Health Ministry joins hands with NGOs in rehabilitation activities

The Ministry of Health’s Agency of Health Examination and Treatment and eight domestic and foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) signs a memorandum of understanding on rehabilitation activities for the disabled, June 2, 2020 - Photo: VGP/Hien Minh

Speaking at the event, head of the Agency Luong Ngoc Khue highlighted the importance of rehabilitation activities in improving people’s health, adding that rehabilitation activities have helped recover health for critical COVID-19 infection cases. 

The NGOs include the Viet Nam Assistance for the Handicapped (VNAH), Fedération Handicap International (HI), the International Centre (IC), the Medical Committee Netherlands-Viet Nam (MCNV), the Institute of Population, Health and Development (PHAD), the Action to the Community Development Centre (ACDC), the Sustainable Health Development Centre - VietHealth, and the Centre for Creative Initiatives in Health and Population (CCIHP).

An agreement on the improvement of the capacity of the rehabilitation sector was also inked, with a focus on a project on enforcing the rights to health check-ups and treatment and the rehabilitation of the disabled funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

The project aims to train human resources for rehabilitation activities at the southern provinces of Dong Nai, Tay Ninh and Binh Phuoc as well as provide supporting tools for handicapped people, giving priorities to Agent Orange victims.

The HI will help refine the rehabilitation system and offer personnel training in the field while CCIHP will work with AHET to enhance medical service quality for children living with autism and improve their lives via developing early intervention models.

As many as 6.2 million people aged over two years old living with a disability in Viet Nam, or 7.09% of the population, according to the General Statistics Office in January 2019. 

About 13% of the population, or nearly 12 million people, are living with the handicapped.

By Thuy Dung