The Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO) will hold a number of activities to mark its 65th anniversary, according to Don Tuan Phong, VUFO Vice Chairman and General Secretary, while speaking in a news conference in Hanoi on October 29. Among the activities are a forum on peace, unity and friendship as well as a visit to the place where the Congress established Vietnam’s Committee for World Peace Protection – the predecessor of the VUFO – in Dinh Hoa, northern Thai Nguyen province. The organisation will also hold the 65th anniversary ceremony of its traditional day and cultural exchanges with international friends in Hanoi while honouring non-governmental organisations who have assisted Vietnam in poverty alleviation and social-economic development. The VUFO chose November 17, 1950, the day President Ho Chi Minh sent a letter to the Congress on the birth of VUFO, as its traditional day. According to Phong, from few member organisations in its early days, the VUFO has increased the number of its member organisations to 111 today. Over the past years, with its role as a social-political organisation focusing on people-to-people external relations, the VUFO has showed itself as an active, flexible, innovative and effective agency. It has contributed largely to the country’s reforms, nation-building and defence. The organisation has helped with the collaboration with foreign non-governmental organisations (NGO). As a result, the country has established cooperation with nearly 1,000 foreign NGOs of more than 30 countries and territories. Since 2000, NGOs have disbursed over 3 billion USD for thousands of projects to eliminate hunger and overcome war aftermaths, as well as those on public health, natural disaster prevention, environmental protection and capacity building for Vietnamese organisations at all levels.-VNA