On March 28th, 2006, the Steering Committee of the Italian Directorate General for Development Cooperation approved the financing of 735.607,16 euros for the programme “Promotion of health and food autonomy among the ethnic minorities in two mountain communes, Lao Cai Province”, promoted by the Italian NGO UCODEP.
The 3-year project, for a total amount of 1.369.490,05 euros, aims at improving the life conditions of ethnic minorities, in particular of women and children of 1400 households inhabiting Pa Cheo and Ban Qua Communes, Bat Xat District, Lao Cai Province. The main characteristic of the project lies in its multi-sectorial approach, ensuring activities in several fields: from the improvement of health services to the promotion of traditional medicine, from the provision of water to maternal and child health and nutrition.
On the occasion of the approval of the project, a team from the Development Cooperation Office of the Italian Embassy in Hanoi, headed by the Director, Mr. Pietro Sequi, went to the North-western regions of the country from April 25th to May 1st to visit the two communes involved in the project. The team also joined a mission organized by UNODC to assess the outcomes of the project “Drug abuse prevention among ethnic minorities in Viet Nam (Phase II)”, with a 300.000 USD financing from the Italian Development Cooperation. The trip allowed to observe – directly on the field – the results of the project in Muong Hum Commune, Bat Xat District, considering not only the clinical treatment offered to drug abusers, but also the activities, realized within the microcredit scheme, benefiting the whole community (for example, the after-care centre).
On the following days, the Italian team visited Sa Pa District, Lao Cai Province, and Yen Chau District, Son La Province, two of the six provinces (Lao Cai, Son La, Ha Thinh, Cao Bang, Bac Kan, Quang Nam) included in the 2.737.211,50-euro water commodity aid project aiming at the expansion and improvement of the distribution of drinking water in remote mountain areas.
The mission from the Development Cooperation Office and the recent approval of the financing of UCODEP project are a further proof of the Italian Cooperation interest towards the ethnic minorities in Vietnam, their life conditions, health and peculiar cultures. Such an attention has already been demonstrated with the financing in 2005 of a 1.411.167-euro project, to be implemented by IFAD, among the Bana’ and Giarai communities in Gia Lai Province, Central Highlands, and with the financial participation to the regional programme “UNICEF East Asia Regional Project against Abuse, Exploitation and Trafficking of Children”, involving some of the provinces on the border with China and Cambodia, mainly inhabited by ethnic minorities.
For further information write to infofficer.hanoi@esteri.it (Phone: 04-8256256, ext. 17)
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