News

On August 22 2019 in Da Nang city, the Medical Committee Netherlands – Vietnam (MCNV) and Da Nang University of Medical Technology and Pharmacy organized successfully the workshop on “Developing Outlines for a 12-months Course in Speech and Language Therapy and Physiotherapy”.

August 6th 2019 - 36 students have received their bachelor degrees in Occupational Therapy (OT) from the Haiduong Medical Technical University and become the first Occupational Therapists in Vietnam.

Magazine in Dutch

Marijke Postma-Rustenhoven and Pieter van den Hombergh, chairman and vice-chairman of the Supervisory Board of MCNV, visited Laos and Vietnam in November because of the 50th anniversary. A great opportunity to see with your own eyes how MCNV works and to listen to the findings of colleagues on the spot

Interview with Ngoc Lan, a staff member of MCNV for 20 years.

Tom Fluitsma is an MCNV donor and has been an active volunteer from 1999 onwards, as an editor of MCNV Magazine and as a tour leader of donor travels. He has often traveled in Vietnam, with and without donors. This year he writes columns about special memories of the times he was there.

The new project on the “Realization of land use rights for ethnic minority people with disabilities (PWD) in Dakrong and Huong Hoa districts, Quang Tri province”.

The Supervisory Board of MCNV is pleased to inform you that as of July 1, 2019, Ms Huyen Thi Hoang is appointed as Board of Director of MCNV and as of that date the Board of Director and the staff of the Amsterdam office will be fully operational again.

MCNV is seeking a volunteer on Occupational Therapy (OT) to work in Ho Chi Minh city for 4 months, from October 2019 to January 2020 to support 02 students from Manipal Academy of Higher Education and 12 Bachelor students from University of Medical and Pharmacy of Ho Chi Minh City during their internship.

MCNV supports ethnic minority groups in remote villages of Quang Tri province to produce bamboo straws in replacement of plastic straws. This is a good solution to creating stable jobs and income for villagers and responding to plastic-free production for environment protection.

On May 6th 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.

MCNV together with Center for Creative Initiatives in Health and Population 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”

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.

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. In combination with this event, MCNV team in Central Vietnam got certificates of merit from the local authority in recognition of MCNV's contributions in Dong Xuan for the last 10 years.

Both food and mental health care needed in Central Vietnam Last year we have asked you to support the people in Quang Tri province. Your reactions have been generous and you’ve made it possible to continue supporting these people. This winter we would like to introduce two new projects: increasing food security in the poorest villages and support for students with mental health problems.

Another article about MCNV on the occasion of the 50th anniversary is posted on the Vietnam Times of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations. Information and stories about MCNV’s former advisor Ron Marchand and loyal donor Suus van Hekken are lively shared in this article. Here is the link to the article.

On December 21st 2018, an evaluation workshop on the School-based Mental Health Care Project took place in Quang Tri Province, where MCNV and stakeholders reviewed high school students' MH situation, the project results and future directions.

This summer, Dutch journalist Frans Glissenaar travelled to Nong district in Lao PDR to make a documentary on our CANTEEN project. The result of his journey is a so-called IPhone documentary, shot completely with his IPhone.

Some 175 guests attended the 50th anniversary of MCNV in Amsterdam. Donors from the very first days of MCNV, Mr. Pham Toan Thang and Mr. Nguyen Hai Tinh from the Embassy of Vietnam, staff from Vietnam, Lao PDR and Amsterdam, Supervisory Board members, ex-staff, ex-board members, Ms Mette Gonggrijp from the Dutch Ministery of Foreign Affairs, project partners and friends joined in the celebration in Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam.

MCNV and Hai Duong Medical Technical University organised a workshop to reviewing the Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (BOT) education program and job placement for BOT students. The program has been being implemented in Hai Duong and Ho Chi Minh for the last 2 years of 2017 and 2018.

A lot of interesting information and stories related to the work of MCNV in Vietnam were dialogued on the VTV4’s show “Talk Vietnam” yesterday evening December 2nd. Thanks so much to Ad Spijkers and Ron Marchand for sharing human-interest stories and significant milestones throughout the MCNV’s history. A link to the show can be found here.

