Improving health, education and quality of life for children at Hoi An Orphanage

Our Mission in Hoi An is:

“To improve the health, education and quality of life for children at Hoi An Orphanage by working with the people of Vietnam.”

What we do at Hoi An Orphanage is therefore centred around the three key elements of our mission: health, education and quality of life.

From being a place where the disabled children had no access to education, rehabilitation, trips outside, or any of the good things generally associated with childhood, we have helped Hoi An Orphanage to become one of the better centres for children with disability in Vietnam.

PAST AND CURRENT PROJECTS

The following is a summary of previous and ongoing work being carried out at the Orphanage.

Health

Surgeries and Improved Health Care

We have worked with other charities to bring better health care and surgeries to the children. Tendon release, cleft lip and palette surgeries, shunt and heart surgeries are amongst those that the children have benefited from in the last few years. In some cases, these have been life saving. Recent arrivals at the Orphanage have highlighted the need for further surgeries, including for a child with hydrocephalus.

Physiotherapy

Our Physiotherapy programme is now one of the best in Vietnam. German Physiotherapist Kalli Heinemann comes every year to train our staff and to help them develop rehabilitation programmes that look at, and develop, each child as a whole; not merely focusing on, for example, a bent foot or a crooked spine.

Dental Treatment

All of the Orphanage children now receive regular, first class, dental treatment. When we first started to treat the children’s dental problems four years ago, none of them had ever visited the dentist before; the dentists involved said that they had the worse teeth on mass that they had ever seen. At least once every year, we take the children to the nearby city of Danang and the excellent dentist facilities and services provided by the East Meets West Foundation.

Education

Special Education

We have established a thriving Special Education programme that caters for, and develops, children with all levels of physical and intellectual disability. Children who just a few years before could not talk, read or write are now doing all of these things and more. Special Education is not yet a popular discipline in Vietnam. We are fortunate that our teachers are regularly trained by a Special Education teacher from Australia (Ms Roe Schroeder); Roe trains them to work more creatively with the children whose needs are greater than that provided for by mainstream education.

Staff Training

Existing Orphanage workers have been trained, and we have employed additional qualified staff. The Orphanage nurse, employed by the Vietnamese government, is currently receiving structured medical training.

Quality of Life

Improved Living Conditions

Unsanitary living quarters have been renovated, a bathroom equipped for disabled access has been installed; bright, well-stocked therapy rooms have been established. We provide regular maintenance, repairs and building assistance to ensure that the Orphanage premises are a safe environment for the children to be in.

Social Activities

We have provided countless birthday parties and happy days out, to the beach, the park, local restaurants – no small thing to children who, until a few years ago, had not been beyond the Orphanage walls. Every month, we aim to organise parties for children celebrating birthdays.

FUTURE PROJECTS

As well as maintaining the projects outlined above (many of them for a growing number of children with disability who are being taken in by the Orphanage) we are developing the following:

Health

Medical Care Plans

We are improving the daily medical care of the children. Detailed care plans are being devised to treat the complex medical demands of many of the Orphanage children.

Nutrition and Diet Plans

Some of the children coming into our care are badly malnourished, and require specialised dietary care if they are to have a chance of development. We are producing individual nutrition and diet plans, and developing targeted feeding patterns.

Rehabilitation Centre

We would like to provide Centre-based rehabilitation services to the Hoi An community. The Centre would be for the rehabilitation and teaching of children with disabilities, utilising what we have learned in dealing with the disabled children at Hoi An Orphanage.

Education

Vocational/life-skills training and sponsorship

We are developing vocational/life-skills training and sponsorship programmes as a safety net for children who will not go on to University but must leave the Orphanage at 17. Such children have, traditionally, ended up returning to live with extended family in rural poverty or taken their chances (unsupported and penniless) in Ho Chi Minh City.

Computer Skills and English Language Lessons

We are considering establishing a computer skills programme, to give a voice to, and enhance the communication skills of, our Special Education pupils. We are also considering providing English language lessons.

Speech Therapy

We are looking to develop a speech therapy programme.

Quality of Life

Half-way House

A cherished dream is to one day be able to provide a Half-way House for those young adults mentioned above, who leave the Orphanage with few life skills or resources to fall back on. Such a house would also become the permanent home for our young disabled people, who are presently removed to the local Adult Shelter at age 18. Many of the disabled children are bright, determined and resourceful individuals who deserve the chance to live as independently as possible.