Hanoi (VNA) – Ambassador Nguyen Phuong Nga, with the authority given by Presidentof Vietnam, on August 29 bestowed PeaceTrees Vietnam Founder Jerilyn Brusseauwith the Order of Friendship, in recognition for her efforts to heal war wounds in Vietnam.

The order is a high honour of the State of Vietnamto foreign individuals and groups who have made tremendous contributions to the development andpromotion of friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and other countries.

Speaking atthe awards ceremony, Nga,also Chairwoman of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO), saidover the past two decades, Brusseau has made endless efforts to support Vietnam in addressing waraftermaths and to build trust, as well as, promote friendship between Vietnamese and American people.

Thanking herfor what she and PeaceTrees Vietnamhave done for the country, the ambassador expected Brusseau will make morecontributions to Vietnam. The VUFO is committed to working alongside Brusseau and PeaceTrees Vietnam and other foreign non-governmentalorganisations to develop ties between Vietnam and other countries, Nga stressed.

For her part, Brusseau told the story of her family and what made her devoted to Vietnam.Jerilyn Brusseau is the sisterof an American pilot killed in Quang Tri in central Vietnam after his helicopter was shotdown in early 1969.

After a visitto Vietnam in 1996 that allowed her to see the devastating consequences of thewar with her own eyes, she, her husband Danaan Parry and her mother Rae Cheneydecided to found PeaceTrees Vietnam to honour the dead on all sides and build bridges of trust andfriendship between the two peoples.

PeaceTreesVietnam was the first international non-governmental organisation permitted byVietnam to engage in humanitarian demining work.

US AmbassadorDaniel Kritenbrink said Vietnam and the US are cooperating in various fields, including trade-economy, security, energy, environmentand people-to-people exchange, and that could not have happened without peoplelike Jerilyn Brusseau who has got over her personal pain to help both sidesheal.

PeaceTreesVietnam, so far, has safely removed and destroyed more than 105,800 pieces of unexploded ordnances in Quang Tri and provided mine risk education for86,830 children and family members. Up to 215 victims and 62 families affected by unexploded ordnance accidents havebeen supported and 1,664scholarships distributed to children of affected families.

Theorganisation has also built a PeaceTrees Friendship Village for 100 affectedfamilies, 15 kindergartens,12 libraries  and two community centres and, at the same time, planted trees andprovided help for hundreds of women to develop their own businesses.

On the sameday, the Vietnam–US Society hosted a gathering for Vietnamese and Americanveterans as Brusseau was on a visit to Vietnam. –VNA