CWS Vietnam Program Highlights
Ethnic minority women in training at the Women's Union College
Photo: CWS Vietnam
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Support Clubs for Women in Difficult Circumstances
CWS has begun a project to help women who have family members who are drug users and/or infected with HIV/AIDS. The project is in partnership with Hanoi Women Union School Department of Social Work, and the Dai Tu district Women's Union. The purpose of the project is to help affected women form support clubs and provide essential management and organization skills for the clubs' operations. The clubs will provide women with knowledge and skills on how to cope with their situations on a day to day basis. It is hoped that the success of the support clubs will spread a positive influence to the families and surrounding community.
ELCA supports education and water for ethnic minorities
In November, CWS began implementation of the ELCA funded community development project in Phuc Thuan commune, one of the poorest areas of Thai Nguyen province. Initially, the project will improve education quality in the local primary school by providing teacher training and necessary teaching aids. In addition, the project will provide a community water system which will supply clean water to the school, health clinic, and 50 surrounding local households. The second phase of the project will focus on desperately needed classroom construction. Phuc Thuan commune is populated by the Trai, Tay, Nung and Cao Lan ethnic minority people.
Food for hungry ethnic minority students
In Nov 2006, CWS began school feeding and take home rice rations for kindergarten and lower secondary schools in Muong Te district, Lai Chau province. The idea was initiated by local parents who said that one of their main reasons for not sending children to school was lack of food. The feeding activities are currently being piloted in one kindergarten where 30 students are provided with a midday meal of rice soup, and 2 lower secondary schools where 95 students are provided with 10kg of rice/month. Parents and teachers are active in the activities and participate in the purchasing, cooking, and distribution of the food.
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Village health worker with a patient Photo: CWS Vietnam
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Training for Village Health Workers
CWS, in cooperation with the Muong Te district health department, is supporting training for 50 new village health workers. Currently, the district only has 125 qualified health workers to cover 163 villages and 45,000 people. The district health department is eager to improve the quality of the public health network in this remote and mountainous area, and aims to place at least one qualified health worker in every village. The training participants are selected from the local community and stay in the training center for the 6 month course. After the course, the health workers return to their villages to provide more professional services to those in need.