Of this number, over 21,000 children are Agent Orange victims, 141,000 orphans, 4,600 HIV-infected kids, who need assistance from the government and society.

At the launching ceremony of the Month of Action for Children on May 29, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs said that Vietnam has over 25 million children, accounting for 29 percent of the population.

There are 1.4 million disadvantaged children, who are orphans, disabled people, AO victims and HIV carriers. In addition, around 2.7 million others who can become disadvantaged children. Most of them live in poor families or are victims of human trafficking, kidnapping and family violence.

This year, Vietnam aims to reduce the rate of disadvantaged children to less than 5.6 percent of the total kids and to give assistance to 82 percent of them.

At the launching ceremony, benefactors donated more than VND55 billion ($2.5 million) to the Vietnam Children Patronage Fund.

Source: VNN