Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Ha Noi, Dec. 12 (VNA) -- Viet Nam has been striving to help disabled people to really integrate into society by removing any barriers to them, including prejudices.

Currently, Viet Nam has more than 5 million orphans and people with disabilities, accounting for seven percent of the country's 80-million population.

The Vietnamese government has been implementing policies and programmes on health care, education, vocational training, employment creation, and production incentives with the aim of creating equal opportunities for and helping disabled people better integrate into society.
With this support, some 400 production establishments have been set up by disabled people nationwide.

At the Dec.11-12 Congress of the Association in Support of Disabled People and Orphans in Ha Noi, the Association, which was assigned to raise funds for disabled people and orphans, reported that it spent more than 6.5 billion VND (around 433,300 USD) in programmes and activities for its members over the past decade.

The Association gave subsidies to more than 5,000 disabled people and orphans in difficult circumstances and provided free rehabilitation treatment and medical check-ups for more than 11,800 others.
In addition, over 3,000 disabled people and orphans were given access to vocational training courses organised by the Association and about half of them have been employed.

However, to build a society without barriers to disabled people and orphans, the association needs to do much more, said Nguyen Xuan Tue, Director of the Office for Coordinating Activities for Disabled People.
The association should work out programmes with practical targets to mobilise both financial and technical resources for the purpose and encourage disabled people to join the association's executive board to make its operation more efficient.

In addition, legal documents relating to the disabled people's benefits must be strictly observed, participants at the congress recommended.