Viet Nam establishes its first National Committee on Children to advance child rights across government agencies

An op-ed by Youssouf Abdel-Jelil, UNICEF Representative in Viet Nam about Viet Nam establishes its first National Committee on Children to advance child rights across government agencies

Harsh punishment for child offenders doesn’t prevent further criminality

The age at which a child, can be held criminally liable is a controversial issue around the world. Within Viet Nam, this issue is currently being grappled with in the Penal Code amendments. Some argue that a “get tough on crime” approach is necessary to punish children to prevent further criminality.

However, international research shows that because of their developmental stages, labelling and treating children as criminals at an early age can have serious negative impacts on their development and successful rehabilitation.

A teenage boy in conflict with the law in Dong Thap, was arrested for several small misdemeanors and petty theft. UNICEF and social worker help him to reintegrated to his community and became an active member of the youth club at his village.
Photo: UNICEF Viet Nam\2015\Truong Viet Hung

For the golden opportunity not to be missed - Trinh Hong Son’s Journey to Kon Tum

With more than 20 years working in nutrition and communication behaviour change, I have had the opportunity to work within many communities and examine different cultures and characteristics. My experiences have also taught me that much effort, time and shared sympathy is needed to change an entrenched habit. As a member of UNICEF’s emergency response programme team, I am utilizing this knowledge to help benefit the 10 provinces, in the Central Highlands, South Central and Mekong Delta regions, affected by the worst cases of drought and salt water intrusion in decades.

Climate change lives - Viet’s journey to Ben Tre

My name is Vu Xuan Viet, UNICEF Viet Nam WASH Specialist working in the UNICEF Emergency Programme . I have been with UNICEF for four months, which means I am a newcomer here. Emergency work is sometimes very challenging and stressful. Everything was new to me at the start, but the longer I work here the more I love my work.

As part of UNICEF’s on-going emergency response  to a severe drought in 10 affected provinces in the South Central, Central Highlands and Mekong Delta regions of Viet Nam, I recently (November 9-10) went on a field trip to Ben Tre to visit three communes (Ba Tri, Giong Trom and Mo Cay Bac) impacted by drought and salt water intrusion as well as forecasted to be greatly impacted by climate change in the future.

The Journey of Young Makers

This is the journey of a young mechatronic engineer who is the founder of Joint Rehabilitation Device project (JRD), Pham Nhat Tan, 23, who specialized in Mechatronics Engineering at Bach Khoa University in Ho Chi Minh City. 

Mechatronics is a multidisciplinary field of science that combines mechanical engineering, electronics, computers, telecommunications, systems and control engineering. Tan is a fresh graduate student, having a passion for robotics and in love with machines having their own behaviour to support human’s lives. How they work, how to make them work hooked him.

Bringing local lives back to normalcy - Tran Phuong Anh’s Journey to Ninh Thuan

It did rain – a long rain! You don’t know how long we had been waiting for such rain,” recalled Cha Ma Le Thi Hem. The 29-year-old Raglei ethnic minority mother, like many in Ninh Thuan province, has struggled for the past 36 months with the consequences of a fierce drought that has gripped the South Central region province.

I first encountered Hem during a trip in late November 2016 to the province to visit Raglei community women who are heads of households in their matriarchal society. I could not help but wonder what they had been through during such times of natural adversity.

Cha Ma Le Thi Hem and her malnourished little boy reflect on living with the drought. – UNICEF Photo

End violence against children in Viet Nam

Violence against children is everywhere but hidden behind closed doors violence and it is costing countries in East Asia and the Pacific around US $209 billion/year, equivalent to 2 percent of their combined GDP. All children have the right to live free from violence that harms their physical and mental growth, and holds back society. Violence against children is entirely preventable when people come together and say that it is not acceptable. When they make the invisible visible.

Improving maternity health and children in Viet Nam

Dien Bien is home to 21 ethnic minorities in the Northwest of Vietnam with more than 491,000 inhabitants. Child mortality rate among ethnic minorities is four times higher than the rate of Kinh Hoa. Maternal mortality rate in mountainous area is three times higher than the rate of delta areas.

The reason for this mortality rate is because only a small percentage of pregnant women came to healthcare facilities to give birth, so there are concerns over hygiene and sanitation matters. With the support of the development partners Johnson&Johnson, UNICEF has helped saving the lives of millions of Vietnamese women and children.

In this five year partnership, Johnson&Johnson, UNICEF and Vietnam’s Health Ministry will help promote the capacity of more than 3,000 health workers and ethnic minority midwives in four provinces of Lao Cai, Dien Bien, Gia Lai and Kon Tum to master the practices in providing cares for mothers and newborn babies.

