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How Innovative is Vietnam?

How innovative is Vietnam? This is a simple question that can be difficult to answer.

animal-vietnamese-ox-truck1

On the one hand, Vietnamese people can be incredibly resourceful. How often do you see parts of a presumably out-of-commission truck strapped to an ox to create a new mobile contraption? (The efficiency of this invention, though, seems questionable.)

On the other hand, Vietnam has lax intellectual property right laws that end up promoting brand imitation rather than innovation. Case in point: Google-branded toilet paper. Probably not what the tech giant had in mind when it wanted to expand to new markets.

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What You Should Know About HIV/AIDS in Vietnam, Part 1

A Prologue

Between July 22 – 27, researchers, policymakers, activists and people living with HIV/AIDS will convene at the 2012 International AIDS Conference in Washington D.C.

This is the first time in 22 years that the world’s largest HIV/AIDS conference will be held in the US. Although the conference hosted its 1985 inaugural meeting in the U.S. and two additional meetings in 1987 and 1990, a controversial decision to ban travelers with HIV/AIDS from entering the US sparked enough outrage that the conference had to be held outside of its first home for over two decades. The decision to return stateside only came after President Barack Obama’s 2009 pledge to remove travel restrictions on people living with HIV/AIDS, which came into effect early 2010.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Turning the Tide’s Together,” a recognition that the HIV/AIDS epidemic has reached a defining moment where new medical advancements could lead to large-scale prevention and treatment. The theme also reflects the cross-sector response needed to effectively stem the spread of the disease and the misconceptions associated with it. Governments, the private sector, NGOs and private individuals all have a role in reversing the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

As the conference date approaches, VNHELP will bring you a two-part post on HIV/AIDS in Vietnam. The first will be an overview of the current state of HIV/AIDS in Vietnam and what’s being done about it. The second part will take a closer look at the history of the disease in Vietnam.

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The Weekly News Roundup: Vietnam and International Development News, Fourth Week of June

Welcome to VNHELP’s new blog feature: a weekly news roundup of the latest events in Vietnam’s social and economic development. There is always a ton of stuff going on in Vietnam and in the international development world, and sometimes it can be hard to keep track of what the latest innovation in water technology is or why inflation in Vietnam is sinking or cresting. We’ve prepared the weekly round up to help you stay posted with interesting and informative articles around the web. The weekly round up is curated by our staff, with an emphasis on global news that directly and indirectly affects Vietnam.

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The Dieu Giac Kids Vacation in Vung Tau!

Thanks to donors who go above and beyond the usual amount of support we request for the kids in our Sponsor A Child program, the Dieu Giac Orphanage’s staff were able to save up enough money to take the children for a summer trip to Vũng Tàu!

Vũng Tàu is famous for it’s beaches, and it’s about 130 kilometers (80 miles or so) away from Saigon, where the Dieu Giac Orphanage is located. Imagine how much fun it must have been for the kids. They shared with us a few snapshots, which we’ve put together below.

Seeing the kids smile so brightly really makes us feel like everything we do is worth it. What a way to open the weekend!

If you’re interested in becoming a sponsor, please feel free to contact us at VNHELP.

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Save the Date! The 18th Annual Mua Thu Cho Em Concert is Coming Up

You’ve been asking and we’ve been keeping coy about it, but now we can final announce it: This year’s Mua Tho Cho Em concert will be on Sunday, October 7 in Northern California and Sunday, October 14 in Southern California! Headlining the show will be singers Thu Phuong, Ha Anh Tuan, and Quang Linh. More details after the jump.

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The State of Human Trafficking in Vietnam, 2012

On June 19, the U.S. State Department released its findings for the 2012 Trafficking in Persons Report. Released annually, the Trafficking in Persons report provides a comprehensive understanding on the state of human trafficking–both sex and exploitative labor–throughout the world.

Human trafficking is often referred to as 21st century slavery. Presently, an estimated 27 million people around the world are victims of human trafficking. But overall, there seems to be progress. As more people become aware of the issue, more is being done by governments, international organizations, grassroot organizations and individuals to combat human trafficking. Compared to last year, 29 countries, including Vietnam, were upgraded on the Trafficking in Persons report’s tiered list.

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Health Brief: Banning Smoking in Vietnam

Want to light up a cigarette in public? Not so fast, say lawmakers in Vietnam.

Yesterday, it was confirmed that Vietnam has passed a law banning smoking in all public places. The law also prohibits tobacco advertising and bans the sale of tobacco products to anyone under the age of 18. The law is set to go into effect in May 2013.

High tobacco use is certainly an issue in Vietnam and throughout most of Asia. According to the World Health Organization, 40,000 people die of tobacco-related causes in Vietnam each year. The figure is expected to rise. One in three boys ages 15 – 24 smokes. The Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA), an anti-smoking group, estimates that there are 15.3 million smokers in Vietnam, and nearly half of all adult males smoke.

The question now is, will this new law have any impact? A similar decree was passed in 2010, banning smoking in public, raising taxes on tobacco and restricting cigarette sales. But the decree was seen to have little effect, as public smoking and cigarette sales remain casual sights in Vietnam.

Rather than pure legislative action, regulation coupled with a greater public health awareness campaign might be the path to go.

Source: AFP

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Vietnam is the 2nd Happiest Country in the World?

Are you more likely to be happy living in Vietnam than in Switzerland, Norway, the U.S. and even Bhutan (the only country to measure “gross national happiness“)?

That’s what the results of this year’s Happy Planet Index (HPI) suggest. Designed by the New Economics Foundation (motto: “economics as if people and the planet mattered”), the HPI sets forth to be the “leading global measure of sustainable, well-being.” It ranks countries on how well they create the conditions for citizens to live long, happy, sustainable lives using three primary indicators: life expectancy, experienced well-being and Ecological footprint.

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Health Brief: Dengue Vaccine Being Developed Around the World, including Vietnam

To many people, dengue, like cholera and tuberculosis, seems to be one of those diseases from the days of yore. This may be because dengue made its greatest marks on global history during WWII, when mass movements of troops across the Pacific Theatre facilitated the spread of the disease. But that was over 70 years ago, a time of which few of us have any living recollection. More recent outbreaks of dengue rarely draw the same media attention that outbreaks of diseases like avian flu or swine flu do, so many of us go about without any awareness of dengue.

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