Experts propose upgrading rehab centers in HCMC

Drug addicts at a rehabilitation center.

Many experts have suggested the HCMC government upgrade existing rehabilitation centers instead of building a new hospital to treat drug addicts to save money.

The proposal was made amidst controversies over a plan of the city to build a hospital for drug addict rehabilitation.

Nguyen Huu Tai, deputy head of the social vices control agency under the HCMC Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, said the city should establish social facilities to take care of drug addicts, especially homeless ones, besides the current centers to minimize vices caused by drug abuse.

Tai said as drug addicts are like patients, doctors need to apply appropriate ways to treat them.

Le Truong Giang, head of the HCMC HIV/AIDS Control Committee, said the city needs a center to provide initial detoxification treatment for drug addicts before sending them to concentrated rehab facilities rather than investing in a new hospital for drug addicts.

Meanwhile, Truong Huu Khanh, head of the infection-nerve ward at Children’s Hospital 1 in HCMC, said it is a must for the city to develop concentrated rehab centers with qualified staff and modern equipment to deal with the rising number of drug addicts.

Currently, many hospitals in the city are grappling with overloads and have to shelve their projects for new facilities due to financial constraints. Therefore, experts called for the authorities of HCMC to weigh whether to upgrade the current rehab centers or construct a new hospital for drug addicts.

The city now has many drug rehab centers covering a total of 800 hectares of land, including 365-hectare Phu Van Center and 174-hectare Duc Hanh. However, equipment at certain centers has been left unused or severely deteriorated.

Statistics of the city government indicated that there are more than 19,000 drug addicts under treatment and 8,000 of them live at a dozen of concentrated facilities in the city. Nhi Xuan Center can accommodate 1,500-2,000 drug addicts while the capacity of Binh Trieu is 400-500.

Red Cross plans gifts for Agent Orange victims

The Viet Nam Red Cross Society has launched a humanitarian campaign to help the poor and Agent Orange victims prepare for the coming traditional Tet (Lunar New Year) festival.

Speaking at the ceremony held to launch the "Tet for the poor and Agent Orange victims" campaign today, VNRC deputy chairwoman Tran Thi Hong An said that the annual campaign aims to provide 1 million gifts, worth at least $15 each, to poor and Agent Orange families in the country.

People can also support the campaign by texting TET to 1405 from December 22, 2014 to February 21, 2015. Each SMS costs VND10,000 (US$0.5).  

An said that by mid-December, the Red Cross Society in all provinces and cities had registered to donate 1.1 million gifts to the poor and Agent Orange victims nation-wide.

In its 16-year-long programme, the campaign has mobilised more than VND3,000 billion (nearly $143 million) to help nearly 14 million poor and Agent Orange families. In 2014, the campaign has mobilised nearly 1.7 million gifts, worth more than $30 million, donated by 25,500 organisations and 6,400 individuals to help the disadvantaged people in the country, according to VNRC.

Can Tho builds drainage systems

Can Tho City will spend VND8 trillion (US$380 million) to build flood prevention systems until 2020, according to Vo Thi Hong Anh, deputy chairwoman of the municipal People's Committee.

The Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta city will build drainage and irrigation systems to prevent flooding in the city's centre, and dredge 175 km of canals in outlying areas to improve drainage capacity from now to 2015.

The flooding situation in Can Tho has become serious since 2008 because of the impact of high tides, rains and floods caused by the rising level of the Mekong River in the rainy season, according to the Southern Irrigation Planning Institute.

Most districts in the city become flooded when there are high tides or heavy rains.

The central districts of Ninh Kieu and Binh Thuy are the hardest hit by flooding.

Many areas in the two districts are submerged 40-50 cm underwater for two to three hours when there are heavy rains or high tides.

The city has nearly 100 flood-prone spots, and of that number, Binh Thuy accounts for 63.

UN backs VN in gender-based violence prevention

The United Nations (UN) will support Viet Nam in dealing with all forms of gender-based violence against women and girls, including physical, emotional, sexual abuse and human trafficking, UN Population Fund (UNFPA) representative Arthur Erken said at a workshop yesterday in Ha Noi.