1968 – 2018 marks 50 years of MCNV Founded in Amsterdam in November 1968 as one of many Dutch solidarity movements, MCNV managed to change with the times, turn into an international NGO and remain relevant to the Dutch-Vietnamese relations and cooperations and of importance for the Vietnamese and Laotian people. Read more for a link to the livestream.

On November 16th 2018, the celebration of the MCNV’s 50th anniversary took place at the International Convention Center, Hanoi. Participating in the event were about 150 guests representing a wide range of Vietnamese institutions and partners.

For two days of 2nd and 3rd October 2018 in Da Nang, MCNV and Da Nang UMTP co-organized the Workshop “Developing curriculum for a Bachelor of Rehabilitation Techniques with Specialization in Speech and Language Therapy”.

Last week, after a period of extensive discussions, the Supervisory Board of MCNV and Guus Paardekooper, General Director, have decided to end their collaboration. A difference of opinion on the MCNV policy for the coming years and more specific on its strategy and timing are at the root of this decision.

On August 6, 2018, at the Vietnam People’s Aid Coordinating Committee (PACCOM), PACCOM’s representatives awarded the working license to MCNV Vietnam. The license will be valid until February 4, 2023.

Workshop to expand the project “Improving the communication on sexual and reproductive health for high school students in the mountainous areas of Dien Bien province”.

Hoa is a 9-year-old girl, living with her grandmother in a tiny urban village in a remote part of Dien Bien province. Hoa suffers from cerebral palsy. Her family is extremely poor. Her parents, farmers, can hardly manage. When Hoa was 2 years old, because of her handicap, her parents left her with her grandmother, who since then takes care of her.

Ms. Cẩm Tú and Mr. Bảo Anh, two senior managers from PwC, Ho Chi Minh city branch, visited and worked with the Ben Tre Micro Finance project in Binh Dai district on July 6th, 2018.

On May 29 2018, MCNV in collaboration with the Department of Health, Dien Bien province, organized successfully the workshop “Community-based Rehabilitation”.

Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands honored MCNV in her speech in the meeting of 45 years of the diplomatic relation Vietnam – the Netherlands

On April 4 2018, MCNV and its project partners organized a workshop to share the results of the assessment on the need of speech and language therapy in Vietnam.

On March 29, 2018, the partners of the LICM project (Learning about the use of Innovative Communication Methods ) came together in Vientiane for a final review of successes and lessons learnt after a year of joint activities. Coordinated by MCNV, this collaborative effort sought to empower vulnerable youth groups in Laos, providing them with skills and means to advocate more effectively for their specific needs. 

The People’s Committee of Quang Tri Province in cooperation with MCNV held a meeting to celebrate the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relationship between the Netherlands and Vietnam (1973-2018) and 50th anniversary of MCNV (1968-2018).

Between March 12 and 20, 2018, Mr. Guus Paardekooper, MCNV’s General Director, visited Vietnam for networking and resource-mobilization purposes regarding the dragon fruit value chain project.

On March 19 2018, MCNV cooperated with the Youth Union of the Vinh Linh High School, Quang Tri, to organize a communication session about mental health care, focusing on “Building a good friendship – Saying “no” to school violence”.

On March 5, 2018, Hanoi University of Public Health (HUPH) hosted a welcome event for 10 Master of Public Health students newly arrived from the University of Health Sciences in Laos (UHS). The group is the first batch to participate in the dual-degree, two-year MPH programme shared by the two universities, which encompasses studies in both Laos and Vietnam.

A moving documentary film about Children with Disabilities and their Social Inclusion on VTV4 on March 15 2018.

From 2017 to 2022, through the DISTINCT project managed by VietHealth, MCNV received a fund from USAID to run a project on speech and language therapy (SALT) education development in Vietnam. The project aims at establishing a solid foundation for the development of an official education system of SALT profession in Vietnam.

December comes with the cold freeze of winter, but teachers and students at the Cao Bang Rehabilitation and Inclusive Education Centre (RIEC) felt so warm and full of love during celebrations for the International Day of People with Disability on the December 3rd.

Schools are often enjoyable places for children to develop and learn, but they can also be very stressful environments particularly around exam time.

Rehabilitation has been developed in Vietnam for more than 40 years; however, Occupational Therapy (OT) is still a new field. With the support from USAID, MCNV has been implementing a 5 year project in OT training development in Vietnam.

