Viet Nam News by Bạch Liên Wiping the sweat off her face, Dorothy Hood grabbed some water bottles and invited the group working on a new house to drink. The scorching 36 degree sunshine in Phú Thọ province last week tired the 76 year old woman from New Zealand. But she and her husband 79-year-old Colin Hood kept smiling and eagerly talked about the home that they and their Habitat for Humaity team are building for a disadvantaged family in Phú Thọ's Tam Nông district. "I am always glad experience another culture, to meet and talk with local people. I'm very interested in knowing about the real life of Vietnamese people," Dorothy Hood said. The couple was among 210 international volunteers who flew to Việt Nam from different countries in the world, including New Zealand, Australia, Japan, the US, Singapore and Hong Kong. They spent a week building 20 houses for poor communties in two coummunes: Hương Nha and Xuân Quang, both in the province's Tam Nông district. The project is … [Read more...] about Global volunteers build 20 habitats for poor VN families
60 year old woman looks 20
Vietnam sees 20.7 percent drop in poverty levels
Vietnam sees 20.7 percent drop in poverty levels According to the World Bank Poverty Assessment 2012 report based on new standards, the poverty rate in Vietnam has fallen from 58 percent to 20.7 percent in the past twenty years. Impoverished households were mainly in northwest and northeast mountainous regions and some highland provinces, while middle and rich households were in Hong River Delta, southeast region, and coastal cities. As for urban areas, although poverty rate is low, residents have to face rising costs of living and many citizens work in unofficial sectors or are unemployed and do not have social welfare. Under the new standards, the poverty line is VND653,000 per person per month(US$2.25). Projects take stink out of waste issue Farmers in Hoai Duc District's Tien Yen Commune are learning how to recycle organic waste by re-using it as fertiliser. In the nearby communes of Cat Que, Duong Lieu and Minh Khai, infrastructure to treat garbage and waste water will soon … [Read more...] about Vietnam sees 20.7 percent drop in poverty levels
Vietnamese woman reunites with family 20 years after being trafficked to China
A woman from the north central province of Nghe An has come home after nearly two decades unaccounted for, saying she was sold to human traffickers in China by her Vietnamese husband. Tran Thi Hoa, 39, returned to her parents' house December 22 after leaving to visit her husband, only identified as Binh, in the south central province of Binh Thuan in early 1994. Hoa said her husband of one year had anesthetized her and sold her to a hunchbacked 60-year-old man in a mountainous area of Guangzhou Province, China. She escaped after two months of slave-like treatment, wandering for a day in the jungle before she met a local woman who housed her and helped her find a job at a salon. She then married a local man and they now have three children, besides one of his own from a previous marriage. She was helped to come home by a Vietnamese woman named Diep from Hai Duong Province outside Hanoi. Diep is also married to a Chinese man and she asked her brother in Nghe An to look for Hoa's family … [Read more...] about Vietnamese woman reunites with family 20 years after being trafficked to China
Actress Jennifer Lawrence named ‘most desirable’ woman
Jennifer Lawrence, you are the world's most desirable woman, according to an international poll released on Tuesday by the website AskMen. Cast member Jennifer Lawrence poses at the premiere of ''The Hunger Games'' at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California in this March 12, 2012 file photo. desirable woman, according to an international poll released on Tuesday by the website AskMen. Photo: Reuters "The Hunger Games" star rose to the top of the list from No. 47 last year on the heels of the box-office smash while buffing her credibility as a quirky, sex-mad young widow in the independent film "Silver Linings Playbook," AskMen editor in chief James Bassil said. "Overall, there's a sense that she's a little more authentic than other actors," Bassil said, adding that the public still knows too little about the 22-year-old actress to form a negative opinion. "She's fresh because we haven't seen her all over the gossip pages for the past three or four years," Bassil said. Lawrence … [Read more...] about Actress Jennifer Lawrence named ‘most desirable’ woman
Woman gets 20-years younger
After over two months of treatment by doctors of the Central Dermatology Hospital in Hanoi, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy has returned to her true age – 40 – after four years living with the face and in the body of a 60-year-old woman. Thuy, from Hoai Duc district of Hanoi, was very happy with her face-lift. She said that her face began to deform in 2008. Muscles on her face drooped down. Her skin got shriveled. Wrinkles appeared tensely on her forehead and around her eyes, turning Thuy into an old woman. Skins on her body also got old quickly. The woman was examined by doctors of Hanoi-based Bach Mai hospital, one of the biggest hospitals in Vietnam. Doctors detected that Thuy contracted kidney inflammation and gave her medicines. They also made a lot of tests and concluded that the aging symptom was a skin disease only. Thuy went to the Central Dermatology Hospital, where doctors said that she suffered from a rare disease and wrote prescriptions for her. During four years of … [Read more...] about Woman gets 20-years younger