The UN recognised the Vietnamese Government's leadership and development partners' support in raising the social status of women and thus promoting gender equality, Erken said.

Over the past years, Viet Nam had worked hard to build a legal framework and implement intervention measures to protect victims of violence and punish violent behaviour, according to Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Doan Mau Diep.

However, gaps remained which required a wide-ranging programme on gender-based violence prevention and control as well as closer co-ordination among the parties involved, Diep said.

The project will be submitted to the Prime Minister for approval next year. Its outcomes are expected to help Viet Nam fulfill the commitments to the Millennium Development Goals and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), he added.

Participants called for raising public awareness about the issue and bolstering co-operation with international partners.

According to national statistics, 58 per cent of married women experience at least one form of domestic violence in their lifetime while 87 per cent do not seek assistance from authorities or public services.

Woman dies in laundry accident

A woman died in a laundry accident yesterday in Bac Ha ward, Ha Tinh city in the central province of Ha Tinh.

Le Thi Phuong, 29, an employee at Phuong Ha Laundry, was using a pulley to take clothes to the fourth floor when her body was stuck between the pulley and the house's wall.

The cause of the accident remains under investigation.

Woman seized for meth trafficking

A woman was caught at Mong Cai International Border Post in the northern province of Quang Ninh yesterday transporting nearly 4kg of crystal methamphetamine.

Nguyen Thi Ha, 32, was transporting the crystal meth from China to Viet Nam in 18 nylon bags.

Ha admitted to the border guards that it was the third time she was hired by a Chinese man to transport crystal meth. Each time she was paid VND20 million (US$950).

The provincial police are investigating the case.

Three die, three injured in house fire

Three people died and three others were seriously injured in a fire on Sunday night in the northern province of Bac Ninh's Thuan Thanh district's Dai Dong Thanh commune.

The fire started in a two-storey house used to make and sell votive papers. Owner Nguyen Van Ve, 52, his wife Vuong Thi Chinh and their three-year-old grandchild died, as they could not find any exit.

Ve's two children and another grandchild escaped but suffered serious injuries. They were brought to Ha Noi's Viet Nam-Germany Hospital and Bac Ninh Hospital.

Fire engines reached the scene in time but had difficulty accessing the house because it is in a small alley.

Australian woman held for attempting to smuggle heroin

An Australian national was recently caught smuggling nearly 3kg of heroin at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCM City, while clearing the immigration procedures for a flight to Sydney.

According to airport customs officials, H T N, 71, had disguised the heroin, valued at about VND10 billion (US$470,000), as cakes of soap and hidden them in her luggage.

Further investigation was launched by the HCM City Customs, in conjunction with the police department for drug-related crimes investigation (C47B) at the ministry of public security and the HCM City Police's office for drug-related crimes investigation.

Since the beginning of this month, customs officials at the airport and other forces have discovered three cases of smuggling, involving 6kg of heroin, by passengers leaving the country.

The HCM City People's Committee has instructed authorities in six districts to separate solid waste at source into organic and inorganic for recycling.

Last year the programme was piloted in two residential areas in District 1's Ben Nghe Ward. Nearly 90 households had been given two rubbish bins, one with a green bag to dump organic waste and the other with a grey one for inorganic stuff.

The waste was collected and transported to treatment plants in two different garbage trucks.

Most participating households did as they had been asked, according to the District 1 Natural Resources and Environment Office.

The programme was set to be taken to Districts 1, 3, 5, 6, and Binh Thanh from mid-December, Nguyen Huu Tin, deputy chairman of the People's Committee, said.

Households in these districts will be provided with dustbins and instructions on solid waste separation.

Tin instructed the people's committees of the six districts to allocate funds for providing the dustbins and equipping garbage trucks to collect the separated waste for treatment.

Yen Bai removes 10,000 pieces of UXOs

Nearly 10,000 pieces of unexploded ordnances (UXOs) have been found and destroyed during a three-month campaign in the northern mountainous province of Yen Bai.

