Vietnam, in support of Spain’s Agency for International DevelopmentCooperation and non-governmental organisations, has implemented a numberof poverty reduction projects and built healthcare service models forlocal victims of human trafficking and those at a high risk of theillegal trade.

President of the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU)Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa emphasised the support at a ceremony to mark 15years of the Vietnam-Spain partnership for development in Hanoi on March27.

The projects have helped improve the living standards oflocal people, especially women and children, as well as raise theposition of women in various fields, added Hoa.

She highlyvalued the Spanish Government’s all-round and strategic support over therecent past that suits Vietnam’s policies and priority, expressing herwish that Spain will continue to prioritise the expansion of the safehouse model that helps victims of human trafficking reconnect with theircommunity.

Visiting Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs andCooperation Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo reviewed the outcomes of the twocountries’ collaboration in generating more jobs and improving theincome of people living in rural areas in Vietnam.

Hestressed cooperation and development as an efficient and crucial way topromote the two sides’ strategic partnership, adding his country willcontinue its support for Vietnam in the coming time, focusing onperfecting relevant institutional and legal frameworks to ensure genderequality.

Deployed in 2007, the safe house project has helped260 victims of human trafficking back home and offered counselling toover 3,000 others. It has also provided those victims with medicalcheck-up, psychological therapy, legal support and vocational trainingto enable their successful reintegration into social life.-VNA