On the 5th December 2017, Dr Pham Dung, MCNV’s Country Director in Vietnam, was awarded the Medallion for People’s Health in recognition of his outstanding dedication to improving the well-being of people living with disability in Vietnam.

Over two days in November, volunteers from HSBC visited poor communes in Quang Tri province to help organize communication sessions on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for poor ethnic minority girls and their parents.

In 2016, Vietnam suffered an environmental disaster due to a major chemical spill of the coast of Quang Tri. It decimated fish stocks and destroyed the livelihoods of poor fishermen and their families.

On the 22nd and 23th November MCNV and its partners from the LEARN programme went to Yangon, Myanmar to participate in the 9th International Conference on Public Health among Greater Mekong Sub-regional countries (ICPH-GMS).

  From the 23th to the 25th of October 2017 the National Institute of Public Health (NIOPH) in Lao PDR, hosted a series of events at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Vientiane. MCNV Lao PDR supported the NIOPH through the Lao Equity through policy Analysis and Research Networks (LEARN) program.

On October 19 2017, the Vietnam Film Institute (VFI) and stakeholders organized the official ceremony to receive historic documentary films and materials from MCNV and the European Foundation Joris Ivens (EFJI). The ceremony took place in a formal and moving atmosphere.

On September 8 2017, MCNV cooperated with the Department of Education and Training – Quang Tri province to organize the workshop on “Survey results of mental health conditions of high school students in Quang Tri”.

Between September 25 and October 12 2017, MCNV and the Athena Research Institute, Vrije Amsterdam University, the Netherlands, conducted a retrospective study on the status of nutrition in children age under 5 in four villages, Ky Du, Phu Son, Xi Thoai, and Ha Rai of Xuan Quang 2 and Xuan Lanh communes, Dong Xuan district, Phu Yen province.

Everyone agrees that inclusion is hard, that reaching the poorest and most marginalised is difficult. The layers and reinforcing cycles of exclusion defy the conventional development project approach. Something else, something qualitatively different is needed.

Workshop to introduce a new book with the title of “Education in reproductive health for high school students” to the high school teachers.

On September 12, representatives from 7 MCNV funded community development funds in Phu Yen province together with MCNV  staffs have visited to and worked with the PricewaterhouseCoopers  (PwC) team in Ho Chi Minh city.

On August 28 2017, MCNV cooperating with the Quang Tri Department of Health held the workshop ‘Enhancing mental health care in community’. More than 30 representatives from the Department of Public Health, Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and nine districts, six hamlet health executives of Vinh Son commune and Vinh Tu commune of Vinh Linh District participated in the workshop.

On August 29th 2017, MCNV collaborated with the Village Health Workers’ Association of Quang Tri Province and the Youth Union of Huong Hoa District to organize a kickoff workshop for MCNV’s new project “Supporting Ethnic Minority Adolescent Girls”.

The 27th Occupational Therapy Australia Conference “Partnership, Inclusion and Innovation” Such a privilege to us – a delegation from Vietnam to attend the 27th OT Australia Conference which was held from July 18th-21st in Perth, Western Australia.

August 28, 2017, in collaboration with Vietnam Rehabilitation Association (VINAREHA), MCNV organized the first OT networking workshop in Danang city with participation of more than 65 OT practitioners and students from across the country and especially OT colleagues from Australia, Japan, UK and USA. 

On July 7 2017, MCNV Central Vietnam and the Phu Yen Department of Health organized the project launching workshop on Accessing the Malnutrition Prevention for Children at Ages under 5 based on Agriculture Solutions in the Mountainous in Phu Yen province, period 2017 – 2020 (the NSA project).

MCNV cooperated with Quang Tri Health Department and Da Nang Mental Health (MH) Hospital to organize a training workshop on basic mental disorder (MD) diagnosis and treatment for grassroots health care workers.

On July 6-7 2017, the Sunflower Groups supported by MCNV organized a workshop on Health Insurance for People living with HIV. In the workshop, representatives of nine Sunflower Groups in Cao Bang, Yen Bai, Thai Nguyen, Dien Bien and Quang Ninh had the chance to gain knowledge on Health Insurance.