The provincial Military Command has deployed nearly 100 officers and soldiers to p erform bomb and mine clearance on a 750 m2 site at Dong Cum village, Vinh Kien commune, Yen Binh district. M ore than 154 tonnes of UXOs were removed from the site and destroyed safely.

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Dinh Tao from the Provincial Military Command said that they have undertaken maximum efforts to ensure the efficiency and the absolute safety for both the involved staff and local residents during the process.

Preliminary statistics show that UXOs have claimed more than 42,000 lives and left about 62,000 injured, mostly rural people and children, in Vietnam over the last four decades.

Each year on average, more than 1,500 people die and nearly 2,300 people get injured, including many children, due to UXO-related causes.

The US army used more than 15 million tonnes of bombs and mines in the war in Vietnam, four times the amount used in World War 2. As a result, Vietnam has been listed among the countries most contaminated with UXOs.

According to the National Steering Committee for Programme 504, about 800,000 tonnes of UXOs are scattering across 6.6 million hectares, or 20.12 percent of the country’s land, mainly in the central region, putting people in danger every day.

The Technology Centre for Bomb and Mine Disposal under the Engineering Command reported that more than 88 percent of the communes in the country’s 63 provinces are polluted with UXO (7,645 out of 8,686).

RoK to help Vietnam recover from wartime bombs

Vietnam wants the Republic of Korea (RoK) to assist in easing the post-war aftermath of bombs and mines, Deputy Defence Minister Sen. Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh told chief representative of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) Chang Jae-jun in Hanoi on December 15.

Vinh said he is pleased with the progress of Vietnam–RoK cooperation, especially in defence.

The guest assured Vinh that the RoK leaders are always willing to help Vietnam deal with the after-effects of bombs and mines left from the wartime.

For a start, the RoK will hold a fact-finding trip to Vietnamese localities contaminated with unexploded ordnance, then devise a policy to offer official development assistance to Vietnam, Chang said.

Social work with sustainable development discussed

A workshop on social work with sustainable development was jointly held by Plan International in Vietnam and the Vocational Training and Social Activities Association in Hanoi on December 15-16.

Addressing the event, Nguyen Thi Hang, Chairwoman of the Chairperson of the Vocational Training and Social Activities Association, highlighted the Party and State’s special attention to social work by issuing numerous legal documents in social security, such as the Labour Code, the laws on social insurance, education, protection and care of children, people with disabilities and HIV/AIDS fight.

According to a report from Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Vietnam’s social work is facing numerous challenges with a large number of people in need of social support. There are over 9 million elders, 6.7 million people with disabilities, 2.7 million social assistance beneficiaries, and 1.5 million children in difficult circumstances.

Hang, who is also former Minister of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, said she believes that the workshop will serve as a forum for local and foreign delegates to share experience in the role of social work for sustainable development, human resources and training.

Luu Quang Dai, acting programme director of Plan International, described social work as an occupation and a science, requiring the competent and professional human resources.

Dai said social work covers researches on policy development, community development and direct intervention targeting people affected by poverty, diseases and others.

During the two-day workshop, participants focus their discussions on topics relating to general issues on social work, human resources and training, and social work practice.

Snow to fall in Sa Pa as cold front moves into northern Vietnam

Northern Vietnam is suffering from bitter cold weather and snow will likely fall in Sa Pa town in Lao Cai Province in a few days when the temperature drops to 0 degree Celsius, or possibly even lower.

Currently a cold snap is entering the northern region, prolonging and strengthening the current biting weather there, the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said Monday.

From this afternoon or evening, the cold front will cover the region and then move south to affect central Vietnam, the center said.

As a result, low temperatures in the northern region will drop to 9-12 degrees, and even to 6-8 degrees in mountainous areas.

Particularly, Sa Pa District in Lao Cai province will suffer the coldest weather, at only 0-3 degrees.

The district along with other high-altitude areas may see snow falling in a few days to come, when the temperatures fall to 0 degree or lower, the center said.

In late December 2013, it snowed in Sa Pa for several days when temperatures dropped to 0 degrees.

