In a small street, Kim Ma Thuong (Ba Dinh, Hanoi), there is an address many people with disabilities seek out for help with life skills. That is the Hanoi Independent Living Centre – a typical model of non-state social work.
Training in wheelchair-pushing skills for new personal assistants at the Hanoi Independent Living Centre. Photo: M.H
A place to share the joys of life
Nguyen Thi Hau, 30, from Ha Nam Province. Hau uses a wheelchair, runs a business, attends lectures and actively takes part in the activities of the Independent Living Centre (ILC). Hau said: “I have had to use a wheelchair since I was five after a bout of polio. After finishing grade 9, I left school in Ha Nam and came to Hanoi to continue secondary school and study fashion design. Then I sat the entrance exam for Phu Tho Medical College (based at the Hanoi Technology Consulting and Training Centre). On my first day at college, seeing the lecture hall, I hesitated. At those times, I received much affection from friends at the ILC (where Hau is a member)”. Personal assistants (PAs) carried her up to her classroom and to her dormitory… It was this warm affection that helped her stand firm to realise many dreams in life and to bring her heart closer to other people with disabilities.
Ms Vu Hai Yen, a very dynamic person with a disability, could not hide her emotion as she said: “Just last year, my life was just a string of busy days selling small goods, along with a constant loneliness because both my parents had passed away, while my siblings each had their own families to look after. I met the ILC, where there were new brothers, sisters and friends. And most importantly, I met Thuong, my assistant. I do not see her merely as a personal assistant, but as a younger sister and a friend with whom I can share the sorrows and joys of life”.
Always for people with disabilities
According to Ms Nguyen Bich Thuy, Executive Director of the ILC, the Centre was founded in 2009 by Disabled People’s International Asia-Pacific, the Hanoi Association of People with Disabilities and the Hanoi group of people with disabilities “For a Bright Future” with funding from the Nippon Foundation (a Japanese charity). One of the Centre’s activities is to provide free personal assistants to people with severe disabilities at their own homes. People with disabilities living in seven inner-city districts of Hanoi, with three types of disability: severe polio, spinal cord injury and cerebral palsy, can come to the Centre, which will assess them and send a PA to their home to help free of charge for about 6 hours a day.
Personal assistants play an important role in helping people with disabilities integrate into the community, decide for themselves everything relating to them, and direct all the support others give them in daily life. Through this, people with disabilities can access, on an equal basis with people without disabilities, opportunities in housing, transport, health, education and training, employment and other social welfare and services. All PAs are thoroughly trained in skills for moving people with disabilities indoors and outdoors, massage, communicating with people with disabilities, their psychology, resolving conflicts, cooking…
Also according to Ms Bich Thuy, social workers helping people with disabilities here must first of all be patient and understand the principles of people with disabilities, always following the person with a disability and never losing their temper. At present, the Centre’s greatest difficulty is finance. Because the Centre was born on the scale of just a project, it is very hard to sustain this model for long once the project ends. “Therefore, given the positive effects the Centre brings to the community, we hope the Centre will be officially recognised by the city so that it has legal status to continue operating”, Ms Thuy shared.
Hanh Nguyen – http://giadinh.net.vn