Hung Yen (VNA) – Minister ofPublic Security General To Lam called on donors to continue joining hands tobuild houses for the poor and Agent Orange/dioxin (AO) victims, during thelaunch of a programme to give housing support to poor households and AO victimsin the northern province of Hung Yen on March 13.

General Lam underlined the Party and State’sspecial attention to poverty reduction and the ensuring of social welfare.

He said that so far, his ministry has built more than 12,000 houses for the needy and boarding schools acrossthe country, adding he hopes Hung Yen province will work to spread the mutualsupport spirit in the local community.

Calling for contributions from organisations, individuals, businesses anddonors to the programme, Chairman of the Hung Yen People’sCommittee Tran Quoc Van pledged to deliver the assistance to the right recipientsin a transparent, effective, and timely manner.

He said that in the 2021-2025 period, theprovince aims to sponsor about 2,000 lonely poor people that are unable toescape poverty at a cost of about 5.2 trillion VND (220.52 million USD).

Currently, Hung Yen has more than 7,800 poor households and nearly 5,500 AOvictims, including nearly 1,000 households living in damaged and downgrading houses, said the provincial leader.

At the launching ceremony, the programme received 64 billion VND from eightagencies.

Also on March 13, the Department of MedicalExamination and Treatment Management under the Ministry of Health organised aconference to review a project to give healthcare and rehabilitation servicesto AO victims in the 2018-2022 period, which covers Hai Phong city and  10 provinces ofLao Cai, Thai Nguyen, Quang Ninh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, QuangNam, Binh Dinh, Dong Thap and Ben Tre.

To date, the project has completed all ofits basic targets, providing health supervision to 35,871 victims who are descendants of first-generation ones, while giving regular medical screenings tovictims and their offspring.

Particularly, in theAO hotspots in Phu Cat and Ngo May districts of Binh Dinh province, the projecthas provided health care examination and management services to 10,761 peopleliving there.

Deputy Minister ofHealth Tran Van Thuan asked relevant agencies and localities to multiplyeffective community-based models to provide healthcare and rehabilitation servicesto AO victims and people with disabilities, while combining the activitieswith other medical programmes in the localities./.