On June 28 2019, at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Hanoi, the Embassy and MCNV signed the official contract on the “Realization of land use rights for ethnic minority people with disabilities (PWD) in Dakrong and Huong Hoa districts, Quang Tri province”. This project is under the Accountability Fund supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The project will be implemented in 18 months, focusing on the issue of land use rights for PWD in two poor mountainous districts of Quang Tri province – Dakrong and Huong Hoa. The main objectives of the projects are: 1/ to facilitate stakeholders in certifying land use right certification and providing lands for housing and production for PWD in Huong Hoa and Dakrong districts; 2/ to include PWD into the provincial policy No. 10/2018 on supporting lands and land use right certification for the ethnic minority poor and the poor living in extremely disadvantaged areas; 3/ to increase awareness of PWD on land use rights, related policies, services and procedures to access these rights; and 4/ to improve organizational capacity for Quang Tri Disabled People Organization (DPO) in advocacy and land use right for PWD in the province.

Through this project, MCNV expects to support local partners to make efforts in lobbying and advocacy to improve the situation of the land use right. The key partner of MCNV in this project is the Quang Tri DPO, which includes the Association of PWD, Agent Orange Victims, and Sponsorship for PWD and Child Rights Protection of Quang Tri Province.

Represented in the contract signing were Ms. Anouk Baron, Second Secretary on Political, Press and Cultural Affairs of the Embassy of the Netherlands, and Mr. Pham Dung, MCNV Vietnam Country Director.

In remote mountainous areas of Huong Hoa district, Quang Tri province, the Bru – Van Kieu ethnic minority people collect bamboo from craggy rocks along streams of the Truong Son mountain strips. Bamboo stems are cut into pieces of 20cm length and cleanly processed and sun-dried, turning them into environment-friendly products. They are bamboo straws.

With the support from MCNV, three bamboo straw production groups with the participation of 21 households are now operating well in Huong Hoa. Each group can produce on average 5,000 bamboo straws per month in response to specific orders, resulting in better income for the participating households. MCNV’s assistance includes: Training on production and group management; Provision of bamboo cutting machines and some other devices; Development of bamboo material areas; and Quality control & Market linkage. For the past 6 months, the production of bamboo straws has generated an extra income of 75 million VND for these households, enabling them to cover costs for their children, as well as family daily expenses.

Production of bamboo straws is part of a MCNV’s project in support of ethnic minority adolescent girls. In remote mountainous villages of Huong Hoa district in Quang Tri, along the frontier area between Vietnam and Lao PDR, adolescent girls are facing serious and long-lasting problems: school dropout, early marriage, unwanted pregnancy at adolescence, joblessness and lack of income. These problems badly put long-lasting impacts on the girls’ lives and future. Tackling these problems requires comprehensive interventions, including awareness raising and behavior change communication on adolescent sexual and reproductive health and child marriage, life-skills development for adolescents,  improvement of the quality of and access to health and educational services, material support, vocational training and job creation. Above all, poverty is seen as a root cause of the girls’ problems. It is, therefore, important to help adolescent girls’ families have more stable jobs and extra income, enabling them to better support the adolescent girls. Producing and selling bamboo straws becomes a good solution for income generation, and at the same time responds to the current trend of using plastic-free products for environment protection as an added value.

In the coming time, MCNV expects to collaborate with enterprises and organisations having interest in non-plastic products to help the production groups develop many more products from bamboo, such as cutleries and decorative furniture. By creating bamboo products in replacement of plastic products for daily use, not only do the Bru Van Kieu indigenous people in Huong Hoa improve the girls’ lives, they are also making a meaningful contribution to the social change.

On May 6^th 2019, Ms Monique Smier and Ms Hoang Phuong Phi from the Hulza Foundation, the Netherlands visited the MCNV’s Microfiannce Project in Binh Dai district, Ben Tre province. This trip was special to Monique and Phi because they visited Thoi Lai commune, where the Hulza Foundation started their microfinance support for poor women in 2016.

Ms Monique and Ms Phi took their first visit to Ben Tre in 2016, when the province was suffering the serious saline intrusion that widely endangered the Mekong river delta in Vietnam. After that trip, Monique and Phi decided to join hands with MCNV to expand the microfinance project to Thoi Lai commune. With the donation of Euro 20,000 in 2016, the Ben Tre Women’s Union and MCNV were able to expand the project to Thoi Lai commune with inclusive microfinance services and community development support to poor women. Until May 2019, 152 poor women in community have had micro loans and savings from the project in 15 credit groups. Most of them had first loans in 2017-2018 to build high capacity water containers for retaining rain water to be safe during dry season. After having enough fresh water for living, in the second and third cycles of loans, more women tend to invest in their home business such as cow, goat or pig raising or other suitable businesses such as trading and farming their home gardens. 50 poor women could build their home hygienic latrines from this project loans to keep the environment clean. 13 women borrowed free of interest loans to buy voluntary health insurance for totally 37 family members to protect themselves from health risks. During monthly credit group meetings, poor women are equipped with financial literacy training from the Women’s Union and learn more life and production knowledge by compulsory sharing session during the meetings.

