Security doors sydney

For the last month, the life of Hoang Mai Van’s family in Ha Dong district, was chaotic because her children could not go to school.

As her husband is usually on business and away from home, Van has had to take care of the two children, a second and a fifth grader. She had to work from home in the week before Tet to have time to tutor them.

“I felt tired as I had to prepare meals, clean the house, work and remind them of online classes,” she said.

“As the younger child is still small, I had to attend online classes with him to help him log in to class and turn on the microphone,” she said.

After the Tet holiday, she had to go to the office, leaving the children with their grandmother. However, she still feels overloaded because “the phone rings all the time”.

“I am at the office but I still have to watch over my children from a distance,” she explained. “They ring me so regularly during the classes, complaining they cannot enter the classes because the teachers have changed passwords for class entrance, or they cannot hear the teachers’ voice.”

Van was excited when hearing that students would return to school from March 2.

“I will feel secure if children go to school. I hope that Covid is contained and everything will return to normal,” she said.

Having two children in the fourth and seventh grades, Dao Ngoc Anh in Ba Dinh district also complained that “too many troubles have arisen since the kids have had to stay at home”.

She has to take her younger daughter together with her to the office every day, because the girl cannot manage herself at home. Meanwhile, the older daughter staying at home usually calls her to ask for help fix problems with computers.

However, what worries Anh the most is the quality of online teaching.

“My daughter complains that she sometimes cannot listen to the teacher because she is unexpectedly thrown out of the class and has to log in again,” she said.

Mai Thanh Huyen in My Dinh said the parents’ productivity has decreased since the day schools close the doors.

“I have so many things to do during the day: I have to print papers, send schoolwork to teachers, fix computer problems and keep watch over messages,” she said.

Thuy Nga

National unity promoted

During its 90-year history, the Vietnam Fatherland Front has always exerted efforts to perform its role as the host of campaigns and activities to mobilise resources in all social strata to contribute to the country’s socio-economic growth and ensure national defence and security.

Vice President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee Ngo Sach Thuc says the Front has promoted patriotism, solidarity and creativity among people, which could be seen through effective implementation of its mobilisations on realising the country’s development goals and improving its people’s livelihood.

He says: “The Front has become a bridge to converge people and promote national unity. It could be seen through warm responses of people to mobilisation campaigns targeting the poor, policy beneficiaries, the disadvantaged and fellow residents affected by floods, etc.”

In the mobilisation campaign of ‘All people unite to build new-style rural areas and civilised urban areas’ in 2015, the Fatherland Front at all levels has coordinated with other agencies to call on people to donate land and strength to develop infrastructure, develop the economy, sustainably reduce poverty, protect the environment, adhere to the law, preserve and promote traditional cultural values towards building happy and civilised communities.

Thuc says, “the mobilisation has managed to call on the whole political system and a majority of people to participate and achieved comprehensive results. 60% of communes nationwide have been recognised as new-style rural areas as of 2020”.

Every year, the Fatherland Front cooperates with relevant ministries, agencies and organisations to implement the programme ‘Vietnamese people prioritise Vietnamese goods’.

From 2015 to 2020, the Fatherland Front at all levels have raised a total fund of 19.7 trillion VND (over 850,000 USD) for social welfare programmes and over 4.6 trillion VND (over 200 million USD) particularly ‘For the poor’ fund; built and upgraded over 153,000 houses for poor households; built thousands of welfare projects; assisted millions of households to develop business models, examine their health and facilitate their children to go to school.

The Fatherland Front’s member organisations have organized several programmes targeting policy beneficiaries, people with meritorious services to the nation, disadvantaged people, Agent Orange victims, people with disabilities and the underprivileged. They have also promptly assisted people affected by natural disasters and critical incidents, as well as effectively organised search and rescue missions.

As of September, 2020, the Front raised over 2 trillion VND (over 87 million USD) for the national fund for preventing and fighting COVID-19.

Performing social supervision and criticism

The Vietnam Fatherland Front has organised and co-organised 12 central-level supervision programmes on several fields, including policies towards people with meritorious services to the nation; implementation of the Law on Science and Technology; education and training reforms; agricultural supplies management, manufacturing and trading; handling complaints and denunciations at grass-root level; administration reforms, among others.

Mentioning the Fatherland Front’s achievements in social supervision and criticism, Ngo Sach Thuc says “In the past five years, provincial Fatherland Fronts have organised and participated in 4,093 supervision projects; while those at district level 22,679 projects and communal level 466,012 projects.

The Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front has performed its tasks of giving opinions and social criticism, along with monitoring and approving the Front’s activities. It gives comments on over 30 legal documents every year.”

Protecting legitimate rights and benefits of people

According to Politburo member and standing member of the Party Central Committee Secretariat Tran Quoc Vuong, the Vietnam Fatherland Front should continually reform, especially in its mode of operation, to consolidate its position in the country’s political system. He says the Front needs to exert efforts to fulfill its role as a medium agency connecting political and social organisations as well as outstanding individuals.

The Fatherland Front must perform its role of protecting people’s legitimate rights and benefits; making use of potentials from the great unity bloc; implementing democracy, improving social consensus; promoting people’s patriotism; etc. to safeguard the nation in the new situation, Vuong stresses.

“A proud 90-year history of the Vietnam Fatherland Front is an endless flow of patriotism and national unity tradition. Under the Party’s leadership, our people have united within the Fatherland Front, created great miracles that increase the nation’s prestige,” President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Tran Thanh Man says./.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked the Ministry of Health to carry out the Covid-19 vaccination for people this week.

The prime minister made the request at the government’s regular meeting on March 2.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the meeting

According to the government leader, to date, localities have basically controlled Covid-19, except for Kim Thanh District in the northern province of Hai Duong.

He noted that Covid-19 vaccines for people and applying Covid-19 prevention regulations were Vietnam’s best measures in the fight against the virus. The Ministry of Health needed to quickly deploy the vaccination programme in line with newly-issued resolution. The work needs to be started this week.

Under the government’s resolution on the purchase and use of Covid-19 vaccines, Vietnam has planned to provide around 150 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine for local people free of charge this year. The vaccines are sourced through purchase, imports and aid.

The vaccines will be prioritised to medical workers; people in the anti-pandemic efforts (Covid-19 prevention and control steering committees of all levels, quarantine facility staff, reporters); diplomats, customs officers and people working entry and exit procedures; military personnel; public security forces; teachers; those aged above 65; essential workers (aviation, transport, tourism staff, utility workers, etc.); people with chronic health problems; people who want to study or work overseas; and people in virus-hit regions.

Hanoi has set a target to use 15.7 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine for around 95% of local people aged over 18.

The information was given by Tran Thi Nhi Ha, director of the Hanoi Department of Health. According to Ha, the department is seeking municipal authorities’ permission for buying 15.782 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine.

Hanoi has set a target to use 15.7 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine for around 95% of local people aged over 18

This vaccine amount is enough for roughly 95% of people who are more than 18 years old with two injections for each. Ha urged districts to build specific plans for the vaccination which focuses on prioritised groups of people. She noted that the vaccination will be carried out as soon as possible after the city ensures the vaccine purchase. Under the government’s resolution on the purchase and use of Covid-19 vaccines, the vaccines will be prioritised to medical workers; people in the anti-pandemic efforts (Covid-19 prevention and control steering committees of all levels, quarantine facility staff, reporters); diplomats, customs officers and people working entry and exit procedures; military personnel; public security forces; teachers; those aged above 65; essential workers (aviation, transport, tourism staff, utility workers, etc.); people with chronic health problems; people who want to study or work overseas; and people in virus-hit regions.