Over the years, Dak Lak province has had many models and activities to care for and help ethnic minority children in difficult circumstances, bringing practical results. This has not only helped raise community awareness of children’s legitimate rights and interests, created a safe and healthy environment for them to live and play in, but has also directly supported and helped them overcome feelings of inferiority, rise above difficulties, continue going to school and integrate into the community.
“A warm home” for children in difficulty
Once a month, children in difficult circumstances in Kniet village, Ea Ktur commune, Cu Kuin district, gather at the community house for an activity organised by the Community-Based Child Care Club. At the start of each activity, the club’s management board tells the children about laws and policies on child protection and care, and teaches them life skills… The children also perform folk dances and songs and take part in group games. H’Nhem Bto, head of the club, said: the club was established in August 2015, initially with only 20 children, but has now attracted 45 children, mainly children of ethnic minorities in difficult circumstances in the village.
H’la Zem, 13, left school two years ago to work as a hired labourer to help her family because of its difficult circumstances. Learning of her situation, the club’s management board visited her home to encourage her family to let her return to school, and gave her a bicycle to get to school.
Not only H’la Zem: over the years, the club has persuaded 16 children who had dropped out to return to school and helped many children in difficult circumstances to overcome feelings of inferiority, integrate into the community. Nguyen Thi Anh Xuan, an officer in charge of child welfare in Ea Ktur commune, said: the whole commune currently has 160 children in difficult circumstances. Through the “Community-based child care” model in villages, people’s awareness of caring for and educating children has been raised, and a healthy, useful playground has been created for children in this disadvantaged area.
Buu Thang 2 Pagoda in Hoa Khanh commune, Buon Ma Thuot City, has only been in operation since May 2017, and is currently caring for and raising 45 orphans who are children of ethnic groups in the province, transferred from Buu Thang 1 Pagoda. Among them are six babies, two children with disabilities, and the rest are in school from kindergarten to grade 12.
Showing us around the children’s eating, living and activity areas, the pagoda’s abbess, nun Thich Nu Hue Huyen, shared: each child here has a different story, but they share the same circumstance of being orphaned or abandoned, so they lack family affection. Therefore, despite many difficulties, the nuns at the pagoda always try to look after each meal and each night’s sleep for the children, creating an environment full of love and compassion, and raising them until they grow up. Huynh Hai Yen, who was taken in by the pagoda as a small child, said: “In the recent high school graduation exam and university admission round, I was admitted to study medicine at Tay Nguyen University.
Replicating the models
In the days leading up to this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival, following benefactors to the Dak Lak Provincial Social Protection Centre, we felt the warmth of the place. The benefactors kindly visited, encouraged and gave gifts to the children as if they were long-lost relatives. Tran Thanh Chuong and his wife Tran Thi Nga, from Buon Ma Thuot City, said: every year on holidays, Tet and Mid-Autumn Festival, our family regularly buys gifts for the children here. This is a sincere sentiment, wishing to share the difficulties and deprivation of these unfortunate children.
Nguyen Duy Tuyet, Head of the Division for Child Protection and Care and Gender Equality at the Dak Lak Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said: over the years, the protection and care of children, especially ethnic minority children in difficult circumstances in remote areas, has always received attention from authorities, sectors and organisations from the province to the grassroots. In addition, the provincial Children’s Protection Fund has actively mobilised domestic and foreign funding to support and help the children.
Lam Dinh Nhien, Director of the Dak Lak Children’s Protection Fund, said: from 2011 to now, the fund has mobilised nearly 56 billion VND for child protection and care, of which the provincial budget provided more than 2.4 billion VND and the rest came from organisations and individuals. From this funding, the fund has worked with relevant units to examine more than 3,200 children with various birth defects; taken 230 children with congenital heart disease for surgery at hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City; organised surgery for 395 children with cleft lip and palate; supported more than 600 children affected by toxic chemicals with community-based rehabilitation; and given more than 700 wheelchairs to children with disabilities and cerebral palsy; awarded scholarships and bicycles to more than 2,748 children in difficult circumstances; and built 19 houses of compassion for children orphaned of both parents… These acts have helped the children ease their misfortune, light up their hope and resilience, and give them the chance to develop and integrate into the community.
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