Sen. Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Van Rinh, President of the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange (VAVA), presented gifts to AO/dioxin victims in Soc Trang province on January 5. (Photo: VNA)Soc Trang (VNA) – Sen. Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Van Rinh,President of the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange (VAVA),presented gifts to AO/dioxin victims in Soc Trang province on January 5, duringhis working trip to the southern region.
The 55 packages of gifts, each worth 1.15 million VND (49.77 USD)were bought with donations by agencies, organisations and donors in response tocampaigns to support AO victims, launched by the Vietnam Fatherland FrontCentral Committee and the VAVA Central Committee of the occasion of the LunarNew Year (Tet) festival.
From 1961 to 1971, the US army sprayed 80 million litres of toxicchemicals, 61 per cent of which was AO that contained at least 366kg of dioxin– one of the most toxic substances ever known in history, on nearly 25 percentof the area of southern Vietnam.
Preliminary statistics showed that 4.8 millionVietnamese people were exposed to AO/dioxin, and about 3 million people becamevictims. Tens of thousands of people have died while millions of others havesuffered from cancer and other incurable diseases as consequences of exposure.Many of their offspring have also suffered from birth deformities.
According to Nguyen Dai Luong, President of SocTrang province’s AO Victims Association, the locality has more than 14,000 AOvictims, of whom only over 2,600 are benefiting from social policy while manyof the remainder are living in difficult circumstances.
Over the past time, the provincial associationhas called for the support of donors for the victims, especially on theoccasion of New Year, he said./.
VNA
