Intensive Monitoring Unit

Located on the ground floor of the Centre, the Intensive Monitoring Unit (IMU) provides beds for twenty infants aged up to two years old, who are in need of emergency care. Children in the IMU are most frequently admitted to treat malnutrition, physical disabilities and birth defects, and infectious diseases.

Children admitted to the IMU are often orphaned, or abandoned, or come from families living on the verge of destitution, and are referred by hospitals throughout Ho Chi Minh City.

Due to the nature of the conditions treated, treatment in the IMU is frequently long-term in nature, with around thirty to forty children passing through the unit each year. The unit is staffed by doctors, nurses and professionally trained medical care staff who devise an individual care-plan for each child to ensure they receive the medical attention they need.

Outpatient Clinic

The Centre’s outpatient clinic is located on the ground floor of the Centre, with separate access to avoid disruption to inpatient services. The clinic provides free medical services, medicine and nutritional supplements to street children and disadvantaged families who are referred to the Centre by protection organizations throughout Ho Chi Minh City.

On arrival, children are briefly examined by a resident nurse before being examined by the Centre’s doctors. Children referred to the Centre generally fall into two broad groups:

1. Children up to fifteen years old, who require medical treatment for a range of diseases and conditions, from respiratory infections and digestive complaints to infectious diseases, such as hepatitis and tuberculosis; and
2. Children aged from birth to five years old, suffering from malnutrition, who are provided with regular milk and food supplements.

Residential Care

Following treatment in the IMU it is not always possible for children to be reunited immediately with their families, and in some cases, sadly, the child has no immediate family capable of caring for them.

The first floor of the Centre houses two children’s wards, accommodating thirty beds where the children receive special nutrition and treatment programs as well as therapy that focuses on their various developmental needs.

In addition, beds are also set aside for the treatment of children suffering from the long-term effects of Agent Orange and other chemical defoliants dropped during the American War. Care in this area is targeted towards families too poor to afford any alternative treatment, and children where progress is likely.

Physiotherapy Service
The Centre employs two full-time local physiotherapists and a full-time Australian physiotherapist to assist the Centre take full advantage of the state-of-the-art equipment imported as a part of the recent refurbishment and re-equipping program. Each child requiring physiotherapy is provided with a program tailored for its individual needs and against which their progress is strictly monitored.

Kindergarten

The second floor of the Centre is home to two kindergarten classrooms, for children aged between three and five years old. Pre-school education is difficult to access in Vietnam, especially for the poor who are unable to afford even modest fees. And yet it is an established fact that even one or two years pre-school education makes a significant difference in the chances of a child continuing with primary education. In addition, through having access to fulltime daycare for their children, both parents gain the opportunity to work each day, thereby exploiting the family’s earning potential to the full.

Children attend the nursery between 7am and 4pm, during which time they receive nutritional food and are encouraged to partake in organised activities such as art, music and games. The kindergarten follows the pre-school curriculum of the Ministry of Education, and upon graduation, where necessary, children have full access to CNCF’s other programs (for example, family income support through the Sponsorship Project, or help with school fees through the Education Support Program).