Director of USAID’s Environment and Social Development Office in Vietnam
Christopher Abrams speaks at the event (Photo: VNA)
The event was co-organised by the Standing Agency of the National Steering
Committee on the Settlement of Post-war Unexploded Ordnance and Toxic Chemical
Consequences (Office 701) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
At the seminar, Director of USAID’s Environment and Social Development Office in
Vietnam Christopher Abrams said the US over the time has teamed up with
Vietnamese competent agencies to carry out various projects on war consequence
settlement and support for AO/dioxin victims.
A project to support people with disabilities in seven localities follows the
success of the previous cooperation projects between the countries, he said.
Abrams noted that as USAID has many experience in projects on health care,
medical assistance and livelihoods for the disabled, the agency will help
Vietnam ensure the efficient implementation of the project.
For his part, head of Office 701 Than Thanh Cong said the project aims to
realise the memorandum of intent signed between the two agencies in April 2019.
Accordingly, USAID will grant 50 million USD to help Vietnam provide direct
care, improve rehabilitation services, and develop social services to better
serve people with disabilities in the central provinces of Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue,
Quang Nam and Binh Dinh, and southern Dong Nai, Binh Phuoc and Tay Ninh
provinces.
Vietnam is currently home to about 8 million people with disabilities,
accounting for 8 percent of the population. The figure stood at more than
163,000 in the seven localities of the project. Most of the victims are poor
people and facing difficulties in getting access to livelihoods and employment.
Source: VNA