Education and housing for blind street-children

In Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam, people have to cope with many social and economic problems and in addition to that, with a strikingly high proportion of visually impaired children. The blindness may be caused by the use of chemicals during the war, malnutrition during pregnancy and insufficient health care. Approximately 200 of these blind children are living in the streets in Tay Ninh. Economic hardship, mistreatment and family problems forced the kids to live on the street. The governmental resources are scarce and can hardly cover any needs of these children.

The objective of this educational project is to reach these children, help them escape the cycle of street life, illiteracy and poverty, to raise them in a family-like environment and to integrate them fully in Society. We focus on satisfying the most basic needs as well as on the special needs of the visually impaired. Therefore we already started wit the construction of five residential houses.

Some 50 children will have the opportunity to grow up safely, attend school classes, and develop orientation & mobility skills with this project. The integration of the visually impaired children into Society will start with an "inclusive education" program. The government committed to integrating the blind children into regular classes, once they went through a basic training and learnt, e.g., to write and read Braille (a reading system for the blind).

Your contribution to this "Children in Need" project will enable UNESCO to equip the center with another important component: the vocational training. Learning a job is the key to the independence of the future adults. With your help we'll be able to offer a masseur's degree and to equip the center for vocational training classes.

• 50 blind street-children will find shelter, education and vocational training in a family-like environment
• This pilot project will initiate the process of 'inclusive education' for blind streetchildren, so that the children will be integrated into regular classes; we shall promote the reproduction of this experience both, on national and international level
• The five residential houses will be opened end of October 1999

	Facts

• Some estimated 40,000 streetchildren are working and living on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City alone, some two hundred blind streetchildren have been registered by government services in Tay Ninh Province
• Vietnam has been placed on the 110th position of the 1999 UNDP Human Development Index, 50% of its population is under 18 years old, the national per capita income amounts to US$ 220 per year

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