VAVA: Thoroughly mobilising international support for the victims

Senior Lieutenant Nguyen Van Rinh

President of VAVA

Senior Lieutenant Nguyen Van Rinh President of VAVA

On 16^th January 2019, the PCC’s Commission for External Relations conducted the Review Conference on people’s diplomacy in 2018. Comrade Pham Binh Minh, Member of the Politburo, Deputy Prime Minister cum Minister of Foreign Affairs attended the conference and delivered a speech.

At the conference VAVA was awarded with a Merit Certificate of the Commission for External Relations for its outstanding achievements in people diplomacy. This is the third year in a row VAVA receives such award. In particular, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Rinh, President of VAVA, was presented a medal titled “For the cause of people diplomacy”.

At the conference, Sr. Lt. Gen. Nguyen Van Rinh delivered a speech on international mobilisation for Vietnam’s Agent Orange victims. In this March issue, the Vietnam Agent Orange Magazine would like to introduce his speech in full.

For the past years, amid the difficulties in the mobilisation of international resources for our people, VAVA has always strengthened this task and gained positive results. I would like to report some issues in awareness, results and lessons learnt of the association so that it will continue to implement this task for supporting the victims of Agent Orange.

Perception of international mobilisation and supporting the victims of Agent Orange

Mobilising international support for the victims of Agent Orange is the mission that has been assigned to VAVA by the Party and State. The Directive No. 43 dated on 14^th May 2015 of the Secretariat has specified that: “Strengthening propagation, mobilising people of all strata both at home and abroad, international organisations and the world to make them understand the AO disaster caused by the U.S in the Vietnam war; proactively implementing the movements and drives for supporting the AO victims and the struggle for justice for AO victims”.

In fact, during the past few years, external resources mobilised only accounted for 7% to 10% of the total resources that VAVA has mobilised but VAVA understand that the mobilisation of international resources is important for the following reasons:

First, the support of international friends is important in the way that it encourages domestic people to pay more attention to their compatriots.

Second, the support of world people makes the U.S officials more responsible for remedying the war consequences in Vietnam. It can be said that international assistance is the support for the struggle for justice of Vietnam’s AO victims.

Third, operations with good ways of doing of the non-governmental organisations (NGO) in many countries has also helped VAVA understand more about the way to mobilise, manage and effectively use the donations for the victims.

Achievements gained

International support for VAVA has been increased over the years. In particular, during the past 3 years, the total amount of money in 2016 was 5.4 billion VND, in 2017 was 6 billion VND, and in 2018 was around 9 billion VND.

Notably, if the previous donation for AO victims were mainly for settling short term demands of the victims, now many donations are made for projects, such as: the project of Hanoi international women club to assist for the production and scholarship for AO victims who are women and children living in Hanoi and Hanam with total amount of 460,000 USD; the project worth at 2 billion VND of the Japanese Embassy to enhance the rehabilitation capability and vocational training for AO victims of the VAVA’s Centre for social assistance; the project of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) to support AO victims to raise cows worth at 3.1 billion VND (in 5 years) in Quang Ngai; the intended cooperation between VAVA and French and Japanese organisations in studying the spreading mechanism of the disease to find a remedy for AO victims…

What’s more, besides the support of individuals, non-governmental organisations, VAVA has also earned the support of the official representatives of some countries and the UN, such as: the Japan’s Embassy has donated for the projects of VAVA’s Centre for Social Assistance; UNICEF has assisted the project to support the nurturing and vocational training of AO victims in Da Nang worth at 2.6 billion VND; Chile’s Embassy has coordinated with VAVA in drafting a memorandum of Understanding between the two governments on Chile’s participation in the caring of children who are AO victims in Vietnam; the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has begun to consider the support for VAVA in implementing some projects on providing healthcare for Vietnam’s AO victims.

Experience and lesson for VAVA to continue its mobilisation of international support

In order to gain the above achievements, first, VAVA has received much support from the ministries, branches, sectors, local party committees and authorities, organisations and individual both at central and local levels,

To effectively implement the task of international mobilisation for Vietnam’s AO victims, VAVA attaches special importance to external communication and propagation. VAVA’s propagation is conducted through Vietnam’s and foreign mass media, international arena that VAVA attended and international delegations which come to work with the association, visit the victims or find about the consequences and the situation of war consequences alleviation in Vietnam, etc.

VAVA has taken advantage of the achievements of the renewal cause, the improvement and development of Vietnam’s relations with foreign countries to promote its mobilisation for victims of Agent Orange.

VAVA always attaches importance to maintaining the relations with traditional friends, especially the long-established relations of organisations and individuals with Vietnam which have had much support for Vietnam’s resistance wars in the past and the present cause of war consequence remediation of Vietnam’s people, such as: The US-owned “Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign”; the France – Vietnam Friendship Association and organisations of overseas Vietnamese in France; the UK-based Medical and Scientific Assistance for Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia (MSAVLC), the World Peace Council, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, etc. On the other hand, VAVA also pays attention to the establishment of relations with young generations, such as students and youth of some countries.

The tight management and use of the mobilised resources in accordance with financial regulations of Vietnam and of the donators is an important condition for the mobilisation of international resources.