Since 2010, APHEDA, an overseas aid agency funded by the Australian Council of Trade Unions, has carried out a number of projects to help build up trade unions in five industrial and economic zones in the northern city of Hai Phong, the northern province of Hai Duong and Ho Chi Minh City.
The Australian organisation has also implemented numerous programmes in Vietnam with a focus on foreign language training, team negotiation skills, HIV/AIDS prevention in the community and the social responsibility of businesses.
The organisation has also conducted research and information and education campaigns to raise the public’s awareness of the health risks of using asbestos and helping to build an asbestos information centre in Hanoi .
APHEDA supported Hanoi, HCM City and several provinces such as Bac Can, Hai Duong, Hai Phong, Nghe An, Quang Tri, Da Nang, Binh Duong and Dong Nai in hunger eradication and poverty reduction, as well as in reducing discrimination against people with HIV, disabled people and victims of human trafficking.
Their programmes have received financial support from Australian and other international organisations such as the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), Finland ’s Trade Union Solidarity Centre, the Olof Palme organisation from Sweden , the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations.
It became the first overseas organisation to receive the Friendship Order from a Vietnamese President in 1998 and a campaign medal from the Vietnamese Women’s Union in 2004./.
