On 11 June 2018, at Vietnam Red Cross Headquarters’ office, Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Thi Xuan Thu, the President of Vietnam Red Cross had a meeting with the Delegation of Australian Government, led by Mr. Peter Versegi, the Australian Ambassdor for Regional Health, Development Policy Division of the Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Meeting between Vietnam Red Cross and the Delegation of Australian Government
This is part of the mission this time to do the scoping for a newly established initiative of the Australian Government – ‘the Indo-Pacific Health Security Initiative’ which aims to help strengthening country and regional capacity for preparedness, prevention, early detection and response to emerging communicable diseases such as Zika virus, influenza, dengue, malaria and TB and drug resistant infection. The Delegation’s working schedule includes meetings with key stakeholders and actors such as the Ministry of Health, the Department of Preventive Medicine, several related hospitals and the Vietnam Red Cross to understand the strengths and gaps in the capacity of the preparedness and response system in Vietnam.
Sharings of President Thu of Vietnam Red Cross on Vietnam Red Cross activities
In field of preparedness and response to communicable diseases, especially new and emerging diseases, the Vietnam Red Cross Society focuses on community-based activities, health risks communication and behaviour-changed communication. The Society has its comparatative advantages in community-based activities thanks to the wide network of volunteers at community level and qualified staffs. In addition, the Vietnam Red Cross has a close cooperation with related ministries and agencies, for instance the cooperation with Ministry of Health for hand-foot-mouth disease and dengue prevention; and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on avian influenza prevention. The Vietnam Red Cross Society Headquarters as well as its local branches have been engaged in a number of National/provincial steering committees for communicable diseases prevention .
Mr. Peter Versegi highly appreciates the role that the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in general and Vietnam Red Cross Society have been playing in particular, especially community-based activities in fields of health risks communication and communicable diseases prevention.
Thanh Binh