Elisa Fernandez Saenz, Country Representative of UN Women in Vietnam (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – More than 30 consultants and social workers, on February 26, began a three-day Australian-funded course that helps them improve their work toward abused women and children during the current time of pandemic. Sponsored by the Australia n Government, the course is co-organised by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and Vietnam’s Centre for Women and Development (CWD) as part of a project on emergency response to violence against women and children amid COVID-19 . Participants are currently working at the CWD in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, as well as hospitals and social centres in the two cities. During the training session, they will be provided with knowledge and skills to identify symptoms of stress and types of psychological trauma as well as practice some first aid and psychological care methods. Statistics showed that, in the context of the pandemic, the rate of violence against women and children in Vietnam and in the world has increased by between 30 and 300 percent. Nguyen Thi Thu Hoai, a social worker at CWD, said amid surging number of calls to a CWD hotline for abused women and children in conjunction with the pandemic happening, knowledge from the course will help her better approach and support the victims to soon ease their trauma./. VNA …
Upgrade work speeds up on hcmc flood prone street
Covid-19 wave forces Chinese Vietnamese to celebrate Lantern Festival in silence
At 6 a.m. Friday, the 15th day of the first lunar month, Ly A Ton, 62, woke early to prepare offerings, including fresh flowers, fruit, incense, boiled chicken and fried cakes ( jian dui ) in front of his house on Tran Hung Dao Street in District 5. Instead of flocking to a Chinese-built pagoda with his offerings and burning incense to the gods as in previous years, Ton stayed home and set up a table to worship the deities for fear of gathering in crowds amid the new Covid-19 outbreak that began in the country in late January. He then hung red pieces of paper bearing Chinese characters on his walls to pray for peace and good fortune. "This is the most important ritual during Tet Nguyen Tieu ," he said, referring to the Lantern Festival, known as the biggest and most important festival of the year for ethnic Chinese, marking the final day of the traditional Lunar New Year ( Tet ) celebration. It is observed on the 15th day of the first lunar month, the first Full Moon day of the Lunar New Year. " Tet Nguyen Tieu to us is even more important than Lunar New Year’s Eve and Chinese like us always light incense to deities at pagodas and temples to pray for the removal of bad luck and a year of peace and happiness," Ton noted. "But the Covid-19 outbreak forced us to celebrate on a smaller scale this year. I am old and scared of contracting the virus or spreading it to my family members. Therefore, I limit going out and gathering in crowds." He also had to cancel a reunion party with his relatives and could not visit his friends during the festival, which is an occasion for reunited families to eat dumplings and floating rice cakes made of glutinous rice flour wrapped around a sweet filling. Inside the 250-year-old Lady Thien Hau Temple, which is dedicated to worship the Goddess of the Sea, the devout convey their prayers by lighting spiral incense sticks that can burn for weeks. Photo by VnExpress/Phong Vinh. Ton is one of thousands …
Government strives to ensure no overdue documents from 2016-2021 tenure
Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung speaks at the meeting on February 26 (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - Ministries and agencies should speed up the implementation of tasks regarding legal documents assigned by the Government and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, so that there will be no overdue documents during the 2016-2021 tenure, Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung said at a meeting on February 26. Dung, who is also head of a working group set up by the PM for the work, presided over the meeting with ministries and agencies on the building and issuance of documents that give detailed guidance on laws and ordinances, and the progress of projects in the working programme of the Government and the PM in the first quarter of this year. The meeting in Hanoi on February 26 (Photo: VNA) He suggested that agencies in charge of compiling decrees coordinate with the Government Office to collect feedback from Cabinet members and relevant ministries and agencies, and report to the PM as soon as possible. Regarding the working programme of the Government and the PM, the Government Office reported that 89 projects were to be submitted in the first quarter. As of February 25, ministries and agencies had submitted 21. Of the remainder, there are 57 projects still within deadlines and 11 overdue projects, making up 12.3 percent. The overdue projects are part of the 2020 work and transferred to January 2021./. VNA …
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