On Sunday, July 9, MCNV had a meeting in The Hague with the Vietnamese delegation. The Prime Minster and other Ministers from Vietnam were in The Netherlands to talk about cooperation and exchange between Vietnam and the Netherlands.

LICM introduces communicative communication methods such as (shadow) drama, songs and cartoons as a means to facilitate dialogue between youngsters of vulnerable groups about SRHR and between youngsters and influential people and groups in society.

On June 30th 2017, at Khe Sanh town, Huong Hoa district, Quang Tri province, MCNV collaborated with the Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Centre of Quang Tri province to organize a workshop to consult relevant stakeholders about the situation and solutions to health, education and social inclusion issues related to ethnic minority adolescent girls at Huong Hoa district.

MCNV is member of the Barefoot Guide Alliance, an alliance of 6 organisations around the world, which are sustaining the Barefoot Guide Connection to spread its message and methods. The Barefoot Guide Connection is a global network of individuals and organisations that value deep reflection on development practices by and for practitioners. A method that has emerged from writing four Barefoot guides is the ‘Writeshopping for Development’ methodology.

Last Friday, May 12, 2017, the new ambassador of Vietnam in the Hague, Mrs Ngo Thi Hoa, visited MCNV office in Amsterdam. Mrs Hoa wants to intensify the relationship between Vietnam and the Netherlands, joining forces in collaboration. To realise this, she made a list of organisations to visit and MCNV was on the top of this list.

Dear friends, The past year we have been working very hard on our new strategy. We’re proud to present the results of this international teamwork in the MCNV Strategy 2017-2021.

14th April 2017, in collaboration with Hai Duong Medical and Technical University (HMTU), MCNV organized a workshop on introduction of Occupational Therapy (OT) Training Program for Bachelor level.

On April 22nd 2017, Ms. Monique Smiers and Ms. Hoang Phuong Phi, two delegates from Hulza Foundation, Netherlands have visited MCNV’s microfinance project in Binh Dai district, Ben Tre province.

In March 2017 a delegation of the Vietnamese Film Institute and the European Foundation Joris Ivens visited the MCNV office in Dong Ha.

Approaches & tools for writing stories and learning from practice from 15 to 16 May 2017 at International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), the Hague, Netherlands

In the week of 20th March 2017, the NWO-WOTRO funded project “Scaling-up nutrition-sensitive agriculture” was officially launched in Vientiane, Lao PDR.

MCNV Laos organised a traning of trainers followed with a formulation workshop in Vientiane Capital to officially launch the project “Learning from the use of Innovative Communication Methods”

Welcome to MCNV’s new website! The new website will play an important role in our communication to you, as a private donor, an institutional or a corporate partner. 

On December 12th 2016, the Department of Education and Training (DoET) of Quang Tri Province, MCNV and the Korean INGO Medipeace co-organized a workshop to share results of an assessment on inclusive education (IE) for children with disabilities (CWD) recently done in the province.

On Friday, November 25th, the Dutch Business Association in Vietnam (DBAV) hosted their 3rd annual charity golf tournament on the fairways at Song Be Golf Course.

Access to clean water is vital to health and MCNV has been pleased to support the installation of boreholes in remote villages in Nong District, Lao PDR.

On November 4th MCNV and AFAS Foundation signed a collaboration contract in Amsterdam. A contract on rural development and food security in the coming years in Laos.

From November 5th – 6th, MCNV participated in the 8th International Conference on Public Health Among Greater Mekong Sub-Regional Countries,

Climate change and saline intrusion in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam has caused negative impacts for millions of inhabitants who live in coastal areas. Poor families who live on fisheries and agricultural production have suffered from income loss due to less yield crops and worsening health conditions.

MCNV was delighted to support the 10th National Health Forum held in Savannakhet province, Lao PDR, as part of the EU funded LEARN program.

On Thursday afternoon, May 12th, in the Hague, the Best New Partnership Award 2016 is awarded to the team of MCNV and a.s.r., for the best social project in a developing country. MCNV and a.s.r. together developed a plan to provide income protection insurance,

A new publication by MCNV, Global Initiative on Psychiatry, and World Granny is available: Download Embracing Practices of Inclusion Stories of how people in Georgia, Lao PDR, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan and Vietnam made inclusive development happen in their societies.