Vietnam Diocese vows AIDS support

August 09, 2011: A diocese in central Vietnam has promised to continue giving material and spiritual support to people with HIV/AIDS despite the withdrawal of support from several foreign charities. “We have to continue giving love and care to more than 1,000 people with HIV/AIDS in Danang after foreign sponsors halted their donations,” said Father Macello Doan Minh, head of Caritas in Danang diocese.
Father Minh said anti-AIDS organizations such as Norway’s Nordic Assistance to Vietnam and the United States president’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief stopped sponsoring prevention projects involving Catholic and Buddhist groups last September. They also plan to end their free distribution of antiretroviral medicines to local patients in 2012, he added. Local HIV/AIDS workers say that foreign organizations began scaling down and halting HIV projects when Vietnam achieved middle-income status last year.
This will mean our activities will be made all the more difficult, workers added. Father Minh said the local Church has started to ask for donations from local benefactors to cover the shortfall and continue its activities. Luckily, Caritas Germany is still committed to providing funds for our projects, he said. Since the first HIV case was recorded in Danang in 1993, a further 1,256 people have been officially diagnosed with the deadly virus.