The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs officially launched a project on Jan 5 to empower Vietnamese women who are guest workers overseas. With $250,000 sourced from the UNIFEM, the project aims to give more power to the women who come from all provinces and cities across the country, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported Jan. 6.
The 2009-2011 project will focus on such activities as collecting information on female Vietnamese guest workers, providing policy consultancy with a view to better ensuring the legal rights of these workers in foreign countries and improving policy dialogues with countries that receive guest workers. It will also hold seminars and launch training courses to improve the capacity of companies that bring these workers overseas. This is the first comprehensive project aimed at meeting the demands of female Vietnamese guest workers. It is also expected to contribute to the gender equality targets set by the United Nations, Dr Suzette Mechell, chief representative of UNIFEM Vietnam, said at the opening ceremony of the project. Vietnam has sent between 70,000 and 80,000 workers abroad a year since 2006. Of them, female workers accounted for 25%-30%.
Currently, there are 450,000 Vietnamese laborers working in 40 countries and territories worldwide.
