On the morning of 6 April, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and more than 10,000 people took part in the charity walk “Walking together with love – Passing on hope” organised by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs at the Phu My Hung urban area (District 7, Ho Chi Minh City).
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| Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung pushes a wheelchair alongside a person with a disability. |
From 6 a.m., although it was raining lightly, nothing stopped thousands of people in Ho Chi Minh City from flocking to the Ban Nguyet Lake area to walk together in support of people with disabilities striving to rise in life. At exactly 7:30 a.m., Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung beat the drum to open the programme.
As the drum sounded, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, together with leaders of central ministries and agencies, leaders of Ho Chi Minh City and tens of thousands of city residents, walked together, pushing the wheelchairs of people with disabilities around the Ban Nguyet Lake area.
Speaking at the programme, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said that in many localities there are still many families of people with disabilities facing difficulties, many people with disabilities lacking self-confidence, without a trade or a job, living in makeshift housing, and many orphaned children not yet in school.
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| More than 40 wheelchair users also took part in the charity walk. |
“The awareness of part of the population and of organisations is still incomplete, causing difficulties for people with disabilities in integrating into the community. Not many agencies, units, enterprises or production and business establishments employ workers with disabilities, because they have not learned about and have not yet seen their real working abilities. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), Vietnam loses about 3% of GDP each year because the labour market has limited take-up of people with disabilities. This is truly a great waste of resources”, the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister therefore asked the relevant ministries and agencies to continue improving the policy system on people with disabilities. “We need to study, amend and supplement inappropriate regulations relating to people with disabilities, especially on vocational training and employment, and create favourable conditions for people with disabilities to access employment and integrate into the community”, the Prime Minister said.
Vietnam now has about 6.7 million people with disabilities, including 3.6 million women with disabilities, more than 5 million people living in rural areas and about 1.2 million children.
At the programme, many units, organisations and individuals donated more than 10 billion VND to the charity fund.
Ta Lam – vietnamnet.vn