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Domestic violence during the pandemic

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According to the Center for Research and Scientific Application on Gender-Family-Women- Adolescents, during social distancing, violence against women and girls not only increased in the number of cases but also changed in some aspects.

Living and working in a northern city of Vietnam, Mrs. Nhung and Mr. Thanh have two sons. The family experienced a normal life until the Covid-19 epidemic broke out. Thanh, a freelance worker, lost his job during the lockdown while Nhung, an accountant for a private business, worked from home during the time of social distancing.

With no income, and his wife often at home, Thanh’s brutality toward his wife got worse.

Once, he smashed up his wife’s laptop and smartphone and tried to stab her with a knife. Nhung and her two children rushed out of the house, found a temporary shelter and reported the incident to the police. Thanh called his wife threatening that he would find and kill her.

Domestic violence doubles during pandemic

Domestic violence during the pandemic

Calling for help via messaging apps is believed to be a safe way for victims of domestic violence.

Nhung was among 1,268 victims of domestic violence who sought assistance from the Center for Research and Scientific Application on Gender – Family – Women and Adolescents (CSAGA) in the first half of 2021. Up to 56.1% of the victims needed immediate assistance during the night.

Since early 2020 to the end of July 2021, CSAGA helped 3,487 victims of domestic violence via phone calls and chats, and most of the victims were women, evenly distributed among rural and urban areas.

Besides CSAGA, a number of other organizations providing support for women in Vietnam have reported an increase of domestic violence during the pandemic.

Ngoi Nha Binh Yen (peaceful house) – a safe place for the victims of violence managed by the Vietnam Women’s Union – recorded a double increase in the number of women going to this shelter in the first half of 2021 compared to the same period in 2018 and 2019.

The manager of the Facebook page called “Join hands to prevent domestic violence” said that the number of people asking for help from this site in the first four months of 2020 was equal to the total number of the whole 2019.

According to CSAGA, during times of social distancing, violence against women and girls not only increased in the number of cases but also changed in some aspects.

Not only Vietnamese women but also foreign women living and working in Vietnam became victims of gender-based violence. Calls and text messages from different parts of the country, with different nationalities and languages, created challenges for this organization’s victim support offices.

Calling for help via messaging apps is believed to be a safe way for victims of domestic violence.

Nguyen Van Anh, Director of CSAGA, told VietNamNet that in the context of social distancing, victims of domestic violence are in contact with the perpetrators of domestic violence nearly all the time. As a result, it is difficult for them to seek help from relatives, authorities or women’s support organizations.

Domestic violence during the pandemic

Dr. Khuat Thu Hong, Director of the Institute for Social Development Research.

To partially remove this obstacle, CSAGA and Facebook have launched an online support tool for victims of gender-based violence via the Messenger Bot messaging platform on the “Yeu thuong va Tu do” (love and freedom) fanpage. This is a completely free application, receiving information in the form of messages, which is capable of reaching many victims at the same time.

For the safety of the victim, this app allows the victim to delete all messages and chat history with just one touch of the screen.

If this app is a tech solution for the domestic violence problem, according to Dr. Khuat Thu Hong, Director of the Institute for Social Development Research, the more permanent solution should be to improve awareness of society, of each citizen, with education of children an urgent task.

“We must educate children from a young age that violence is not the way to resolve conflicts. It is necessary to equip children with skills and knowledge to resolve conflicts by peaceful methods. If they see their parents fighting and arguing every day, they will see it as normal. And when they grow up, these children will assume that they have the right to teach their wives that way,” Dr. Hong said.

Another important solution that Dr. Hong proposed is to raise community awareness of domestic violence. She said that it is necessary to tell people that Vietnamese society does not accept violence.

She emphasized that domestic violence not only affects the physical and mental health of women and children, and the family’s economy, but also affects the country’s socio-economic development. There is a need to prevent violence in families, schools, public places and workplaces by changing gender stereotypes. Men and boys in particular should become the main agents of change in perceptions of gender equality.

Nguyen Thao

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/en/feature/domestic-violence-during-the-pandemic-788659.html

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Belgian parliamentarian André Flahaut presents gifts to AO victims in Vietnam

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Belgian parliamentarian André Flahaut on November 30 handed over to the Vietnamese Embassy in Brussels four wheelchairs and four walkers as gifts to Agent Orange/dioxin (AO) victims in the central province of Quang Tri.

Belgian parliamentarian Andre Flahaut presents gifts to AO victims in Vietnam hinh anh 1Belgian parliamentarian André Flahaut (middle), Ambassador Nguyen Van Thao (R) and Tran To Nga, an oversea Vietnamese in France and an AO victim at the ceremony to hand over the gifts (Photo: VNA)

Brussels – Belgian parliamentarian André
Flahaut on November 30 handed over to the Vietnamese Embassy in Brussels four
wheelchairs and four walkers as gifts to Agent Orange/dioxin (AO) victims in
the central province of Quang Tri.

