Prince Joachim visits CARE projects in Cambodia and Vietnam

During a 14-day trip Danish Prince Joachim will visit Danish supported projects in Cambodia and Vietnam.

By Jakob Holm

On March 6 Danish Prince Joachim landed in Siem Reap in Cambodia after a brief stop over in Bangkok where he was joined by among others, Danish Ambassador for Thailand and Cambodia, Ulrik Helweg-Larsen. The Danish Prince leads a delegation that will visit CARE Denmark and DANIDA projects in Cambodia and Vietnam.
Also among the delegation are CARE General Secretary Niels Tofte, chairman of CARE Denmark Gunhild Lange, deputy chairman Andreas Hastrup and DANIDA’s representative in Cambodia, Mogens Laumand Christensen.
In Cambodia the prince will visit projects run by CARE Denmark and some of DANIDA’s agricultural projects in the two countries. In Vietnam he will also visit private companies that have invested in Vietnam with help from DANIDA.
After using Monday to settle in Cambodia; The Prince spend most of Tuesday visiting Angkor Wat. Wednesday the program changed and Prince Joachim started visiting the CARE- and Danida-projects.
The Prince says he is eager to visit different places during the trip.
“I look forward to meeting the CARE employees working with the different projects. CARE Denmark does a great job in the fight against poverty,” Prince Joachim told Care Denmark before he started the trip.
The Prince is a patron for CARE Denmark and so far he has visited six countries where CARE Denmark has projects.

HIV, orphans and clean water
In Cambodia HIV is a big problem with 3.5 percent of the adult population infected. Prince Joachim is Thursday (9th March) to visit a CARE Denmark sponsored children’s home for HIV-affected and orphaned children in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. The home also treats pregnant women, who are infected with HIV.
The home makes sure that the children and women get the right treatment. By doing this it decreases the possibility that pregnant women will pass on the disease to their children.
After a week in Cambodia the prince will continue to Vietnam on the 12th of March.
In the Vietnamese part of the Mekong Delta the prince is to see how the population there has been helped by CARE Denmark projects. CARE projects lend money so that the locals are able to buy a pig or cow. Clean drinking water is also a big problem in Vietnam, and Care Denmark runs a pilot project where they invested in 1000 small water cleaning units, which cleans water using solar energy.
The units are designed by a Dane and are produced by the occupants of a slum in South Africa, and according to the plan Prince Joachim will be present when the machinery has its Asian debut in Vietnam.

Creates attention
The prince’s visit helps draw attention to the many projects in Cambodia and Vietnam, the importance of which are underlined by Niels Tofte general secretary of CARE Denmark.
“It is important to have Prince Joachim as a patron. When he visits our projects it provides the employees and locals a wonderful boost to continue the important work they do. At the same time it also means a lot in back in Denmark when Prince Joachim is here. It tells the Danes about the CARE Denmark projects they wouldn’t normally hear of,” the general secretary said.
The Prince will head back to Denmark March 19th.

Article source: http://www.scandasia.com/viewNews.php?news_id=2217&coun_code=dk
Links: http://www.care.dk/forside
You can read the press release in the Embassy of Denmark, Hanoi website
and you can find more photos in: http://www.jutlandpress.dk/
UPDATE: more photos of Prince Joachim in Vietnam and Cambodia here www.picturepress-europe.com