Today, December 15, the high and low temperatures in Sa Pa are forecast to be 13 degrees and four degrees, which will drop to 4 degrees and minus 2 degrees on Tuesday, and to 4 degrees and minus 3 degrees on Wednesday, respectively.

Starting Thursday the chill in Sa Pa will begin to weaken.

Temperatures in Hanoi are ranging between 16 and 23 degrees, which will fall to 8 to 19 degrees on Tuesday.

From today, central provinces will experience rainy, cold weather, with the lowest temperatures in Thua Thien-Hue province falling to 15-17 degrees and those in Nghe An dropping to 13-14 degrees.

Due to the cold air, from early Tuesday morning north-central provinces will have scattered rain, while the coastal central and south central areas will experience medium to heavy rains, together with thunderstorms.

From this evening, the Gulf of Tonkin will experience rough seas and winds of 39-61 kph and gusts of up to 88 kph.

The north area of the East Sea, including Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago, will have the same strong winds and rough seas.

Partly affected by the cold snap, southern Vietnam will from today experience cooler weather at nights and early in the morning during the week, with low temperatures of 20-22 degrees in southeastern and southern western areas and 22-24 degrees in Ho Chi Minh City.

Education Department asks to apply Denmark painting teaching method

The Department of Education and Training in Ho Chi Minh City sent a document to primary schools in the city, asking teachers to apply Denmark’s methodologies in teaching of painting.

The application will start in the second semester of the academic year 2014-2015. According to the guideline, teachers must follow open-ended and student-centered methodology.

In addition, teachers should pay attention to mathematical, musical, language ability and physical growth in teaching procedures, offering students practical exercises which they can apply into their lives.

Teachers accordingly are encouraged to use all available learning equipment in schools as teaching materials and ask students to collect recycled materials for art creation.

People in the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh have donated over 40,000 sq. m of land for the construction of roads, irrigation canals and schools in response to the national new rural area construction programme.

The land donation, worth over 21 billion VND (982,000 USD), has made it easier for the improvement of infrastructural facilities in the province as required by the programme, According to Huynh Kim Ngan, Deputy Head of the Rural Development branch under the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

In 2014, the province had 670km of inter-communal roads asphalted, 538km of inter-hamlet concreted and 337km of alleyway and 553km of irrigation canals constructed with a total investment of 536 billion VND (25 million USD).

As a result, two communes have been recognised as “new” rural areas and 12 more expect to be granted the title by the end of 2014.

The national new rural area construction programme, launched in 2010, defines 19 criteria for standard new-style rural areas, including measures to build infrastructure, improve production capacity, build public facile.ties, protect the landscape and environment, and promote local traditions and cultural identities.

National grid comes to two island communes in Quang Ninh

The two island communes of Quan Lan and Minh Chau in northern Quang Ninh province officially accessed the national power grid on December 15.

This is part of the project to bring electricity to five communes including Ban Sen, Quan Lan, Minh Chau, Ngoc Vung and Thang Loi in Van Don district with a total investment of 305 billion VND (14.5 million USD) funded by the provincial People’s Committee, the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) and the Northern Power Corporation (EVN NPC).

In early December, Ban Sen commune had access to the national power grid. Ngoc Vung and Thang Loi communes are scheduled to benefit from the project by the end of this month.

The five communes have 2,568 households.

Earlier, a similar project was carried out to bring electricity to Co To island district.

Thua Thien-Hue finishes river dyke construction

Over 6,550 metres of river embankment in Phong Dien district, central Thua Thien-Hue province, has been accomplished at a total cost of 49 billion VND (2.3 million USD) from the flood remediation fund, said Nguyen Dai Vui, Chairman of the district People’s Committee.

Started in 2009, the 6m-high dyke system will help protect 1,500 households living along the O Lau river and 560 ha of farmland, the transport systems and infrastructure facilities from erosion.

The project also ensures safety for the Phuoc Tich ancient village relic site.

The dyke system runs through Phong Thu, Phong Binh, and Phong Hoa communes and Phong Dien town.

