New Perspectives for Vietnam

In Vietnam, the “Festival of the First Morning” is one of the most important holidays of the year. The multi-day New Year celebration according to the lunar calendar is called Tết Nguyên Đán in Vietnamese, or simply Tet (simplified spelling). The Tet festival centres on family, gratitude and hope. As the celebrations come to an end, a new chapter also begins for the projects of Green Cross Switzerland: thanks to the support of our donors, we will be able to further expand our aid programmes in 2026.

Among other initiatives, we are now working to improve safe drinking water supplies for households in which people with disabilities live. We are doing this in remote communities in Quảng Trị province that urgently need this support, for example in hard-to-reach mountainous regions.

In addition, we are expanding our project activities to Huế province (central Vietnam). Through a targeted combination of measures that fully emphasise help for self-help, we can now also bring lasting improvements to the lives of people with disabilities there. We support orthopaedic care, the construction of accessible and hygienic sanitation facilities, and particularly the sustainable promotion of employment. The aim is to strengthen locally rooted and sustainable income opportunities so that households of people with disabilities can achieve long-term economic independence.

A central focus remains the provision of prostheses (which replace missing limbs), orthoses (which support limbs), and other orthopaedic assistive devices for people with disabilities. This support continues to be urgently needed. The burden of the long-term consequences of the Vietnam War is still strongly felt. Unexploded ordnance and harmful substances remaining in the environment continue to pose a danger. Of particular importance here is the highly toxic dioxin contained in the defoliant Agent Orange. Agent Orange was used between 1965 and 1970 by the United States and its allies.

“Tet is a time of hope. Together with Green Cross Switzerland, we look forward to building inclusive and environmentally responsible communities in Quang Tri and Hue,” says Nguyen Hoang Kha Tu, Project Manager at the partner organisation ACDC.

Learn more about the ongoing projects in Vietnam here.

Image caption:

Ms Nguyen Thi Ha, a woman with a disability from Hue City, prepares her traditional handicrafts for the local spring fair. Her participation highlights the importance of securing livelihoods for people with disabilities and strengthening their economic empowerment.