The Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO) held a ceremony in Hanoi on April 16, to award the President’s Friendship Order to Susan Marie Hammond, founder and executive director of War Legacies Project (WLP) in recognition of her significant contributions to fostering the solidarity, friendship, and cooperation between Vietnam and the US.
VUFO President Nguyen Phuong Nga (R) presents the Friendship Order to Susan Marie Hammond at the ceremony (Photo: CPV)
While conveying her thanks to Hammond for her support to Vietnam, VUFO President Nguyen Phuong Nga pledged that VUFO will always work together with Hammond and the WLP, as well as other foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs), to further develop the cooperation and friendship between Vietnamese and peoples in foreign countries.
Expressing her honour to receive the noble Vietnamese accolade, Hammond said that since she first set foot in Vietnam in 1991 and witnessed with her own eyes the severe legacies of the Agent Orange (AO), she was determined to raise public awareness on the long-lasting impacts of the toxic chemical and seek resources to support Vietnamese AO victims.
She said that she would continue to make efforts to successfully implement her projects in Vietnam.
As a daughter of a former US soldier who joined the war in Vietnam, Susan Marie Hammond has worked ceaselessly to support Vietnamese AO victims over the past two decades.
She founded the War Legacies Project, a US-based not-for-profit organisation with a focus on the long term health, socio-economic and environmental impacts of war.
Particularly, she has joined photographers, film makers and journalists in the productions of documentaries about the impacts of Agent Orange in Vietnam. She has also authored books and articles and delivered speeches on the topic at many seminars and events across the US.
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