Ambassador Nguyen Van Thao thanked Flahaut for the warm
sentiments that he and the group of Belgian parliamentarians sponsoring a resolution on support for Vietnamese AO victims approved by the Belgian parliament in October, have shown towards
Vietnamese AO victims.

The diplomat highly appreciated the efforts and
contributions that Flahaut has made, together with other parliamentarians,
organisations and individuals in Belgium as well as international friends, to
assist AO victims in Vietnam.

For his part, Flahaut affirmed that he will exert
every effort to bring good things to AO victims in Vietnam with the hope that they
will have a better life.

The Belgian lawmaker showed his delight at the growing ties
between Belgium and Vietnam over the years with many high-ranking visits, most
recently the Belgium visit by Vietnamese National Assembly Vice Chairman Tran
Thanh Man.

Flahaut used to be President of the Belgian Chamber
of Representatives. In December 2021, he submitted to the Belgian parliament a
resolution on supporting AO victims in Vietnam, which was approved by the Belgian
Chamber of Representatives on October 5 with 100% approval votes. The Belgian parliament is the first parliament in the world to adopt a resolution supporting AO victims./.

Source: https://en.vietnamplus.vn/belgian-parliamentarian-andre-flahaut-presents-gifts-to-ao-victims-in-vietnam/272144.vnp

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In Vietnam, restaurant returns mistakenly transferred money

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A restaurant in Thanh Hoa Province, north-central Vietnam has found a customer who mistakenly transferred VND270 million (US$11,140) for a VND270,000 ($11.1) meal to return the spare amount, the restaurateur said on Thursday.

Hoang Hiep, the owner of Lan Ngan Restaurant in Thanh Hoa City under the namesake province, had earlier asked for netizens’ and media agencies’ help to find the customer who made the error.

On Thursday afternoon, the customer, named H.T.T.T., 40, residing in Nghi Son Town, Thanh Hoa Province, contacted the restaurant after reading its notification on social media and in newspapers.

T. had returned to Vietnam after working in Taiwan and had lunch at Lan Ngan Restaurant on Friday last week.

When making the payment, she was not aware that she had transferred VND270 million to the restaurant’s account.

Her personal information and the money transfer time coincided with those of the customer transferring the money to the restaurant.

The restaurant also checked its CCTV footage to confirm that T. was the customer that it was seeking.

The restaurateur asked her to come to a local police station to receive the money on Friday morning.

Hiep said that many imposters had contacted his restaurant attempting to take the money.

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Source: https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20231201/in-vietnam-restaurant-returns-mistakenly-transferred-money/77037.html

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Vietnam, France share experience in modernising public services

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Representatives from the Vietnamese Ministry of Home Affairs and the French Ministry of Public Transformation and Service exchanged experience in modernising public services, reforming administrative procedures, and raising digital transformation capacity, at a symposium in Hanoi on November 30.

Vietnam, France share experience in modernising public services hinh anh 1A view of the symposium. (Photo: VNA)


Hanoi –
Representatives from the
Vietnamese Ministry of Home Affairs and the French Ministry of Public
Transformation and Service exchanged experience in modernising public services,
reforming administrative procedures, and raising digital transformation capacity, at a symposium in Hanoi on November 30.

The event formed part of the cooperation activities
between the two ministries to mark the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam-France
diplomatic relations and the 10 years of the bilateral strategic partnership.

In her opening remarks, Minister of Home Affairs Pham
Thi Thanh Tra stressed that Vietnam always advocates accelerating administrative
reform and the modernisation of public services, considering this a
breakthrough for national development.

Administrative reform must serve the interests of
people and businesses, placing their legal and legitimate rights and interests at
the centre, and promoting innovation, for rapid, sustainable national
development, the official stressed.

Tra expressed her belief that the symposium will
contribute to tightening the friendship and cooperation between the two
countries, saying the two ministries will carry forward their cooperation
outcomes and enhance experience sharing in the time ahead.

French Minister of Public Transformation and Service
Stanislas Guérini pointed to challenges regarding demography, digital transformation
and ecology, noting that both France and Vietnam face demography-related issues
given their declining birth rates and aging populations, which requires the
sector to take suitable changes.

For digital transformation, the minister said that it
has brought about great opportunities to French administrative agencies in
particular and others around the world.

Participating experts, scientists, and managers
from Vietnam and France evaluated achievements, as well as challenges in public
service modernisation, administrative reform, and digital transformation
capacity improvement in both nations.

They shared experiences, new models and policy
orientations to work towards building a professional, modern, streamlined,
effective, and efficient administrative sector./.

Source: https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-france-share-experience-in-modernising-public-services/272141.vnp

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