During the event, more than US$9,000 and 50,000 roubles were collected to support AO victims, and it will be sent to Vietnam as soon as possible.

The event was in response to an appeal by the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange (VAVA) for Vietnamese and international friends around the world to help AO victims in Vietnam.

Speaking at the event, a representative from the Vietnamese embassy, Pham Thi Ngoc Bich, emphasised serious negative consequences of the toxic chemical US troops sprayed during the war in Vietnam, saying that it has destroyed the ecological environment and the health of the Vietnamese people.

Though the war ended along time ago, generations of Vietnamese have suffered the effects of Agent Orange/Dioxin. More than 3 million hectares of forest and almost 26,000 villages and hamlets have been affected by the poisonous chemical.

Nearly 5 million Vietnamese people have been exposed to Agent Orange/Dioxin, including tens of thousands of Vietnamese children born with deformities.