Vietnamese expatriates in Germany raise funds for AO victims

http://english.vovnews.vn/Home/Vietnamese-expatriates-in-Germany-raise-funds-for-AO-victims/20118/128880.vov
(VOV) - The Vietnamese community in Germany, including diplomats, journalists and businesspeople, raised €10,750 at a fundraiser for Agent Orange/dioxin victims held by the Vietnamese embassy in Germany.

The money will be channelled to the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange (VAVA) as soon as possible.

Addressing the fundraiser, Vietnamese ambassador Do Hoa Binh, underlined the significance of raising funds for the victims of Agent Orange (AO) in Vietnam and said he highly appreciated the contributions by Vietnamese associations and companies in Germany.

VAVA made an appeal for money to support AO victims when it prepared to mark the 50th anniversary of the date the US began spraying defoliant in southern Vietnam, destroying the ecology and health of local people.

For ten years, the US military sprayed AO/dioxin onto more than three million hectares of mountains and fields, and nearly 26,000 villages and hamlets; many of them still remain hot spots of dioxin contamination.

Nearly five million Vietnamese were exposed to the harmful chemical, which continues to affect even the victim’s children and grandchildren.