An orphan who lives in a pagoda in the northern central province of Thanh Hoa has been continuously physically abused by a monk. The boy is now a fifth grader of Ha Hai Primary School in Ha Trung District. Bruises on the boy's body The situation was discovered after the boy was hit by a classmate, causing him to loudly shout. The boy said it was painful because he had already been beaten by monk Thich Dam Quang. The teacher was extremely shocked to see dozens of bruises on his body. There was an injury on his head, too. According to the boy, he used to be physically abused by the monk when he was at Grade 3, but now, this does not happen anymore. However, a school-girl who lives at the same pagoda with the boy told that the monk still beats him frequently; but he wanted to hide this for the fear of the monk. The boy’s teacher ever came to the pagoda to meet the monk about the case. He admitted what he had done with the boy, but claimed that this is his own way to teach … [Read more...] about Monk accused of continuous beatings of orphan
News
An ocean of trash washes up on central Vietnam beaches
The huge amounts of rain dumped by the northeast monsoon over the last few days on Vietnam’s third largest city, Da Nang, has had some unsavory after effects. The downpours have pushed out a huge amount of waste from domestic sewers into the sea and this has also washed up on Da Nang’s beaches. Several beaches including the ones in Son Tra, Thanh Khe and Lien Chieu districts are littered with garbage, and the dumping continues. A pile of waste from the sewer on Ton That Dam Street in Thanh Khe District comes ashore, accompanied by black wastewater. In Da Nang, wastewater and rainwater are collected by the same sewers. When they get flooded by heavy downpours, this is dumped in the ocean. Nguyen Duc Vu, head of the Son Tra Peninsula and Da Nang Beaches Management Department, said the large scale dumping of garbage has happened on 15 kilometers of Da Nang’s coast. Rotting fish among the garbage made the place stink. A large part of the dumped … [Read more...] about An ocean of trash washes up on central Vietnam beaches
UNICEF urge fathers to do ‘baby talk’
UNICEF and non-profit H&M Foundation have just launched Baby Talk for Dads campaign in Vietnam which aims to encourage local fathers to use baby talk to boost their babies’ brains in the earliest years of life. The initiative is part of a global programme on early childhood development that was launched by UNICEF and H&M Foundation in 2014. It has so far reached more than 135,000 children around the world. UNICEF and H&M Foundation have recently worked together in Vietnam to ensure that more than 30,000 children in Dien Bien, Kon Tum ang Gia Lai have access to quality services for early childhood development (ECD) and to support the national programme for ECD. A web-based campaign – Baby Talk for Dads – developed by UNICEF and H&M Foundation, in collaboration with Dr. Marina Kalashnikova from the Basque Centre on Cognition, Brain and Language – forms part of the organisations’ longstanding commitment to supporting healthy … [Read more...] about UNICEF urge fathers to do ‘baby talk’
Mother paralysed after losing both children to illness
A man in Nam Dinh Province is calling for financial support to help treat his wife who has been paralysed after their two small daughters died from encephalitis. Tran Thi Thu and Nguyen Van Duy lost both daughters to illness Tran Thi Thu is traumatised and paralysed from the waist down after the shock. Nguyen Van Duy, Thu's husband, said, "Our first child was born in 2014 and we had another one in 2016. They were very sweet. But then just months ago, they suddenly fell ill." The girls were admitted to Vietnam National Children's Hospital in Hanoi and diagnosed with encephalitis. Their youngest daughter died in September and their eldest one died in the following month. Thu had a seizure after hearing the news about the death of her daughters. Thu continues to have seizures and is not in sound mind. “I brought my wife to see doctors. But we don't have anything left. We still owe hundreds of millions of VND while my daughters were still in the hospital. I don't know what … [Read more...] about Mother paralysed after losing both children to illness
WB: Economy growing robustly but risks intensifying
Vietnam’s GDP is forecast to remain at 6.8 per cent this year, higher than the projected figure of 6.3 per cent for emerging markets in East Asia and the Pacific, according to the World Bank’s bi-annual economic report on Vietnam, Taking Stock, released on December 11. Economic growth has proven resilient despite weakening external conditions, driven mainly by strong domestic demand and a dynamic export-oriented manufacturing sector. Over the medium term, in line with global trends, Vietnam will see a slower pace, of 6.6 and 6.5 per cent, in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Inflation will remain muted at 4 per cent as a result of tightening monetary policies. “Despite a challenging global context, Vietnam continues to achieve robust growth accompanied by moderate inflation and a relatively stable exchange rate,” said Mr. Ousmane Dione, World Bank Country Director for Vietnam. “Policy makers should take advantage of the still favorable growth dynamics to … [Read more...] about WB: Economy growing robustly but risks intensifying