Thanks to the special care and support of central ministries and branches, Da Nang has so far mobilised aid sources from many foreign non-governmental organisations to provide timely support for vulnerable groups, contributing to ensuring local social welfare.

Many foreign NGOs visited and gave gifts to children at the Da Nang Care Centre for Supporting Agent Orange Victims and Disadvantaged Children. Photo: T.P.

World Vision International, Children of Vietnam (COV) and the Assemblies of God in Australia World Relief (AOGWR) have been carrying out many humanitarian projects in the city. In particular, AOGWR has sponsored the Da Nang Association for the Protection of Poor and Disadvantaged Women and Children to provide free surgery for children with congenital heart disease.

According to Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Thuy Anh, foreign non-governmental work has always received close direction and leadership from the city leaders and the active advice from the Department of Foreign Affairs - the focal agency in mobilising and managing foreign non-governmental activities. This is one of the important factors that foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) highly appreciate and consider making Da Nang a priority location for long-term cooperation and funding.

Mrs. Nguyen Thuy Anh informed that, in the first half of 2024, the city received over VND 65.7 billion in aid from 26 NGO-funded projects, a rise of 5 projects compared to the same period in 2023.

Many projects have brought benefit to people in difficult circumstances and poor children in the city. Among them are the OneSky-funded Da Nang Preschool Care and Education Centre project for the 2022-2027 period, with a budget of US$1.7 million, and the US$400,000 project on enhancing access to education for disabled students based on the community in Central Viet Nam in the 2023-2025 period funded by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) through the Medipeace Organisation.

In the coming time, Da Nang will continue to appeal for more foreign NGOs to provide aid for a number of its priority spheres such as healthcare, education and training, vocational training and career guidance, and science and technology.

Vice President of the Da Nang Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (DAVA) Tra Thanh Lanh said that, between 2019 and 2024, DAVA welcomed and worked with more than 160 foreign organisations and nearly 1,200 foreign individuals from various countries to visit, learn about and support victims of AO in the city.

Thanks to funding from the Harris Freeman Foundation, DAVA has already put the Sauna, Detoxification and Rehabilitation Centre into operation in the city, aiming to improve health, and detoxify many types of toxins in the human body caused by the living environment or exposure to toxic chemicals.

To date, the centre has organised 63 sauna and detoxification sessions for more than 620 victims of AO, war invalids, sick soldiers, veterans, social policy beneficiaries and people in need in the city and other provinces and cities.

Since 2019, DAVA has received many US-sponsored projects totalling nearly VND3 billion, thereby making an important contribution to strengthening the friendship between the people of Da Nang and the US in recent years.

"Over the past 5 years, although DAVA has welcomed and worked with many foreign NGOs, it has always strictly followed the Party's foreign policy of "Viet Nam is a friend, a reliable partner and an active and responsible member of the international community". At the same time, through the working sessions, it has called on people around the world to say no to war, say no to toxic chemicals", Mr. Lanh shared.

Reporting by THANH PHUONG - Translating by M.DUNG