This project will continue once the need from poor women for inclusive financial service and community development is still there. Ms Monique and Ms Phi showed their high satisfaction about the beginning results of Thoi Lai commune and looked forward to further cooperation with MCNV in the future to support disadvantage groups in Vietnam.

Ms Monique Smier and Ms Hoang Phuong Phi from the Hulza Foundation visited the MCNV’s Microfiannce Project in Binh Dai district, Ben Tre province.

On April 25, 2019 in Hue City and April 26, 2019 in Tam Ky City, MCNV together with Center for Creative Initiatives in Health and Population (CCIHP) and Provincial Department of Health in Thua Thien Hue and Quang Nam organized the Launching Ceremony of the Project “Interdisciplinary Rehabilitation Services Supporting Children with Intellectual and Developmental disabilities to thrive” (hereafter called I-THRIVE). In each province, about 60 participants attended the event including people from USAID; The Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Association (VUSTA); Ministry of Health; Provincial People’s committee; Provincial Department of Health and related departments; Da Nang University of Medical Technology and Pharmacy (UMTP); Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy (UMP); Association of People with Disabilities (PWDs); Provincial hospitals and district health centers those involved in the project; and other organizations who have been working on supporting PWDs in the 2 provinces. The Memorandum of Agreement was officially signed between CCIHP, MCNV and Quang Nam Department of Health.

The I-THRIVE Project focuses on 3 objectives:

1. To increase the capacity of rehabilitation professionals at provincial and district level in occupational therapy (OT), speech and language therapy (SALT), and physical therapy (PT);
2. To develop interdisciplinary rehabilitation services and foster parents-mediated intervention to children with intellectual and developmental with disabilities (IDDs);
3. To strengthen the content and relevance of nation guidelines on rehabilitation and care for children living with IDDs, with a focus on Autism Spectrum Disorders, and interdisciplinary rehabilitation services.

MCNV is responsible for conducting activities under objective 1, in collaboration with international and national universities. The Project is expected to train 24 rehabilitation technicians – specialized in OT, 24 rehabilitation technicians – specialized in SALT, and 9 rehabilitation technician – specialized in PT for provincial hospitals and district health centers in Thua Thien Hue and Quang Nam Provinces, with focusing on district level. After attending 1-year theoretical and practical training in Da Nang UMTP and Hue UMP, all 57 participants will be provided hand-on coaching in their working facilities by international volunteers. In addition, the Project will also provide provincial hospitals and district health centers basic rehabilitation equipment.

The I-THRIVE Project is sponsored by USAID, VUSTA is Line Management Agency, CCIHP is the Project Implementing Partner and MCNV is Co-Implementing Partner. Project duration is 3 years, from November, 2018 to October, 2021. Project locations are Thua Thien Hue and Quang Nam provinces. The Project is expected to pilot the model of interdisciplinary rehabilitation services at provincial and district levels in Thua Thien Hue and Quang Nam provinces in order to widely apply in other areas afterwards.

On December 25, 2018, the Collaboration and Networking to Enhance Education and Nutrition (CANTEEN) Project implemented an Annual Meeting to report on the progress of the project over the past year and to present the work plan for the 2019 project in Nong Village, Savannakhet Province.

On the 28^th of December 2018, a review workshop on the Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture (NSA) project in the 2017-2018 period took place in Dong Xuan district of Phu Yen province. The event was also an occasion to celebrate 10 years of cooperation between Dong Xuan district and MCNV (2008-2018). Attending this event were representatives of MCNV, the People’s Committee, Health Center, Department of Education & Training, and Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Dong Xuan district, as well as the people’s committees of 6 communes involved in the project.

At the workshop, MCNV and the local partners looked back on the progress of the NSA project, drew lessons learned and planned for the next phase of the project (2019-2020).

MCNV team receiving certificates of merit at the workshop

Also at the workshop, in recognition of the MCNV’s contributions to the development work in Dong Xuan for the past 10 years, the People’s Committee of Dong Xuan District awarded a certificate of merit from Phu Yen Provincial People’s Committee to MCNV Office in Central Vietnam and certificates of merit from Dong Xuan District People’s Committee to individual staff of MCNV Office in Central Vietnam, including Mr. Nguyen Dinh Dai (Chief of Office), Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Lan (Program Coordinator) and Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong (Financial Manager).

In the period of 2008-2016, MCNV cooperated with the local partners to have many interventions in Dong Xuan district, especially on malnutrition prevention for children under 5 years old. For the period of 2017-2020, through the NSA project MCNV continues to intervene and research to identify the experiences, knowledge and practicality of nutritionally sensitive interventions, so as to propose appropriate solutions to the upscaling of the NSA approach in remote ethnic minority communities in Phu Yen province, thereby contributing to improving food security and reducing the rate of malnourished children under 5.