Kianh Foundation - British Charity providing health and education services to disabled children in Central Vietnam

The Kianh Foundation stopped working at Hoi An Orphanage on 30 November 2010.

Hoi An Orphanage is the largest government-run orphanage in Quang Nam Province and is home to approximately 70 children, of which over 20 have disability.

The Kianh Foundation was established in 2001 in order to address an urgent need for services to be provided to the children with disability living at the Orphanage.

The Kianh Foundation worked permanently on site at the Orphanage from 2002 - 2010 and during this time established successful physiotherapy and special education programmes, trained and developed staff, organised and funded surgeries, renovated buildings, purchased equipment, provided medicines, and provided countless trips out and parties for children who, prior to 2001 had seldom left their bedrooms.

We stopped working at Hoi An Orphanage on 30 November 2010. We had trained and developed the government employees to become effective care workers, teachers and physiotherapists. It also became clear that the Orphanage no longer required financial support from us or other foreign donors. We therefore felt that we had built the necessary capacity for the Orphanage administration to run the programmes successfully on its own.

Our desire was always that the Orphanage would one day become self-sufficient, that our work there would become sustainable and our involvement no longer required.

The Orphanage administration are now fully-equipped to manage these programmes effectively. We had hoped that they would continue to deliver the same high standards of care to the children with disability that were established by us.

Sadly we have received many reports that conditions at Hoi An Orphanage have rapidly deteriorated.

ORPHANAGE TOURISM

Orphanage tourism is becoming a serious problem in South East Asia. Tourists visiting children in Orphanges do more harm than good.

During our time working at Hoi An Orphanage, we witnessed first-hand an increase in foreign tourists visiting the children living there. Despite the majority of these tourists having the best of intentions, we saw the damage that thier short-term visits did to the children.

Children are not tourist attractions. We strongly advise anyone considering visiting an orphanage to stop and think about thier actions and the damage it can do.

Please read the following website links and avoid perpetuating this serious problem.

Registered Office 79 Forfar Road, Liverpool, L13 8DX. Telephone: 0151 270 1186 Email: information@kianh.org.uk

This web page was last updated on: 9 April 2012

HOI AN ORPHANAGE

The Kianh Foundation stopped working at Hoi An Orphanage on 30 November 2010.

ORPHANAGE TOURISM