Speeches Shim
After four years of implementation, the USAID Green Annamites project successfully achieved all of its key goals and organized a close-out workshop in Danang on November 25. During this event, four Public-Private-Community partnership agreements were signed between cooperatives, local communities, and enterprises: one valued at 1.6 billion VND ($69,200) to use the wild invasive plant called “Guot” to make handicrafts (e.g. flower vases, handbags, baskets, hats, etc.); the second agreement, valued at 10 million VND ($500), was signed to purchase environmentally-friendly handmade brocade products; the third is a 1.2 billion VND ($52,000) agreement to commercialize a small enterprise’s products and sell them through national and international channels, including Amazon; and the fourth agreement involves implementing a project to support the production and trading of rattan and has a state and community-mobilized budget of nearly 2 billion VND ($86,500).
Over the past few months, USAID’s Raising Voices, Creating Opportunities project, USAID implementing partner Action to the Community Development Institute, and the Provincial Organization of Persons with Disabilities held a drawing competition with the theme “Independent Living of PWDs.” The challenge was to portray the expectations of PWDs in relation to independence and inclusion in society. Three winners were awarded prizes at an event in Quang Tri province on December 3, which is International Day of PWDs. Around 100 participants attended the event, including PDWs, PWD organizations, local agencies in education, health, and social affairs.
On November 25, USAID/Vietnam Mission Director Ann Marie Yastishock, leaders from Quang Nam and Thua Thien-Hue Provincial People’s Committees, Ministry representatives, provincial leaders, District Peoples’ Committees, private sector partners, local organizations, and community members attended the closing event for the USAID Green Annamites project in Danang city. Over the past four years, the USAID Green Annamites invested $23.9 million to enhance natural resource management of 512,000 hectares of biological significant land; improve the incomes of 28,700 local and ethnic minority community members; and mobilize $59.4 million in external investment for value chain development, women’s economic empowerment, medicinal plants and handicrafts production, and forest restoration activities.
To date, USAID has committed more than $2.3 million in disaster relief funds to address the immediate humanitarian needs of vulnerable communities, including persons with disabilities, affected by the flooding in the central region of Vietnam. This includes directing $234,000 of development funding from USAID’s Raising Voices Creating Opportunities project to assist 2,000 persons with disabilities in the affected areas by providing them with food, kitchen, sanitary items, and over 400 water filtration systems. In addition, vulnerable students, including children with disabilities at six schools will receive replacement seating and school materials. On November 25, USAID/Vietnam Mission Director Ann Marie Yastishock attended a ceremony to present emergency kits to persons with disabilities and their families in Thua Thien-Hue province. These emergency relief operations were launched in Quang Tri province one week earlier and will be continued in Quang Nam province in the following days.
On November 16, USAID supported the National Council for Disabilities (NCD) and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) to review the 2012-2020 national action plan on disability support and launch the new 10-year disability action plan. The event took place in Dong Nai, one of the USAID priority provinces for disability support, and was attended by MOLISA Vice Minister and the Vice Chairman of Dong Nai Provincial People’s Committee, policy makers, disability service administrators, persons with disabilities, and supporters. USAID supported development of the previous national disability action plan (2012-2020) which has benefited millions of people with disabilities; mobilized around $14 million in Vietnamese Government funds (mostly for monthly cash allowances); and contributed $21 million and mobilized $5 million from international donors to develop Vietnam’s disability service system.
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