Bilingual education in Viet Nam

Viet Nam has made overall progress in basic education. Net enrolment rates for primary and second level are 95.5 per cent and 86.2 per cent, respectively (2009 Census). Between 1992 and 2008, primary level completion rates rose from 45.0 per cent to 89.8 per cent.

Despite major achievements in the education sector in Viet Nam, however disparities still remain and education attainment is much lower among several groups, particularly among ethnic minority groups. For ethnic minority children, low enrolment and completion and high drop-out and repetition rates remain a challenge. According to the Government's Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS, 2011), the primary school completion rate among ethnic minority children is significantly lower than that of Kinh and Hoa children: 79.8 per cent and 103.1 per cent, respectively. There is also inequality between different ethnic minority groups. Figure 1 shows that the primary school net attendance rate among the Mong is as low as 69.6 per cent, while the rate among the Tay is the highest of all, 93.5 per cent, followed by Kinh of 92.6 per cent (Census, 2009).

Find out more details at http://www.unicef.org/vietnam/resources_19823.html

During United Nations week, a voice for children with disabilities is heard in corridors of power

During United Nations week in New York, Vietnamese singing sensation and advocate Crystal joined forces with American icon and United Nations Messenger of Peace Stevie Wonder to push for a “world of inclusion”.

NEW YORK, United States of America, 26 September 2013 – She calls herself Crystal, because of her brittle bones, but Nguyen Phuong Anh is fast becoming known for her sparkling voice and for shattering stereotypes about disabilities.

Provincial children’s forum: Voice of children from Lao Cai province

Chau Thi Tao, 15, was attending Lao Cai’s Children’s Forum in July 2013, where she and 51 other young students voiced up for their rights to participation. They were gathering to influence the amendment of the Law on Protection, Care and Education of Children.

“I want child marriage to end. I can talk to my friends and other people in my homeland about children’s rights and how the Law protects them.” – Tao said. “Early marriage cannot help people to escape poverty. I hope policy makers will consider this issue more seriously when they amend the Law.”

Chau Thi Tao before the National Children Forum. ©  UNICEF Viet Nam\2013\Nguyen Huong Ly

Bilingual education for ethnic minority children in Viet Nam

Vang Thi Thu Ha, 9, participates in the bilingual education pilot 

Vang Thi Thu Ha, a third grader at Ban Pho Primary School in Lao Cai - a poor northern mountainous province of Viet Nam, is articulating the strengths of bilingual education and a more equitable future for the nation’s ethnic minority population.

UNICEF's Next Generation Vietnam Field Visit

From 17 till 21 June, representatives from the US Next Generation, a group of young entrepreneurs that advocate for UNICEF in the United-States, visited UNICEF projects in Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Thap. UNICEF Next Generation United States members are influential and passionate young adults (age 18-35) who are committed to supporting UNICEF's mission to fulfill the rights of all children through the deliverance of educational and fundraising programmes. Nicole Neal, one of these visitors, has shared her diary with us. 

One Family, One Toilet: Changing Old Habits to Save Lives in Northern Viet Nam

Quai Nua commune, Tuan Giao district – Until not so long ago, Lo, Thi Trang, did exactly like other children in her village when the call of nature came. 

“I used to poop in the river”, the 12 year-old giggles. “We had had no toilet and did not even know what it was. Really, I didn’t mind. We used to go down the hill to the river. Everyone in the village was doing the same: no shame! During the rainy season, it was a bit scary as it became slippery and we had to watch our steps.”

Trang is proud to introduce the new hygienic latrine that her parents built next to her house seven months ago, in Quai Nua commune, Tuan Giao district, Dien Bien province.

© UNICEF Viet Nam/2013/Matthew Dakin

Boarding schools provide education and security for vulnerable children in Viet Nam

A programme in Viet Nam supports ethnic minority children in their learning.

Giang Thi Me is visiting her family during weekend. Together with 90 other Mong students, she stays in school in weekdays as it’s too far for her to travel from home to school everyday.

DIEN BIEN PROVINCE, Viet Nam – At 6:30 a.m. in this remote, mountainous region of northern Viet Nam, the day has begun at the Tua Thang boarding school. Giang Thi Me, 7, is one of the more than 300 students at the school. She is a member of the Mong ethnic minority. Together with 90 other students, Me stays in the school in weekdays as it’s too far for her to travel from home to school everyday.

Fighting the stereotypes: disabilities report launch is a big hit in Viet Nam

On 30 May 2013, UNICEF launched its annual flagship report, State of the World’s Children, in Da Nang, Viet Nam. The subject was disability. Andy Brown was on the ground with UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake as he visited centres around Da Nang and met children with disabilities.

