Vietnam Overview
With a median age of 26 years old, many Vietnamese were not alive during the years of war that gripped their country through 1979. In today’s Vietnam, they also face new challenges. While recent years have brought an economic boom to the country, Vietnam has experienced record inflation levels, which has caused food prices to soar. In addition, the trafficking of women and children for labor and sex work continues to be a problem.
Nguyen Thi Tuyet, 43, is a widow and mother of three living in Vietnam’s Ha Tinh province. Nguyen earns a living by cultivating beans, peanuts, sweet corn and rice.
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Spotlight Vietnam: ActionAid Programs and Partners at Work
Fighting Human Trafficking in Vietnam
Empowering Vietnamese Women to Stand Up for Their Rights
Vietnamese Struggle to Secure Food
ActionAid in Vietnam
Since its start in 1989, ActionAid's Vietnam team has been addressing issues as diverse as the country’s landscape. The main areas of focus for ActionAid include human trafficking, education, food security, HIV and AIDS, and gender equality. To address these issues, ActionAid programs are implemented in 17 long-term development areas that serve 100,000 poor households.
In 2005, ActionAid formed its first development initiative in Quang Ninh, collaborating with our local partner The Fund for Women Promotion to create HIV and AIDS prevention, and micro-financing programs. Today, ActionAid works with over 20 local partners and is an active participant in several civil society networks and alliances with other organizations in Vietnam. After expanding to serve communities throughout the country, ActionAid now has 54 staff working in three offices in Ha Noi, Dak Lak and Ho Chi Minh City.
Every month in 2009, ActionAid will introduce you to our work by featuring one of the 50 countries we are in. We know it can be overwhelming when contemplating the challenges faced by poor people and communities around the world. It can be even more difficult to understand how you can have a role in solutions to global poverty.
But there is hope. Because of our network of supporters and activists, ActionAid is making day-to-day life better for millions of the world’s poorest citizens while working to change the fundamental causes of poverty, project by project, policy by policy.