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Vietnam
“States Parties recognise that a mentally or physically
disabled child should enjoy a full and decent life, in
conditions which ensure dignity, promote self-reliance
and facilitate the child’s active participation in the
community.”
– Article 23.1, Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989
“Children have traditionally been seen as objects of
charity rather than subjects of rights. Politicians,
professionals and of course parents, have cared for
their well-being, but primarily in the spirit of protecting
the vulnerable. It was not widely recognised that
children are also capable, that they have opinions, that
they deserve respect as all other human beings and
that they ought to have ‘rights’ .”
– Thomas Hammarberg, Vice-chair, UN Committee on the Rights of the
Child; Ambassador and special adviser to the Swedish Government on
humanitarian issues, 1996
Useful approaches to
building disabled children’s
participation
The lives of children who have disabilities are
constrained on many levels, and clearly, the
barriers to their participation in community life
stem not only from their actual disabilities but
also from others’ attitudes to or understanding
of them. For this reason, programs need to
work with those others to ensure the inclusion
of people with disability as a priority in social
planning. Approaches found useful include:
1. Provide various training activities to
parents, volunteer CBR workers and local
government officers. Approaches need to
vary in style and content, and include
hands-on study tours. This increases
knowledge and awareness, which can
motivate them to be more active in
assisting children with disabilities.
2. Use local (not foreign) trainers where
possible – not only because of their
understanding of culture and context, but
because their experience and capacity
needs to be recognised and to ensure that
learning is applied and retained locally.
3. Support the involvement of parents.
Parents are often physically and mentally
tired from constantly taking care of their
children, and often give up hope that their
children will improve.
4. Involve volunteers – encourage them to
take leadership roles in the community.
We should not just focus on families, as
there is a need to broaden ownership of
issues and support available to both the
family and the child. The impact for the
child may be limited if program impacts
stay within the family.
5. Local authorities need to gain a good
understanding of disability, as their
cooperation on community initiatives is
essential for any work to be done in
Vietnam. Such support enables service
development to take place that is in keeping
with the Government’s policy commitments
to children in difficult circumstances.
Grassroots activities (in this case, for the
rights of children with disabilities) also have
a much better chance when local, city and
national-level persons are supportive.
6. With limited staff, agencies cannot be
involved with each child. World Vision
Vietnam highlighted what was possible by
working with a few children who had
potential to improve, then sharing these
example/model cases with potential or
actual CBR service providers. In this way,
people can see the difference before and
after the intervention, and consider some
practical ways of assisting children with
disabilities. This also helps them to see,
not only in theory but in practice, that
conditions for such children can improve
by an effort within the community.
Cases – such as that of Huynh Tan Nghia
in the text box – are written up and
(with permission from children and the
family) used as examples. Their stories
and photographs are shared in target
communities.
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