A diocese in central Vietnam has promised to continue giving material and spiritual support to people with HIV/AIDS despite the withdrawal of support from several foreign charities.

“We have to continue giving love and care to more than 1,000 people with HIV/AIDS in Danang after foreign sponsors halted their donations,” said Father Macello Doan Minh, head of Caritas in Da Nang diocese.

Father Minh said anti-AIDS organizations such as Norway’s Nordic Assistance to Vietnam and the United States president’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief stopped sponsoring prevention projects involving Catholic and Buddhist groups last September. They also plan to end their free distribution of antiretroviral medicines to local patients in 2012, he added.

Local HIV/AIDS workers say that foreign organizations began scaling down and halting HIV projects when Vietnam achieved middle-income status last year.

This will mean our activities will be made all the more difficult, workers added.

Father Minh said the local Church has started to ask for donations from local benefactors to cover the shortfall and continue its activities.

Luckily, Caritas Germany is still committed to providing funds for our projects, he said.

The priest added that 25 members of the Love and Service Group, which was established in 2008, continue to give free food and health care to patients at local state-run hospitals, visit patients’ relatives and hold campaigns to promote HIV awareness and prevention, and reduce discrimination.

Paul Tran Van Minh, head of the group, said they raise funds by selling food and lottery tickets, and hold cultural performances on special feast days at local churches.

Minh, 55, said local benefactors are providing financial support to patients who want to raise chickens, take up sewing or make iron furniture for a living, he added.

He said since the first HIV case was recorded in Da Nang in 1993, a further 1,256 people have been officially diagnosed with the deadly virus.

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