Background
Located in the Southwest border of Vietnam, Dien Bien province has a population of nearly 550,000. According to a statistical research conducted in 2018, the number of children with disability in the province is over 3,000 (age 0-18), of which 643 kids have never been to school (21%), 773 have dropped out (24%). The rest of the children are going to local schools (from preschool to high school level), accounting for 55%.
What we are doing?
- MCNV kick started supporting healthcare and rehabilitation for persons with disabilities in Dien Bien province in 2014. In 2016, MCNV and the Dien Bien provincial Department of Education and Training signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to declare the willingness to establish and mobilize funding for the construction of the Support Center.
- The project was subsequently financially sponsored by Thien Tam Foundation (VINGROUP), pledging to provide funding for part of the infrastructure (a 2-storey buiding with 8 classrooms).
- In October 2019, the Supporting Center was officially put into operation. With financial and technical supports by MCNV, the staff of the center have been benefited from various capacity building activities.
- Since December 2019, the Center started to admit students with disabilities. The Center has so far providing teaching and daycare services for over 90 children with different forms of disabilities such as intellectual disabilities, speech impairment, hearing impairment, autism and DOWN syndrome.
What we’ve achieved so far?
At the end of the 2021-2022 school year, 17/90 students were qualified to attend mainstream schools.
Currently, MCNV is continuing to assist the Center as well as the Dien Bien province on providing capacity-building on early detection, early intervention and early education.