Child-centred disaster risk reduction (DRR)

Earthquakes, droughts, wild fires, epidemics, floods - we can't prevent natural hazards but if we are unprepared they can turn into disasters right before our eyes. At UNICEF we are working with children and their families as well as schools, communities and government to ensure children and their families are prepared.

Inclusive Education Resource Centre Helps Preparing Children with Disabilities to Integrate Regular School

Ninh Thuan, 3 December 2016 - Three-years-old Ha Phuc Nguyen was diagnosed with having generalized disorder two years ago. Nguyen then received treatment in a Paediatric hospital in Ho Chi Minh City which is about 1,000km from his home town. However, he could only stay in treatment only for few months because his family could not afford staying in the big city. Trying to find a way to help him at home, his mother joined a Facebook group in which members shared ideas about how to help children with autism. Via this group, she knew about a newly established centre in the neighbouring town where Nguyen could receive professional assistance. It takes her about one hour and a half by bus to the centre and she brings Nguyen there twice a week. Besides receiving support at the centre, Nguyen’s mother is also guided on how to work with him at home. Nguyen shows great progress after only few months. “He can communicate with me through his eyes, express his feeling and point finger to things that he wants, imitate simple gestures and play with some toys. These seem to be easy for other kids but for my son, it’s a great achievement”, his mother indicates.

UNICEF Viet Nam Representative Youssouf Abdel-Jelil interacted with Thang during his visit to Ninh Thuan Inclusive Education Centre in April 2016

UPSHIFT Vietnam: Impact through Incubation

Members of the four final teams with their mentors and the UPSHIFT team, including Mr. Jesper Moller, Deputy Representative at UNICEF Vietnam
UPSHIFT Demo Day © UNICEF/Innovations Lab Ho Chi Minh/UPSHIFT Demo Day/ Tran Thanh Son/ May 2016

In our last update, we had selected 5 teams to join the UPSHIFT Incubator for 3 months. During incubation teams participated in additional training sessions, received a small seed fund to kick start their project, and ongoing mentorship. They also had the benefit of access to a network of supporters and periodic events through Viet Youth Entrepreneurs (VYE). All these factors combined to support these teams take their concept to reality.

Young Makers in Vietnam work to change the lives of Children with Disabilities

From June 3rd to 5th 2016, 7 teams consisting of over 70 young people including designers, engineers, artisans, medical professionals and children with disabilities gathered on the campus of the Vietnam-German University (VGU) in Binh Duong, Vietnam to contribute to a better world. For 72 hours these youth participated in the inaugural T.O.M:Vietnam Makeathon (www.fb.com/TOMVietnam2016) to apply their skills to design and prototype open source solutions for children with disabilities.

UNICEF Viet Nam\2016\Truong Viet Hung

Getting feedback from citizen to improve birth registration services in Viet Nam

Giang Seo Lu is living in a remote village in Si Ma Cai district of Lao Cai province, located in the Northern mountainous area of Viet Nam. Lu has never gone to school. His daughter was born in 2011. Like most of the H’mong ethnic minority children in the area, she was delivered at home. Lu had not thought of having her birth registered because there were so many requirements to get the job done. Firstly, he had to walk two hours down the mountain to the commune centre. Then, they would ask for many papers which he did not have such as his marriage certificate or the confirmation paper of the birth of his daughter. Besides, filling in the application forms would be challenging job for him as he was illiterate.

Photo: UNICEF Viet Nam\2016\Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong

UNICEF promotes quality social work in Viet Nam

Little Pham Ngoc Lan[*] jumped on and off the plastic chairs while picking up the toy animals in between the jumps. She then moved to play with the gym ball and the colorful plastic circles. Although she seemed to be tired, she enjoyed the games very much. This was not a normal children’s playground. She was in the Psychotherapy Ward for Children with Mental Disorder and those toys and games were parts of the therapy.

Lan lives with her family in Quang Ninh - a Northern Province of Viet Nam. Although she was born physically healthy, she appeared to be more “immature” than her peers in development. She could only speak a few words. She was slow to master simple things like dressing, tooth brushing, hand washing and feeding herself. She hardly responded to any word and gesture of anyone, including her parents.

Photo: UNICEF Viet Nam\2016\Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong

The Revised Child Law: the Opportunity for Viet Nam to consolidate its pioneering stand on child rights

A child is any person under 18 years of age. This is the definition given by the International Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and it’s also the definition agreed by all but a handful of States in the world. Viet Nam is a pioneer globally in upholding child rights as it was the first country in Asia to ratify the Convention in 1990, and the second country in the world. The global leadership role on child rights has been reaffirmed with Directive No. 20 issued by the Politburo of the Central Committee in 2012 aiming at strengthening care, education, and protection of children.

