Mr Triet made the call at a national conference in Hanoi on April 17 to honour 267 outstanding delegates representing the disabled, orphans and philanthropists.

He said the Party, State and mass organisations have adopted many additional social policies for the disabled and orphans. Recently, he said, the Prime Minister approved a programme to care for disabled children, orphans, street children and those affected by Agent Orange and HIV/AIDS in the 2006-2010 period. This is an important legal corridor to show the State’s responsibility to care for and assist the disabled and orphans as well as creating favourable conditions for them to integrate well into the community.

The State President praised the disabled and orphans’s great efforts to shape their destiny and overcome their hard lives in society. He also thanked domestic and foreign philanthropists for their assistance to disadvantaged people and encouraged them to launch more practical programmes to support orphans in far-flung areas and child victims of war. 

Vietnam now has more than eight million disabled people and orphans. Thanks to financial support from domestic and foreign organisations in 2006, more than 17,000 disabled people were provided with vocational training and jobs, 164,000 disabled people and 103,000 orphans received monthly social allowances from the budget, and 6,400 orphans were adopted.