FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
James Hoppes
The Aspen Institute
james.hoppes@aspeninstitute.org
U.S.-VIETNAM DIALOGUE GROUP ON AGENT ORANGE/DIOXIN RELEASES ITS FIRST YEAR REPORT
Hanoi, Vietnam & Washington, DC, July 26, 2011 –– The U.S.-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin at the Aspen Institute has been reviewing the progress made in the 12 months since the release of its Declaration & Plan of Action in June 2010. The Dialogue Group’s findings and conclusions are contained in the First Year Report. The report features updates on the sources and uses of funds for efforts by governments and nonprofit organizations to address dioxin clean-up and to provide health services in nearby areas. The report details the beginnings of convergence on cleaning up the three worst dioxin “hotspots” along with collaboration on programs offering health, job training and other public and reproductive health and services for people with disabilities living near those hotspots, regardless of the cause of those disabilities. Links to the First Year Report in English and Vietnamese.
The group’s June 2010 Declaration and Plan of Action calls for a humanitarian effort to clean contaminated soils in Vietnam, restore damaged ecosystems and expand services to people with disabilities linked to dioxin, and to people with other forms of disability, and to their families. The plan calls for an investment of $30 million per year from many sources over a period of ten years.
The Aspen Institute’s Agent Orange in Vietnam Program (AOVP) is a multi-year project to help Americans and Vietnamese address the continuing health and environmental impact of herbicides sprayed in Vietnam during the war. Between the United States and Vietnam and within the US policy community, the program promotes dialogue on solutions to the continuing impact of the wartime use of herbicides in Vietnam. The program provides the US secretariat for the bi-national Dialogue Group and manages the Agent Orange in Vietnam Fund supporting model projects benefiting people with disabilities in Vietnam.
The Aspen Institute mission is twofold: to foster values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect on the ideals and ideas that define a good society, and to provide a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues. The Aspen Institute does this primarily in four ways: seminars, young-leader fellowships around the globe, policy programs, and public conferences and events. The Institute is based in Washington, DC; Aspen, Colorado; and on the Wye River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. It also has an international network of partners.
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