U.S pop star Katy Perry has called for a greater focus on children left behind in one of Asia’s fastest growing economies.

The 31-year-old singer and songwriter, who is also a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), recently visited a settlement in Vietnam’s southeast.

The 13-time Grammy award nominee visited children in the Ninh Thuan province – which is one of the poorest areas of Vietnam – as part of UNICEF’s program aimed at ending exclusion for children with disabilities.

The program also sees the organisation’s work in child survival, education and early childhood development; water, sanitation and hygiene; and climate change.

“All the children I met have incredible dreams. We have to help them fight for those dreams,” Perry in a UNICEF statement.

“Investing in the most disadvantaged to give them a fair chance in life is not only the right thing to do, it is the best way to break the cycle of poverty and drastically improve children’s health, education and well-being,” she added.

The Firework hitmaker followed in the footsteps of her British boyfriend Orlando Bloom, who visited war-torn Ukraine, on his own duties as a UNICEF ambassador, earlier in the month.

Perry was named a goodwill ambassador in 2013. She had previously travelled to Madagascar with UNICEF that year.

– TiVi Tuan-san