Vietnam

Handicap International has been working in Vietnam since 1992 (in the South of the country in Ho Chi Min). In 2001 we start working in the North in Hanoi. In Vietnam, disabilities are brought about by the factors inherent in all societies (mental disabilities, sight and hearing impairments, disabling diseases). In addition to these general causes the population still suffers from the damage inflicted by more specific causes (disabilities resulting from the war and unexploded ordnance). The country is also confronted with the modern scourge of the AIDS epidemic and the consequences of the appalling safety conditions on its roads.

Handicap International works with disabled children and young adults in Vietnam to facilitate their access to education. We work in partnership with the Education Center for deprived children in the Bac Kan province, a mountainous region of North Vietnam where the majority of the population is made up of ethnic minorities. In the town of Da Nang Handicap International also supports a school for the hearing impaired, a member of the national network of Clubs for the hearing impaired.

In the near future, the program plans to carry out mine and UXO risk education and prevention work, set up a project for the socio-economic inclusion of disabled, and highly vulnerable, women, and work on a cross-border HIV prevention project with the Laos program. These projects are to take place in the central regions of the country but will depend on us finding ways to fund them.