Training for 2,500 Staff in Pandemic Preparedness

Over the past year the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has provided funding to the Vietnam Red Cross (VNRC) to help the nation prepare for the possible outbreak of pandemic disease. Under this project the VNRC has trained over 2,500 Vietnamese national and provincial trainers and community leaders in all 63 provinces in pandemic preparedness and response planning. 

 

At the central level, VNRC and its partners have adopted an inter-agency pandemic preparedness plan that outlines the roles of the country’s largest mass organizations – VNRC, Youth Union, Women’s Union, Farmers’ Union and Veterans’ Association. 

 

In two focus provinces – Ha Nam and Quang Tri – VNRC helped develop a local response plan that was tested and adopted by all involved organizations and then approved by the People’s Committee.

 

The preparedness training and planning carried out under the project will assist Vietnamese authorities to cope effectively with future bird flu and other pandemic outbreak threats.

Under the Government of Vietnam’s comprehensive National Avian and Pandemic Influenza (API) Program, USAID began supporting API programs in Vietnam in 2005 and since then has provided approximately US$35 million in assistance and technical support.