Health programs

Viêt Nam Plus focuses ont preventive health and education.

• training to hygiene and prevention in the villages
• health education at school
• environment protection
• non-smoking day

Training in the villages

Public Health = Training to Hygiene and Prevention

In many areas water is often scarce and polluted. It must then be boiled and filtered before use. Viêt Nam Plus offers specific interest free loans for the group members to purchase a water filter, to make a well or latrines. Till now over 6000 households have benefited from such a loan. Close monitoring ensures they are used for this purpose. An evaluation has shown almost all wells and latrines were well used and clean. The proportion of households with a clean latrine has increased from 10% to 75% in certain villages.

Viêt Nam Plus proposes to the people to impregnate their mosquito nets for better prevention of malaria or dengue fever. The costs are covered 50/50 by the program, and by the beneficiaries. It seems this is the only program where people pay for the impregnation of their nets, in Vietnam. The government has a free program, but because it is expensive and because the funds are insufficient, only a limited number of villages are covered.

Groups meetings are also an opportunity to advise the mothers for better children nutrition and hygiene. Deworming tablets are offered at cost price (0,1 €/person/year).

Health education at school

Primary schools are the ideal place to further promote a change in attitude regarding hygiene. Viêt Nam Plus, in cooperation with the Education Department, trains the teachers into active pedagogy, so that the lessons would be more practical, with games and team work. Specific books have been developed. It includes weekly teeth brushing at school, cleaning of the class-rooms and school by the children, better personal hygiene etc. The program covers 25.000 children today.

The local participation, from the parents and from the schools, is equivalent to 2/3 of the total program cost: financial, organization and preparation of the lessons, cups and buckets, books, logistics etc.

Environment protection

Health is closely linked to the environment. Every year, on Earth Day (22 April), Viêt Nam Plus organizes a massive collection of wasted plastic bags, a competition between all schools (see Environment program). The abandoned waste is often where the mosquitoes multiply, spreading diseases like malaria and dengue.

Viêt Nam Plus endeavors to limit the use of chemicals (see Environment program).

Non smoking day

For the first time, in May 2003, Viêt Nam Plus has succeeded in organizing a non smoking day. The preceding years the resistance of the local officials was too strong, nothing could be done. This time a mini-marathon took place, with banners and publicity encouraging people not to smoke. It has been calculated that the people on 1 district spend enough money to build one class room every day. The men spend more on cigarettes than their wives to refund their loans! And 2 times more than for the education of their children, 6 times more than for health care...!

• May 31st: This time we made it! - non-smoking day in Dúc Linh (June 3rd, 2003, 115 Kb)