Vietnam pays attention to child care

17/04/2006
Vietnam paid more attention than ever to child care and protection and better executed child rights in the 2000-2005 period, said an official of the Vietnam Commission for Population, Family and Children.

Dang Nam, Deputy Head of the Child Department of the Commission spoke at a conference held in Hanoi recently to review five years' implementation of the population, family and child work.


Mortality rates among children aged 1-5 years went beyond the targets initially set for 2005, the Deputy Director said, citing the death rate of 1.8%  among children aged under o­ne and of 2.8% among children aged under five, as compared with the targets of 3% and 3.6%, respectively.


The malnutrition rate among five years old children was also reduced from 33.8% to 25.2% in the period, he added.


According to him, in the five years, special attention was paid to children with particular difficulties, with various programmes and projects being carried out. These programmes included the prevention and improvement of the situations of street children, sexually abused children and children working in hard, toxic or dangerous conditions as well as care of orphans, abandoned children, children with HIV/AIDS and child victims of Agent Orange.


In 2005, the Government allocated more than VND 20 billion from the State budget for the assistance of children with particular difficulties. The Vietnam Commission for Population, Families and Children mobilised hundreds of millions of VND to finance activities to help street children return to their families and to provide loans and vocational training for poor children in Hanoi and northern Ha Nam province.


Vietnam
's child care and protection work received support from various international organisations, including the United Nations Children's Fund, the International Labour Organisation, Plan International, World Vision, and Save the Children UK, he said.


In the period, information dissemination was boosted through film screenings, meetings and forums to raise public awareness of child protection and child abuse prevention.


In addition, social services and consultancy services were put into operation, attracting a large number of managers, psychologists, education specialists, lawyers and doctors to get involved in helping children with particular difficulties.


One of these services was a telephone line launched by Plan International to provide consultancy for  children. The line helped boost child care and protection, as well as the implementation of children's rights, especially the rights to participation.

VNA

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