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.

Exchanging Best Practices of Child Friendly Programmes Across Viet Nam

In spite of the mid-day summer heat, Dam Thi Lien wanders around the “Latrine Fair” exploring different types of latrine models. Here, she can see all the components of a real latrine – the underground layout, the pit, and the flooring which gives her much better idea of how a latrine is constructed as well as how much it would cost. Supported by UNICEF Viet Nam, the Latrine Fair is part of the sanitation marketing activities in An Giang province in Viet Nam’s Mekong River Delta region.

The Latrine Fair displaying various latrine models making it easy for people to choose the most suitable type for their families. 

Volunteering in Vietnam: Aisling Daly (from Ireland) – her story

I started in my position as a United Nations Youth Volunteer in Nutrition working with UNICEF Viet Nam in May 2015. I was really excited about the prospect of living and working in this amazing country whilst also working within the UN system for the first time. 

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.

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.

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