VOICE began operations in 1997 as a representative office of the Vietnamese Australian community in Manila, Philippines, providing legal advice and assistance to 2,500 stateless Vietnamese refugees residing in the country. Since then, VOICE has partnered with other NGOs and community groups, helping approximately 2,000 individuals resettle in the U.S. in 2005, and about 1,000 others resettle in Australia, Canada, and Norway, including those married to or having children with Filipinos, between 2000 and 2009.<\/p>\r\n
VOICE officially registered and obtained 501(c)(3) legal status from the State of California, USA, in 2007.<\/p>\r\n
Summary of our refugee assistance work:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n 2000\u20132002<\/strong>: Advocated for Australia’s Special Humanitarian Program, enabling 230 refugees to reunite with family members in Australia.<\/p>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t 2004\u20132007<\/strong>: The Vietnamese Refugee Resettlement Project in the Philippines (VRPP) helped 1,573 individuals resettle in the United States.<\/p>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t 2005\u20132007<\/strong>: 49 cases (188 individuals) received residency permits in Norway to reunite with relatives.<\/p>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t 2005\u20132009<\/strong>: Canada\u2019s policy on Vietnamese refugees in the Philippines enabled about 200 individuals, including spouses and children of Filipinos, to resettle in Canada with support from community groups.<\/p>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t 2007\u2013present<\/strong>: Continued advocacy for remaining refugee cases in the Philippines, Thailand, and Cambodia.<\/p>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t 2007\u2013present<\/strong>: Initiated a training program for young social activists in Vietnam.<\/p>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t 2013\u2013present<\/strong>: Successfully lobbied the Canadian government to accept Vietnamese refugees under humanitarian grounds with two conditions: (1) a private sponsor must support them for the first year, and (2) VOICE must cover all travel and immigration costs.<\/p>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n At the end of 2013, VOICE raised nearly $500,000 USD<\/strong> to aid victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and to rebuild two schools in Ormoc and Coron. Starting January 12, 2014, VOICE representatives joined a human rights advocacy delegation for Vietnam, alongside NGOs such as the Vietnamese Bloggers Network, D\u00e2n L\u00e0m B\u00e1o, The Path of Vietnam, Traditional H\u00f2a H\u1ea3o Buddhism, No-U Vietnam, the Association of Political and Religious Prisoners of Vietnam, and international organizations like ISHR, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and CIVICUS. This campaign coincided with Vietnam\u2019s Universal Periodic Review (UPR)<\/strong> before the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2014.<\/p>\r\n On June 22, 2014<\/strong>, VOICE member delivered a statement before the UN Human Rights Council on behalf of 10 Vietnamese civil society organizations. He highlighted government retaliation against UPR 2014 participants, arrests and detentions of human rights activists, and violations of national and international law by the Vietnamese government.<\/p>\r\n On March 27, 2015<\/strong>, VOICE co-hosted the Vietnam-Philippines Civil Society Conference<\/strong> on South China Sea disputes, bringing together Vietnamese democracy activists, the University of the Philippines’ Maritime and Law of the Sea Institute, and Philippine civil society groups to seek non-governmental solutions.<\/p>\r\n In April\u2013May 2016<\/strong>, VOICE partnered with \u0110\u00f4ng Y\u00ean parish to deliver 35 tons of rice to fishermen’s families affected by the Formosa environmental disaster in K\u1ef3 Anh district, H\u00e0 T\u0129nh province.<\/p>\r\n On October 27, 2016<\/strong>, VOICE held the \u201cTh\u01b0\u01a1ng V\u1ec1 Mi\u1ec1n Trung II\u201d<\/strong> fundraising night, raising about $80,000 USD<\/strong> to aid victims of historic floods in Central Vietnam. The funds helped build 9 flood-resistant floating houses in Qu\u1ea3ng B\u00ecnh, 8 in H\u00e0 T\u0129nh, and 6 in Th\u1eeba Thi\u00ean Hu\u1ebf.<\/p>\r\n On July 12, 2017<\/strong>, prior to the 14th Australia\u2013Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue, VOICE, invited by the Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, organized a human rights advocacy trip with Nguy\u1ec5n Th\u1ecb Kim Li\u00ean<\/strong>, mother of political prisoner \u0110inh Nguy\u00ean Kha<\/strong>, and other civil society groups.<\/p>\r\n On September 2, 2017<\/strong>, the \u201cTibet and Vietnam Human Rights Conference\u201d<\/strong> was held at Dieu Ngu Temple in Westminster, with participation from VOICE, Tibetan government-in-exile members, and other guests.<\/p>\r\n At 5 PM Geneva time<\/strong> (10 PM Vietnam time) on September 19, 2017<\/strong>, VOICE Europe Program Coordinator delivered a speech before the UN Human Rights Council, closing VOICE\u2019s UPR 2017 international advocacy campaign. The delegation met with officials in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, and the Czech Republic, offering proposals to help Vietnam improve its human rights practices.<\/p>\r\n On June 27, 2018<\/strong>, VOICE premiered the documentary “When Mother’s Away”<\/strong> at the Foreign Correspondents\u2019 Club of Thailand (FCCT) in Bangkok. The film had 50 screenings in 14 countries<\/strong> (including Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia, the U.S., Canada, France, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Denmark, and the Czech Republic) and was translated into five subtitle languages<\/strong> (English, French, Traditional Chinese, Korean, and Czech).<\/p>\r\n “When Mother\u2019s Away” is VOICE\u2019s first documentary, co-produced with Vietnamese director Clay Ph\u1ea1m<\/strong>. It portrays the life of blogger Mother Mushroom (Nguy\u1ec5n Ng\u1ecdc Nh\u01b0 Qu\u1ef3nh)<\/strong>\u2019s family after she was sentenced to 10 years in prison under Article 88(1) for \u201cpropaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.\u201d Featured in the film are her mother Nguy\u1ec5n Th\u1ecb Tuy\u1ebft Lan<\/strong> and her two young children, N\u1ea5m and G\u1ea5u. The film aims to highlight her story as a representative voice for all prisoners of conscience in Vietnam. It is also the first documentary about a Vietnamese prisoner of conscience.<\/p>\r\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" VOICE began operations in 1997 as a representative office of the Vietnamese Australian community in Manila, Philippines, providing legal advice and assistance to 2,500 stateless Vietnamese refugees residing in the country. Since then, VOICE has partnered with other NGOs and community groups, helping approximately 2,000 individuals resettle in the U.S. in 2005, and about 1,000 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":1814,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnamvoice.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnamvoice.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnamvoice.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnamvoice.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnamvoice.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/vietnamvoice.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6123,"href":"https:\/\/vietnamvoice.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11\/revisions\/6123"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnamvoice.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnamvoice.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\r\n \t