This year’s Annual General Meeting was held on Tuesday 8th March 2016 at the Embassy of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in London, by kind invitation of H.E. Ambassador Nguyen Van Thao.
Attendance was low, but the Trustees were delighted to welcome a number of supporters, as well as our Vice-President George Howarth MP, Ambassador Thao, and some of the Embassy staff to the meeting.
In her Annual Report, Honorary Secretary, Mary Lidgard said that 2015 had been a busy year for the charity, with the re-launch of the website, a two-month evaluation visit to South-East Asia and the 50th Anniversary celebrations, being the highlights.
Honorary Treasurer, John Firth said in his report that whilst donations had remained steady for the year, our income had again been boosted by some generous legacies and by investment income.
Following the Trustees’ visit to South East Asia there had been a large number of proposals for funding, which meant that project expenditure in 2015 was at its highest-ever level.
The Chairman, Peter Lidgard, Honorary Secretary, Mary Lidgard and Honorary Treasurer, John Firth were all re-elected to their posts. Trustees elected were: Lynn Firth, Bulletin Distributor, Deborah Dainton, Website Manager and Susmita Ghosh for Facebook Development.
Ambassador Nguyen Van Thao then addressed the meeting. He said that although Vietnam was developing quickly, it was inevitable that some groups of people were left behind. Vietnam’s government was very grateful for the help which MSAVLC has provided over the past 50 years to those in greatest need. He hoped that the charity would be able to continue working with Vietnam’s Agent Orange victims and ethnic minorities.
Finally Chairman Peter Lidgard gave a short illustrated resume of the Trustees’ Monitoring and Evaluation Visit to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in spring 2015.