Clipper Race Crew Visit UNICEF Day Care Centre In Da Nang For Children With Disabilities

Clipper Race CEO William Ward along with crew members who are raising money for Official Race Charity UNICEF were invited to The DAVA Centre in the Hoa Vang District of Da Nang this week to see first-hand how UNICEF supports children with disabilities in Vietnam. Opened in May 2011 with the financial support of UNICEF, and managed by the Da Nang Association for Victims of Agent Orange (DAVA) and volunteers, the day care centre receives over 90 children with disabilities every day.

Photo: UNICEF Viet Nam\2016\Truong Viet Hung

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.

New care approaches for children with disabilities

Ho Thi Lan learns new skills at a centre for children with disabilities.
© UNICEF Viet Nam\2012\Sandra Bisin

Eighteen year-old Ho Thi Lan is skillfully typing on the computer key board in the vocational training classroom of Hoa Vang’s brand new centre for children with disabilities.“I am not sure whether I prefer computer training or tailoring. I am getting a lot of new skills these days”, she says proudly. “I think I’d be happy to become a tailor. It would also please my parents.”

Julia’s field diary: children with disabilities in Da Nang

UNICEF intern Julia Hartelius at a day-care centre for children with disabilities
© UNICEF Viet Nam/2012/Hartelius

Julia Hartelius is a Swedish student who has been interning at UNICEF Viet Nam’s Child Protection section in Ha Noi since 6 August 2012. In this field diary, she shares her impressions and reflections during a trip to visit UNICEF’s work in support of children with disabilities in Viet Nam’s coastal city: Da Nang. Da Nang is one of the three hot spots of Agent Orange in Viet Nam; the dioxin contamination of its airport is one of the vestiges of the toxic chemicals stored and sprayed by the US military during the war in Viet Nam.