quyet had submitted a written request to be tried in absentia, citing serious health issues. According to an official statement from Hospital 19/8, the defendant is suffering from multiple illnesses, experiencing fatigue and shortness of breath, with doctors warning of a “very high risk of death.”
A senior Party official highlighted the VNA’s consistent role over the past eight decades, noting that it remains a mainstream, uninterrupted, timely, accurate, and authoritative source of news that helps shape public opinion, strengthen public trust, and safeguard the ideological foundation of the Party.
