CNCF - CNCF in Vietnam

Provinces -

The Tay Ninh Centre For Visually Impaired Children

Tay Ninh Province, approximately three hours drive from Ho Chi Minh City, generates most of its income from subsistence farming and agriculture. The area came to Christina’s attention due to its high incidence of street children, a startling number of whom are visually impaired.

This high incidence of blindness has been attributed to the use of Agent Orange and other defoliants during the American War, inadequate health education or access to medical care, and the high incidence of malnutrition in the Province.

CNCF, in co-operation with UNESCO, constructed five residential homes within a purpose-built compound in January 2000, to provide a home for over 50 visually impaired street children.

Education and vocational training are both major focuses at the Centre. For many of the children, especially those born blind, arrival at the Centre will be their first introduction to schooling. Almost all the residents attend daily classes at the Tay Ninh School for Children with Special Needs. As well as daily lessons in Vietnamese language, literature and mathematics, all the children have regular classes in functional rehabilitation, enabling them to develop orientation skills and the independence to accomplish daily tasks.

On arrival at the Centre, several children already possessed remarkable musical talents and many of the children are currently learning to play a variety of traditional Vietnamese instruments. The older residents are also taught to make woven brooms and mats, as well as incense sticks, which they are able to sell locally. Such educational and vocational opportunities provide the children with a means of escaping the cycle of poverty and become valued members of their community.

Revolving Loan Projects

Since 1997, CNCF has been providing remote rural communities with very low interest loans to start up micro-enterprises, such as rice farming, livestock breeding and agricultural cultivation. Such loan initiatives are an extremely effective way of helping families escape poverty, a view shared by the Vietnamese Government.

Each of the four CNCF Revolving Loan Projects has now been through several loan cycles and has assisted hundreds of impoverished Vietnamese families to alleviate their daily struggles. Loan Projects operate in Kien Giang, Long Thanh, Cu Chi, Can Gio and District 2. The average loan size varies from $120 USD in Kien Giang Province, where most recipients take up pig breeding, to $270 USD in Can Gio, where shrimp breeding is favoured. Once repaid, each loan is recycled to assist another family.

When CNCF first intervened to assist the people of Son Kien Village in Kien Giang Province in 1997 their situation was very difficult. Many families had insufficient daily food and their housing consisted of coconut leaf and mud constructions, which were unable to provide adequate protection from seasonal rains and flooding. In addition, their only water source was contaminated. Since then the Revolving Loan program has helped hundreds of families in Kien Giang to establish alternative income schemes.

Classroom Construction

In the past twenty years the Vietnamese population has experienced significant growth, almost doubling from 45 million to 81 million. As a result, many rural schools are unable to accommodate all the children in the area, and in order to attend school, thousands of Vietnamese children have to travel long distances to neighbouring communities. Typically, classroom conditions are poor and many present safety risks for the children taking classes.

Through its early work with the poverty stricken community in Ho Chi Minh City, many of whom have migrated from the countryside, the Foundation soon recognised the educational and social benefits that would flow from constructing and equipping Kindergarten and School facilities in rural areas. Since 1997 the Foundation has implemented 30 capital projects to provide educational facilities to Vietnam’s children, from the central highlands to Vietnam’s southern most tip.

Dinh Quan First Aid Medical Station

Hamlet 9 of Gia Canh Village is located in a remote area approximately 18km from the town of Dinh Quan, and three hours drive northeast of Ho Chi Minh City. The area used to be densely forested, but in recent years the community has cleared much of the surrounding land for banana plantations and grazing areas for small farm animals. The terrain is rugged and infrastructure non-existent. Dirt tracks link surrounding villages making travel especially difficult during the rainy season.

Hamlet 9 is inhabited by a small community of approximately 1,400 people, 10% of whom are from minority ethnic groups. Housing in this community is very basic and the average income per person is only $6 USD a month.

In 1995 the Representative Office of the Ministry of Labour from the Southern Provinces, Invalids and Social Affairs brought the plight of this destitute community to Christinae’s attention. Immediate investigations into the Hamlet’s most urgent needs resulted in the establishment of three projects - the construction and equipping of six classrooms in 1996; the construction and development of three water wells in 1997; and the construction and development of a First Aid Medical Station in 1997.

The most commonly treated illnesses at the Station are malaria, diarrhoea, cholera, gastrointestinal infection and dysentery. A major focus for the Station has been preventing the high incidence of malaria in the area, by providing residents with mosquito repellent, nets and sprays. Since June 1998 CNCF has witnessed a 90% decrease in the reported incidence of malaria in the community. The Dinh Quan Medical Station also provides information on Family Planning and Child Nutrition.

Long My Medical Station