Children with disabilities pose for a photo after their drum game
© UNICEF EAPRO/2013/Andy Brown

I arrived in Viet Nam two days before the report launch. From the air, Da Nang is stunning. We came in to land at sunset, with a cloudless view across a wide river delta and out to sea. Trees and village houses cast long shadows across the waterways and mud-brown fields. Near the coast, a handful of limestone peaks (the Marble Mountains) rose out of an otherwise flat landscape. Here and there, a few cargo boats made their way downstream to the sea.

But Da Nang also has a dark side. During the Vietnam War, its airfield was used to store containers of ‘Agent Orange’, a chemical that was sprayed over the countryside to destroy crops and forests. Now, almost four decades later, Da Nang still has one of the highest rates of birth defects in the region. This is widely attributed to Agent Orange, which contaminates the water supply and food chain.

Photos: helping children disabled by Agent Orange

Dang Hong Dan is just three years old but he’s a victim of the Vietnam War. He was born with disabilities because of Agent Orange – a chemical sprayed in the south of the country during the war to destroy crops and forests. Although the war ended almost four decades ago, Agent Orange still contaminates fields and rivers in the Mekong Delta region. It gets into food and drinking water, causing birth defects in children.

Photos: UNICEF Viet Nam\2013\Truong Viet Hung

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Children with disabilities overcome the legacy of Agent Orange

Three-year-old Dan was born with disabilities because of Agent Orange
© UNICEF Viet Nam/2013/Truong Viet Hung

Dang Hong Dan is just three years old but he’s a victim of the Vietnam War. He was born with disabilities because of Agent Orange – a chemical sprayed in the south of the country during the war to destroy crops and forests. Although the war ended almost four decades ago, Agent Orange still contaminates fields and rivers in the Mekong Delta region. It gets into food and drinking water, causing birth defects in children.

Dan was born with a cleft lip, which has been partly repaired with surgery, and a deformed hand and foot. He is too young to be aware of his disability and the stigma that sometimes surrounds it. He is a happy and active child, with an enormous sense of curiosity and clearly intelligent for his age. “Dan likes to play with anything,” his mother Oanh, 30, says with a laugh as he tries to figure out how to use UNICEF’s digital camera.

The power of vaccines

The first "vaccine" a child receives, breast milk, is free and massively reduces the chances of illness. (c)UNICEF Viet Nam\2007\Doan Bao

This week more than 180 countries are celebrating World Immunization Week.  Vaccines are a life-saving and cost effective public health intervention we often take for granted. They provide immunity against various illnesses causing death and disability that a whole new generation is lucky enough not to remember. Vaccines helped eradicate smallpox in 1977 and are on their way to eradicating polio and eliminating neonatal tetanus and measles. Newer vaccines protect against some types of pneumonia and diarrhoea (the two biggest disease-specific killers of children) and various cancers.

A fully immunized child is more likely to attend school, have greater cognitive abilities, and be a more productive member of society and less likely to be disabled.

Reaching the fifth child in northern Viet Nam’s Lao Cai province

UNICEF correspondent Sabine Dolan reports on an immunization programme in rural Viet Nam.

24–30 April is World Immunization Week. Immunization is a successful and cost-effective way to save children’s lives. UNICEF has been a driving force behind universal immunization since the 1980s – behind reaching each and every child.

UNICEF and its partners are now intensifying their efforts to ensure that the poorest and most disadvantaged children have access to immunization.

LAO CAI PROVINCE, Viet Nam, 17 April 2013 – It’s Immunization Day at designated health centres in northern Viet Nam’s Lao Cai province. Parents have brought their children to be vaccinated or to receive their follow-up doses.

Giang Thi Mu has brought her 9-month-old daughter Hang Thi Thu to the Tram Y Te Xa sub-district health centre to get her shots. “I heard about this immunization day when health workers came to our community to inform our village and tell us about vaccination,” she says.

Local Child Protection Committees are pivotal to identify and support vulnerable children

Nam sells lottery tickets five kilometres away from his house © UNICEF Viet Nam/2013/Truong Viet Hung

I had seen them before, children who are selling lottery tickets in the markets and on the streets. Yet I had never bought a lottery ticket from a child because I didn’t want to encourage them to keep selling lottery tickets instead of going to school. After my field visit to An Giang, I have realised that some children, without support, simply do not have the option of going to school.

It is Tuesday morning and we are driving in a minivan from Long Xuyen city alongside the river to Phu Tan district. It is almost Tet, the Lunar, a.k.a. Chinese, New Year, and in front of many houses the Vietnamese flag is proudly waving accompanied by a yellow Tet tree. I am part of a UNICEF team who is going to visit families to listen to their experiences with the local child protection authorities, in order to improve their functioning.

