2012 Collective Philanthropy Project
We are proud to announce the Children of Vietnam as the beneficiary for the 2011-2012 CPP Campaign.
Fundraising goals were set at the 5th Annual UVSA Midwest Leadership Retreat hosted at Purdue University on October 15, 2011.
Children of Vietnam
Founded in 1998, Children of Vietnam is dedicated to providing aid to disadvantaged children in Vietnam. We work to improve the lives of children in need of food, medicine, housing, and education
There are over 34 million children in Vietnam. With so many Vietnamese children living in poverty, many children face hunger, inadequate health care, homelessness or substandard housing, and lack of access to education. These children have little hope for a successful future.
Children of Vietnam creates a future for these children that is full of promise. COV is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to providing these children with what they need to succeed in life: good nutrition, life saving medical care, safe and secure housing, and access to education.
As a result of COV’s life changing programs, these children can look toward a brighter future. COV helps these children escape the cycle of poverty, overcome the limitation of disability, and realize the dreams they never thought possible.
*Taken from the Children of Vietnam website.
Discover: Hope System of Care
Hope System of Care for Children with Disabilities is a system of care that provides intensive wraparound services utilizing existing local resources to identify need, provide access to services, and coordinate quality care for children with disabilities (CWD) including those who may have been negatively affected by exposure to Agent Orange/dioxin.
Agent Orange/dioxin is a suspected cause of many disabilities including congenital birth defects, diabetes, and heart disease. Exposure to dioxin and its impact continues to the next generation from persistent environmental contamination in toxic “hot spots” where the herbicides were stored during the Vietnam War. According to the Red Cross, three million Vietnamese have been affected by dioxin, including 150,000 of today’s children who were born with serious congenital defects.
Hope System of Care provides access to wraparound services that improves the lives of children with disabilities and their families within five domains, assisting each child to develop to his/her fullest potential.
- Health care, rehabilitation, and nutrition
- Education and vocational training
- Livelihood/Micro-loans
- Stable housing and handicapped accessibility
- Community integration
What Does Hope System of Care Do?
- Assesses each child’s needs and creates an individualized plan that is tailored and comprehensive.
- Often includes one or more services such as schooling, vocational training, handicapped assessable housing, counseling, surgery and prosthetics, livelihood support.
- Increases family motivation and engagement by working with families from a strengths-based approach that supports both the child with disability and family.
- Assists the child develop to his/her fullest potential and works with the family to became self-reliant and economically stable.
- Train local government partners to help build long-term infrastructure.
The Children Served
Children served have one or more disabling conditions. They are poor, with incomes typically below $20 USD per month, and are between 0 to 25 years of age. Lastly, at least 50% of the services are directed toward girls, ensuring equal access.
System Overview
There are three central features of this system of care:
- case managers are assigned to a child with disability to coordinate care;
- inter-disciplinary expert teams (Community Care Team) conduct evaluations and recommend an integrated treatment; and
- local care workers assist case managers to implement, follow-up, and make regular home visits to support the child and family.
Why Vietnam and the Danang Region?
While the exact incidence of children with disabilities and the specific cause of each child’s disability are unknown, the Vietnam government estimates that there are 3 million people in Vietnam suffering from the affects of Agent Orange, and the Vietnam Red Cross estimates that 150,000 Vietnamese children are disabled due to their parents’ exposure to dioxin.
Dioxin is one of the ingredients in Agent Orange, a defoliant sprayed on Vietnam from 1962 to 1971 during the war. A number of areas or “hotspots” with high residual dioxin still exist today, most notably around the perimeters of former bases where there was intensive and repeated close-range spraying, including Danang.
Many US, international, and Vietnamese scientists link exposure to Agent Orange to high rates of digestive ailments, neural disease, skin diseases, and cancers, and exposed women show high rates of premature birth, spontaneous abortions, stillbirths, molar pregnancy, uterine cancer, and children with severe birth defects such as missing limbs or deformities, spina bifida, deafness, and other impairments.
How does the Hope System of Care Work?
Hope System of Care is a unique system in Danang that develops and implements individualized care plans and tailored services that are wrap-around solutions based upon the strengths and needs of the child and the family. Case Managers and workers assist the disabled child and family by doing assessments, advocacy, care coordination, and follow-up. Specialists serving on an interdisciplinary Care Management Team (CMT) – after consideration of a thorough assessment of the child’s needs – make recommendations for a care plan based on the child’s and family’s/caregiver’s specific situation. The ultimate goal is to facilitate the maximum physical, social, and emotional recovery and quality of life, including community integration for children with disabilities. Services may include any combination of educational/vocational, medical (surgeries, therapy, medicine), aid equipment (wheelchairs, prosthetics, hearing aides, glasses), nutrition, and housing assistance. Services are family-centered such that the parent’s strengths and challenges are considered along with the child’s. Support for the family may include a microfinance business loan to increase income and thereby enhance the capacity to care for the disabled child, or parents might be invited to a support group to reduce the intense feelings of isolation. Finally, the child’s situation is reviewed by the CMT a minimum of every six months to adjust the care plan as the child develops.
Children of Vietnam actively leverages all local resources that commit to addressing the unique needs of each child with disabilities. To date, 44 educational, health, business, and government organizations collaborate through HSC. Some of these organizations include the People’s Committee who provide staffing, local businesses who agree to train and hire children old enough and able to work, local hospitals and health centers, special education schools, and public schools.
Goals
- Develop 100 individualized care plans and tailored services that build sustainable, wrap-around care for each child and the family/caregiver based upon their strengths and needs.
- Implement care plans that improve the quality of live for each child immediately and into the future
- Organize parent support groups to increases engagement and decreases isolation by working with families from a strengths-based approach and encouraging them to attend.
- Provide local government and other service organizations with a mechanism to respond to the unique needs of disabled children in poor circumstance – including those affected by Agent Orange – and build a locally responsive service system.
For more information you can visit the official UNAVSA CPP website at cpp.unavsa.org or the official COV website at www.childrenofvietnam.org.
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