On Monday, Da Nang People’s Committee Vice Chairman cum Head of the city’s Department of Publicity and Training, Mr Dang Viet Dung, played host to a group from the East Meets West Foundation (EMWF), led by its Interim CEO, Ms Melinda Griffith.

Vice Chairman Dung (centre) presenting a momento to the visiting group

Vice Chairman Dung highly praised EMWF for its active support of Da Nang over recent years.  He affirmed that the city authorities, in the near future, will focus on implementing many social welfare programmes, including helping poor children, upgrading rural areas, and improving educational quality, especially tertiary education.

He hoped that the bilateral relationship with EMWF would be further deepened in future years, and that the organisation would continue assisting Da Nang in deploying programmes in such local aspects as education, healthcare, community development, disaster mitigation, and poverty reduction.

In reply, Ms Griffith thanked the city authorities for creating favourable conditions for her organisation to effectively deploy its projects in the fields of education, healthcare, clean water, and environmental sanitation in the city over recent years. 

She vowed that EMWF would continue making more efforts towards Da Nang’s progress, and that of Viet Nam as a whole, in the years ahead.

EMWF is a USA-based, non-governmental organisation which has pioneered evidence-based programmes and technologies in health, water and sanitation, and education for underserved populations in Asia and Africa.  Since 1989, EMWF has implemented many important charitable projects in Da Nang. 

Most notably, it has granted financial aid to the city to construct new hospitals and purchase medical equipment for them, as well as to build new houses for 400 local displaced families affected by urban development projects in Son Tra District.

Currently, EMWF is carrying out meaningful programmes in the city.  Amongst them are the granting of long-term scholarships for local poor pupils and students through SPELL (Scholarship Programme to Enhance Literacy and Learning), and the provision of financial aid for a municipal centre for bringing up and educating poor children.