Bilingual education is a gateway to Sustainable Development

The Ministry of Education and Training in Viet Nam has successfully implemented the initiative supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) that promotes mother tongue-based bilingual education (MTBBE) in Lao Cai, Gia Lai and Tra Vinh provinces since 2008. The findings from the final evaluation showed that MTBBE is relevant for quality and inclusive education in the Viet Nam’s context. As the result, An Giang province is expanding MTBBE namely with Khmer language. This video is showing how a child is experiencing the benefits of the MTBBE in the school and in the family life. The use of mother tongue during first years in school boosts up learning among children from ethnic minority group, allowing them to stay longer in school and to become proficient in the national or international language in the later years. Teachers, children and parents recognize the value of learning in the children’s mother-tongue. The MTBBE programme helps empower ethnic minority children, their family and community to integrate socially and to fulfil their citizenship. Bilingual education is therefore a gateway to Sustainable Development.

UPSHIFT:Viet Nam -The Journey Continues

Continuing from our previous update, 10 teams with a total of 31 participants were identified through a judging process from a pool of 93 applications. Out of the 31 participants, 49% of which were youths with disabilities: 10 visually impaired, 4 deaf, and 1 disabled people; 19% came from disadvantaged backgrounds and living in different social protection centers in Ho Chi Minh City; 29% were students majoring in social works, and we even had a high school student as a team leader!

These 10 teams continued on with their UPSHIFT journey through 3-day intensive bootcamp at the end of November 2015. In this phase, teams were exposed to the skill-sets they need to design, build, and test their products as well as how to execute and manage their projects. If this sounds like a lot of things to learn over 3 days, you are right. Going into the bootcamp our team was worried that the participants wouldn’t be able to keep up, or that the lessons wouldn’t be adapted into the projects. Through the extensive preparation and the outstanding commitment of the participants, mentors, and speakers our fears were unfounded.

Mentors, supporter and UPSHIFT Organizer

UPSHIFT Workshop © UNICEF/Innovations Lab Ho Chi Minh/

UPSHIFT Workshop/ Truong Viet Hung/November 2015

UPSHIFT Viet Nam: Tuấn Nguyễn and team aim to build a job-seeking website to help bridge the gap between blind people, their abilities, and employers

UPSHIFT has brought new opportunities to Vietnamese youth, specifically those from marginalized communities, to learn skills that they might need to bring about their own social impact projects. To think that the participants are the only ones that have benefited from the program is not entirely true. Those of us at Viet Youth Entrepreneurs (VYE), as organizers of UPSHIFT, have a lot to learn from them as well. In our first profile we will bring you the story of Tuấn Nguyễn. His story is one of overcoming difficulties and giving back to his community. Though Tuan appears to be happy these days, it wasn’t always this way.

From left to right: Dao Van Thom, Nguyen Minh Tuan, Nguyen Minh Hai are in blue T-shirts (participants), Nguyen Nha Quyen (mentor) and Bui Nguyen Nhat Minh (supporter)

 UPSHIFT Workshop © UNICEF/Innovations Lab Ho Chi Minh/

UPSHIFT Workshop/ Truong Viet Hung/ November 2015

UPSHIFT Viet Nam: Kim Van is fulfilling her dream of helping people with disabilities overcome challenges in daily transportation

I still remember our first encounter with Kim Van, head of the “Assist People with Disabilities on Public Transportation" project, when we organized our first UPSHIFT outreach session at the Center for Disability Research & Capacity Development (DRD) in Viet Nam. Van has weak leg muscles and is reliant on a wheelchair to move around but there is nothing weak about her when she talks about her dreams. Her strong will and clear motivation makes her the ideal UPSHIFT participant - young, focused, and determined to make the most of the opportunity.

Phan Thi Kim Van (participant)

UPSHIFT Workshop © UNICEF/Innovations Lab Ho Chi Minh/UPSHIFT Workshop/ Truong Viet Hung/ November 2015

An UPSHIFT Journey - From Kosovo to Viet Nam

Enter UPSHIFT Social Impact Workshop

In 2014, UNICEF launched the first UPSHIFT program ever in Kosovo. UPSHIFT seeks to create youth-led social impact programs by providing them with the necessary skill training, financial resources and mentorship. The Kosovo program achieved some impressive results: More than 126 youth-led projects have been implemented, more than half of which continue even after their engagement with the Lab comes to a close. From these 126 projects there are approximately 61,056 youth directly involved or directly benefited, and 120,630 youth are indirect beneficiaries of these projects.

All participants, mentors and UPSHIFT Organizers.
UPSHIFT Workshop © UNICEF/Innovations Lab Ho Chi Minh/UPSHIFT Workshop/Truong Viet Hung/ November 2015