From bottom to top!

Photo Le Duong, Viet Nam News

ELN: as regular ELN readers will be aware, veteran peace campaigner Len Aldis is never high and mighty. He still visits Vietnam at least once a year, and his visits don’t just include meeting Vietnamese officials. Len works at the grassroots, and his meetings with today’s fourth generation victims of Agent Orange are clearly important to him, and very moving and inspirational.

However, even Len must have been somewhat surprised on 24th October to find himself in the company of Prime Minster David Cameron.

The meeting arose because in June the Party Parliament Group on Viet Nam (APPG) and the Vietnamese Embassy in the UK organised a reception to celebrate the growing ties between the UK and Vietnam.  A fundraising auction was held during the reception, to raise money for the victims of Agent Orange. Items auctioned had been sent to the auction by businesses and by individuals, including the leaders of the three main political parties, who donated individually signed copies of their favourite book. 

To thank the donors, the Agent Orange victims sent gifts of hand-embroidered linen and colourful hand-painted pictures made by the AO child victims from Hoa Binh Village, Tu Du Hospital in HCM City and children from the Cancer Hospital in Da Nang City.

Len collected these during his visit to Vietnam in August, when he attended events to commemorate the 51st anniversary of the spraying of Agent Orange.  He was asked to present the gifts in person – hence his meeting with David Cameron.

The PM, who was accompanied by George Howarth MP, described the gifts as “beautiful”.