Vaccination campaign covers over 12 million children

More than 12.36 million children across Vietnam have safely received free measles-rubella shots as a national free vaccination campaign is in its second phase, said the Health Ministry’s Department of Preventive Medicine.

The second phase is running between November and December this year while the third one will take place in January and February 2015.

Earlier, the first phase was held in September and October with more than 9.5 million children vaccinated against the diseases, according to preliminary reports from the localities in late November.

The free vaccination campaign targets about 23 million children between 1 and 14 years old throughout Vietnam with an aim to increase the vaccination rate for children of this age group to 95 percent.

It was prompted by a measles epidemic that erupted in Vietnam in the first quarter of 2014, with outbreaks reported in 61 out of the 63 cities and provinces nationwide.

To date, 50 out of the 63 localities have reported to have the vaccination rate of more than 95 percent.

Mekong region spanning Vietnam, Cambodia among 50 best places for 2015 travel

U.S. travel magazine Travel + Leisure suggests people travel to Vietnam and Cambodia by river and spend three to 15 days trying riverboat tours in the Mekong River region – one of the best places for tourism next year.

The Mekong River region ranked eleventh out of the 50 best places to travel in 2015 and was seen pulsing with new life thanks to a slew of riverboat launches, Travel + Leisure said on its website.

The site recommended several river tours in which travelers can discover the wild, peaceful landscape of the Mekong River and learn about the residents’ living style while visiting Vietnam and Cambodia by boat.

Two riverboat tours are now available on the 124-passenger cruise ship AmaDara and the 18-stateroom vessel Avalon Siem Reap. Both services offer a 15-night trip connecting Vietnam and Cambodia.

Travelers who have less time might select a shorter Mekong riverboat trip with three-, four-, and seven-night itineraries between Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Other locations selected by Travel + Leisure as the best places to travel in 2015 include Bali Island and Jakarta (Indonesia), Hokkaido Prefecture (Japan), Chengdu City (China), and Singapore.

The Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in Southeast Asia. It is the world's 12th-longest river and the 7th-longest in Asia.

From the Tibetan Plateau the river runs through Yunnan Province (China), Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

The extreme seasonal variations in flow and the presence of rapids and waterfalls in the Mekong River have made navigation difficult.

It is also one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world and is home to many species of very large fish.

Weekend flea markets in city

Some people often gather together to open a flea market in HCMC on the weekend. Even though it is called market, a lot of folks consider it an interesting place for chatting and finding new friends while profits from sales are not really important.

A woman identified as Thanh Nga, who lives in HCMC’s Tan Binh District, says she usually goes to a weekend flea market on Huynh Van Banh Street in Phu Nhuan District. At first, Nga decided to pay a visit out of her curiosity. The flea market actually sells a lot of daily necessities, mostly foods, fruits and vegetables. Therefore, it has become one of her favorite places during the weekend.

Similar to Nga, Thanh Thuy, a resident in District 12, says when hanging out for a coffee with her friends, she sometimes sees people set up a flea market right at the coffee shop. There are 10-15 booths at the flea market offering clothing and food and she often buys these products for her family.

Such weekend flea markets have recently emerged in the city, which originate from separate online shops of members belonging to a group or a forum. One member arranges a particular venue which could be a coffee shop or any member’s private house and time to gather together at the weekend.

Product quality will be ensured by the owners’ credibility. In other words, there is a mutual trust between buyers and sellers without any business license or certificate.

Huynh Nhung in Binh Chanh District says after giving birth to a baby, she had an idea of selling home-made foodstuffs on her Facebook page and then decided to join a flea market. Nhung is able to earn VND1-1.5 million per session. Despite modest returns, she can introduce various items to the customers who will then recount her business to other people.

Thai Hang in Binh Tan Province shares her thought about joining flea markets which are seen as playgrounds for women, especially those having children. They come to share experience in daily lives such as how to pick the freshest fruits and vegetables or how to grow and educate their children.

“The flea market is a chance for us to sell products to one another while chatting and telling stories about everything. We do not actually take revenue seriously. This is the place for fun and relaxation over the weekend,” Nhung says.

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