Comedian Xuan Bac becomes goodwill ambassador

HA NOI — Comedian Nguyen Xuan Bac was officially announced yesterday as the 2010-11 goodwill ambassador for Rural Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation, said Dao Xuan Hoc, deputy minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Bac was invited to play the role of an ambassador by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Lien Aid and UNICEF.

As a goodwill ambassador, Bac, 34 is expected to participate in on-site activities and to be a guest of honour at public and mass media events in order to deliver messages designed to raise public awareness about using clean water and hygienic latrines, and to help change human behaviours around water safety in rural areas.

Bac promised to send messages from the Rural Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation Sector widely and effectively to people in rural areas, with a particular focus on children.

More than 20,000 people, most of them children, die each year due to unclean water and poor sanitation in Viet Nam. Almost half of those deaths can be attributed to diarrhoea, the World Health Organisation reported.

Viet Nam has plans to provide clean water to about 83-85 per cent of rural households and build hygienic latrines in 60 per cent of rural households by the end of the year. — VNS

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Overseas Vietnamese in UK meet in Dublin

Vietnamese people who live and work in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland gathered for the first time in Dublin city, Ireland , on Nov. 12.

Addressing the meeting, the Vietnamese Ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Tran Quang Hoan, highlighted its significance to uniting Vietnamese expatriates.
The Ambassador said that the meeting provided an opportunity to develop overseas Vietnamese communities and seek more cooperation between Vietnamese businesses in these two countries.

Representatives of the Associations of Vietnamese in Ireland and the UK and the Association of Vietnamese Entrepreneurs in the UK delivered speeches on their current activities and orientations for the future.

On this occasion, on behalf of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem, Ambassador Hoan presented the Association of Overseas Vietnamese in Ireland with the certificate of merit for its outstanding achievements in developing the community and holding activities towards the homeland./.

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Hanoi’s millennium marked abroad

Vietnamese Ambassador to Laos Ta Minh Chau on Oct. 11 gave a reception to the delegation of the overseas Vietnamese community in Laos who had returned from the grand celebrations of Hanoi ’s millennium.

At the function held in Vientiane , President Hoang Dieu of the Vietnamese People Federation in Laos said that the federation has donated 50 million VND to help flood victims in central Vietnam .

Earlier, on Oct. 10, the Vietnamese embassy in Algeria held a celebration to mark the 1,000 th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi in the capital city of Algiers .

Addressing the event, Vietnamese Ambassador Do Trong Cuong reviewed the country’s historical ups and downs and called on the overseas Vietnamese community in Algeria to contribute to the construction of the capital city and the nation.

Former Algerian Ambassador to Vietnam Boucherif Nacer wished the Hanoians and Vietnamese people prosperity and more achievements.

Honorary President of the Algeria-Vietnam Friendship Association Abdelkrim Hassani expressed his admiration at the 1,000-year-old capital city and said he would visit the city soon.

At a music festival to mark Hanoi ’s 1,000 th birthday in China , Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyen Van Tho said that wherever they go, all Vietnamese people look toward the homeland.

He called on the Vietnamese people in China to take part in practical activities and contribute their intelligence and strengths to the country and the capital city’s prosperity.

The festival raised nearly 1,570 USD and 5,835 CHY for flood victims in Vietnamm.

For the same purpose, the Vietnamese embassy in Mexico held a celebration on Oct. 9 in which Ambassador Pham Van Que called on the Vietnamese people in the country to contribute to consolidating the nation’s image on the international arena and expanding the fine relationship with the resident country.

He took the occasion to appeal for donations for flood victims in the homeland’s central provinces./.

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