Materials : Country/Review Paper
Workshop on Community - Based Rehabilitation (CBR) and Poverty Alleviation of Persons with Disabilities
Organized by UNESCAP in Bangkok, 5 July 2005
Mr. Nghiem Xuan Tue
Director
The office of the National Coordinating
Council On Disability of Vietnam (NCCD)
Community-Based Rehabilitation and Poverty Alleviation of Persons with
Disabilities are both correlated and interactive areas.
Currently, there are over 5.1 million people with disabilities in
Vietnam, accounting for 6.4% of total population. Of the number, 87% live in
rural areas and most of them are from poor families with low level of
qualification, skills and are facing with many difficulties. They are one
ofthe most vulnerable groups in the society. Therefore, they have been
provided with special attention in rehabilitation service and vocational
training.
In Vietnam, poverty alleviation for people with disabilities is included
in national program on hunger eradication and poverty alleviation. Two areas
of communit1y–based rehabilitation and hunger eradication and poverty
alleviation for people with disabilities have a close link with each other
because after being rehabilitated adequately and effectively people with
disabilities will be facilitated to strive for full equality, have chances
to find employment appropriate to their capability, health conditions, to
get stable income and community integration for the betterment of life.
Community-Based Rehabilitation System in Vietnam
Community-Based Rehabilitation Program has been implemented in Vietnam
since 1987. The Ordinance on Disabled Persons issued in 1998
identified the Community-Based Rehabilitation as one of the measures for
caring, supporting people with disabilities. Currently, Community-Based
Rehabilitation Program has been carried out in 46/64 provinces nationwide.
10 Departments of CBR at central level and 51 Departments of CBR at
provincial level have been founded.
The Community-Based Rehabilitation System in Vietnam has been jointly
implemented by concerned Ministries, namely Ministry of Health, Ministry of
Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Ministry of Education and Training,
Committee for Protection and Care for Children.
Community-Based Rehabilitation Program in Vietnam is under direction by
the Ministry of Health and implemented by the network of local health
workers. The CBR Program focuses on four major areas relating to people with
disabilities: health care - rehabilitation, education for children with
disabilities, employment and improvement of other social conditions.
Currently, 54 provincial hospitals have departments of community–based
rehabilitation. The CBR Program for local people with disabilities has also
been implemented at the inter-commune and districts health clinics in 46
provinces/cities.
During the years of implementation of the Community-Based Rehabilitation
program, people with disabilities benefiting from this program are very
delighted and so happy because they have opportunities to integrate into the
society.
Lessons learned from the experiences in implementing Community-Based
Rehabilitation during the past few years are: CBR Operating Board should be
established at all levels. At central level, Ministry of Health is
currently running Operating Board. Operating Board on CBR has already been
established at provincial, district and commune levels with 85.6%, 82.4% and
85.3% respectively. Operating Board consists of 6 to 9 members,
but almost of 6 representing People’s Committee and sectors of health
care, labor- invalids and social affairs, education and training,
population-family and children, Red Cross Society and other mass
organizations. However, representatives from sectors of health, labor,
invalids and social affairs, education and training are three important
components of the Operating Board. Head of the Board is Vice Chairman
of People Committee, Deputy standing head comprises leaders of health
sector; program secretary: one staff of health sector.
Functions of Operating Board:
- To organize workshops, training
courses
- To regularly inform the community
the progress of the program
- To develop strategic plans and
implementing measures
- To select personnel for assignment,
operation and monitoring
- To plan tentative budget, prepare
materials and other activities
- To make reportson activities of the
program
Activities of the Operating Board:
- Meeting is conducted 1 to 4 times
annually
- Activities on planning,
coordinating, monitoring and reporting….
- Assigning concrete tasks for its
members
The Operating Board plays an important role in all activities of the
program.
It has been experienced that the participation of disabled people’s
organizations at local level will bring about better results.
+ Activities of CBR program in Vietnam:
- People with disabilities are
regularly rehabilitated at home or at local health clinics, provided with assistive devices made of local materials. They are also supported and
instructed by family, neighbors and community.
- People with disabilities are given
special care and examined at home, and provided with health records of
rehabilitation progress of each people with disabilities.
- People with disabilities are
provided with examination map at communal health clinics
+ Monitoring activities
- Normally, community–based
rehabilitation activities are updated and reported once every 3 months at
communal level, once every 6months at district level and once every 12
months at provincial level
- CBR personnel conduct monitoring
activities at community and report to Communal health clinics (CHC),
communal health clinics report to district health clinics, district
health clinics report to Provincial Department of Health, then report back
to Department of CBR, Ministry of Health and Vietnam Rehabilitation
Association.
Achievements of Community-Based Rehabilitation
After
18 years of implementation of CBR in Vietnam, many networks of CBR
staffs have been established from the central to local levels. People with
disabilities enjoy many supporting services and easily integrate into
community. In addition, public awareness on capability and demands of people
with disabilities have changed positively.
In
fact, localities where community-based rehabilitation program has been
implemented well create good conditions for people with disabilities to
enjoy equality and integration, receive employment opportunity, stable
income and alleviate poverty for people with disabilities and their
families. In many localities, after being rehabilitated, people with
disabilities are able to move and go to work at workshop centers or bring
home materials to make suitable works: sewing, tailoring, handicrafts
making…… People with disabilities are able to learn using computer to access
developing ICT.
It can
be said that CBR program protect rights and interests of people with
disabilities, supporting them to work effectively, and stabilize their
living conditions. In terms of social angles, CBR program also helps to
increase products for society and lower unnecessary costs for health care
activities. The program also positively influences on local and national
poverty alleviation programs.
Recommendations for improvement of CBR program in Vietnam
- Plans on CBR should be harmonized
from central to local levels
- Monitoring plans at all levels
should be formulated and conducted on the regular basis
- Samples of report and evaluation
should be commonised.
- Representatives of disabled
people’s organizations should be involved in Operating Boards
- Studying for inclusion of Operating
Board into Steering Committee on caring and protecting people’s health
- Community-based rehabilitation
should be put equal to prevention and treatment: Prevention – Treatment –
Rehabilitation are three successive contents of the Steering Committee.
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