Hanoi (VNA) - A total of 108 commune health centres in six poor districts in the northern provinces of Bac Kan and Cao Bang have received h💜ealth care in the past six and a half y🌟ears.

This is part of the results of the project "Supporting health care policy for the poor in Cao Bang and Bac Kan", or often called project VIE/027 which ran from June 1, 2009, to the end of this year. The project's objective was to improve the health status of the population while contributing to poverty alleviation in the project area. Its total budget was more than 7 million EUR (about 7.6 million USD), of which 6.4 million EUR was a contribution from the Government of Luxembourg and 550,000 EUR were local contributions. Under the project, nearly 2,000 village meetings with 74,137 participants were organised on the subject of health. A total of 756 commune health centres staff and village health workers were trained to conduct and maintain communications activities in the community. The percentage of the poor ethnic people in the intervention areas who were now aware of their benefits and rights for using the health insurance card increased from 20.2 percent to 35.9 percent. More than 300 health staff of district hospital and commune health centres were trained on medical waste sources, process of classification, segregation, and transport, in addition to treatment of medical waste, and solid waste treatment technology. Nguyen Thanh Cao, deputy director of the project management unit in Bac Kan province, said that the institutional framework and partnerships were the backbone of the project and helped ensure the project's expected results and objectives. Claude Jentgen, provisional representative of the Embassy of Luxembourg in Vietnam, said that impressive socio-economic progress allowed Viet Nam to reach almost all health-related millennium development goals targets. However, challenges persisted with access to and delivery of health services in remote and ethnic minority areas, he said. "In response to these needs, Luxembourg concentrated its support in the most remote areas of a limited number of mountainous provinces characterised by ethnic diversity. And project VIE/027 was an important part of that approach to improve service delivery in the two provinces," he said.-VNA