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Ford Foundation Vietnam Office Celebrates 10th Anniversary
Grants have responded to sweeping changes in a continually developing landscape;
Berresford travels to Hanoi to mark milestone with grantees and staff
NEW YORK, 8 December 2006—This week the Ford Foundation marks the tenth anniversary of its office in Vietnam, where it has made some $70 million in grants to hundreds of individuals and organizations working to build a strong, healthy and vibrant future for the country.
The foundation’s president, Susan V. Berresford, is in Vietnam to mark the milestone and see firsthand the work of Ford Foundation grantees who are working to develop promising solutions to the country’s most pressing economic and social challenges.
Ford was issued a license to establish an office in Vietnam in 1996. It has approved over 550 grants to organizations and individuals in Vietnam and to foreign institutions working to benefit the country.
"Our work is guided by the belief that solutions to the world’s most complex problems need to engage the people and the communities living closest to them," Berresford said. "Our presence in Vietnam has helped us gain an intimate understanding of the challenges facing the country. It has allowed us to identify and support local grantees whose grassroots work is laying the foundation for a strong, inclusive and sustainable future."
The foundation’s Vietnam office makes about $9 million in grants per year to Vietnamese who are creating new knowledge, building capacity at key institutions, and testing new approaches to economic and social challenges.
Taking advantage of its global reach, the foundation also links Vietnamese grantees with the best contemporary thinkers and innovators in the world. A portion of the office’s funds are used to support education, human rights and HIV/AIDS programs in Thailand.
Read the Ford Foundation in Vietnam brochure.
Read about recent grants to address dioxin and public health in Vietnam.
The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization. For more than half a century it has been a resource for innovative people and institutions worldwide, guided by its goals of strengthening democratic values, reducing poverty and injustice, promoting international cooperation and advancing human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Russia.