Social workers help children with HIV

Mai talks to social worker Trung at the residential centre
© UNICEF Viet Nam/2013/Truong Viet Hung

Thirteen-year-old Mai (not her real name) lives at a shelter for vulnerable children in An Giang, Viet Nam. She’s an orphaned girl living with HIV. After her parents died three years ago, she was looked after by her grandmother. They were very poor so instead of going to school, Mai worked in a rice shop. Her grandmother sold lottery tickets to make ends meet but she was 80 years old and in bad health. In the end, she was unable to look after Mai properly and contacted her local commune authority for help.

Ly’s blog – trip to An Giang, day two, exciting working day

Nguyen Huong Ly, Twenty-two year-old, she has been interning at UNICEF Viet Nam’s Communication section in Ha Noi for the past four months. On 3 February, she embarked on a four-day mission to Viet Nam’s southern province An Giang to find out more about UNICEF’s work and remaining challenges for children.  Check out her blog!

4/2/2013

My view from the ferry

MORNING

I woke up at 6 am, right when the alarm went off. I put on my UNICEF T-shirt and took my time preparing what to bring for the whole day. We had a really nice breakfast with “Hu Tiu” – a type of noodles from the south of Vietnam. I was handed a few documents about breastfeeding and the situation in An Giang.

Ly’s blog – trip to An Giang, day one, arrival

Twenty-two year-old Nguyen Huong Ly has been interning at UNICEF Viet Nam’s Communication section in Ha Noi for the past four months. On 3 February, she embarked on a four-day mission to Viet Nam’s southern province An Giang to find out more about UNICEF’s work and remaining challenges for children. Check out her blog!

Me, looking stupid and super excited in UNICEF T-shirt.

I am going on a field trip to An Giang province with other UNICEF staff for a mission on breastfeeding and child protection. I’m new. I’ve been working as an intern to help build UNICEF Viet Nam’s Facebook content for only four months. I was way too lucky to get the opportunity to join such a mission. I haven’t been writing for quite a while. A business student doesn’t keep blogs, she writes reports and other boring stuff that her accounting courses require! Today I’m writing. I’m so in the mood!

Mothers learn importance of breastfeeding

Hao was encouraged to breastfeed her son by a village health worker
© UNICEF Viet Nam/2013/Truong Viet Hung

Nguyen Anh Dao, 24, breastfeeds her four-month-old daughter, Minh Anh, at her home in Binh Thanh Dong commune, An Giang province. Minh Anh is strong and healthy. Although she is only four months old, she can already stand up in her mother’s lap. “I started breastfeeding in the health centre where I gave birth,” Dao says. “The doctor put the baby on my breast after delivery. Afterwards, the village health worker talked to me about breast milk. She told me that it contains good nutrients and is best for my baby’s health.”

Photos: breastfeeding mothers in An Giang

UNICEF is supporting Binh Thanh Dong commune, in the Mekong Delta region of South Viet Nam, to promote breastfeeding to new mothers. The scheme involves health workers at the local hospital and collaborators in the community.

To view the full photo captions, expand the gallery and click 'show info' in the top right corner.

Young people speak out at forum

Helping young people get their voices heard when planning implementation of the National Youth Development Strategy 2011-2020


The UN in Viet Nam together with the Youth Union organised a Youth Forum, to help young people get their voices heard when planning implementation of the National Youth Development Strategy 2011-2020. On that occasion, UNICEF's team of reporters was there to capture young people's opinions and hopes on the future they want in Viet Nam.

Video of the post-2015 consultations

Asking Young People What is the Future They Want!



On 19 January 2013, in the context of national consultations with Viet Nam's people organised by the United Nations on the future they want post-2015, UNICEF and sister agencies UNODC, UN-Women, UNFPA and UNDP organised a workshop with 35 children and young people. Among them were street children, children with disabilities and lower-secondary school children who all shared their concerns and hopes for Viet Nam after 2015.

Photo story on the post-2015 consultations

Asking Young People What is the Future They Want!



On 19 January 2013, in the context of national consultations with Viet Nam's people organised by the United Nations on the future they want post-2015, UNICEF and sister agencies UNODC, UN-Women, UNFPA and UNDP organised a workshop with 35 children and young people. Among them were street children, children with disabilities and lower-secondary school children who all shared their concerns and hopes for Viet Nam after 2015.
Photos: UNICEF Viet Nam\2012\Dinh Hong Anh

To view the full photo captions, expand the gallery and click 'show info' in the top right corner.

Ensuring care for vulnerable children

A-Dung and his grandmother in front of their thatched house.
© UNICEF Viet Nam\2012\Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong

Mua A-Dung lives in a small thatched house on a mountain in Hua Ngai Commune of Dien Bien, a northern mountainous province of Viet Nam. A-Dung’s father passed away when he was only four years old. Three years later, his mother remarried and moved out. He was left in the care of his grandmother, and stays together with his uncle’s family.