Bring Safe Water to School Kids in Vietnam

Our partners at the Center for Preventative Medicine of Thua Thien-Hue Province, led by Dr. Hoang Ha Tu, have just finished our water projects in rural preschools in Vietnam, just in time for school to start! Thanks to the generosity of MEDRIX donors like you, we were able to donate 31 water treatment systems in 2016 to preschools and health clinics that experience water insecurity: often there is not an available source of safe drinking water. Safe drinking water does not contain bacteria and microbes that carry diseases and illnesses that prevent children from regularly attending school. Vulnerable populations such as children and the elderly get very sick from gastrointestinal microbes that love to thrive in water sources and untreated water. Sickness like this keeps kids from attending or being productive in school...because their tummies are always upset! Simple solutions such as schools providing safe drinking water make a huge difference in these kids' everyday lives. 

Dr. Tu and his team spent a lot of time monitoring the systems and working with preschool staff to ensure that their students will be prepared for a healthy and happy school year! These efforts are part of a 3-year partnership between MEDRIX and the Center for Preventative Medicine of Thua Thien-Hue Province to improve sanitation and water development in rural areas of Central Vietnam. We are proud to have partnered with Dr. Tu and his team, who have a real passion for public health and working with the communities of Thua Thien-Hue. 

Your generosity helped MEDRIX see this project to completion, and changed the lives of many kids in Central Vietnam. To date:

• Workshops have reached 417 preschool educators
• 400+ parents received training and continue to share community health education with family members.
• 100+ preschools have had staff receive training; each preschool serves between 25-100 children daily.
• 2,500-10,000 children positively benefit from these community health partnerships and education every day!

• 31 safe water systems sponsored by MEDRIX, installed in preschools and clinics throughout TT Hue Province since 2016.
• Clinics see 2-10 families per day and   provide safe water for consumption as well as educational materials about waterborne and GI diseases caused by unsafe water.
• Education reaches entire  family, including the elderly who are vulnerable to common illnesses and disease.

These positive effects will continue to exponentially grow as kids and their families make community health part of their daily habits, and less people suffer from illnesses related to unsafe water consumption. MEDRIX and the Center for Preventative Medicine of Thua Thien-Hue Province thank YOU for your generous donations--we couldn't have done it without you! 

Links:

• See all the photos from our latest water project!

Developing a grassroots community program has so many rewarding and fun parts to it: seeing smiles on kid's faces as they learn how to hand-wash with soap, sponsoring safe water systems to many villages in desperate need of a suitable water source for drinking, and laughter as health professionals practice CPR and life-saving measures on each other to ensure that their littlest patients are always safe in their care. One of the less exciting but just as important parts of a program is, yes, the paperwork. Evaluating a program ensures that your generous donations have been put to good use, and are effectively working to reduce waterborne illnesses and increase access to safe drinking water in rural villages in Vietnam. Sure, it's not nearly as fun as singing songs about health with preschoolers. But program evaluation is really the backbone of any sustainable community health program, and MEDRIX highly values sustainability and effectiveness in all of our partnerships and programs. 

Right now, in addition to preparing for back-to-school workshops and safe water systems being installed in more schools, our partners at the Center for Preventative Medicine in Thua Thien-Hue are hard at work visiting the villages and clinics where our programs take place. Led by public health expert Dr. Hoang Ha Tu, public health researchers are surveying families for their feedback on the community health efforts led by MEDRIX partners in TT Hue. This on-the-ground research will be vital as we develop our next phase of our water and hygiene partnership with the Center for Preventative Medicine. Our workshops always get outstanding feedback from parents and teachers. But the long-term effects on health are just as important if we want to make a difference in Vietnam. 

We'll be excited to share the results of these evaluations with you as soon as we receive them! You are truly our partners in this program, just as much as our partners in Vietnam who carry out the work. Without your support and your care, MEDRIX wouldn't be able to reach more and more families in Vietnam every year. We value your input and your support, and the families in Vietnam who are recipients of this program are always quick to say, "Please give our thanks to the dear donors!" We sincerely thank you for your support in this ongoing effort to improve health and livelihood in Vietnam! 

Links:

• MEDRIX: Safe Water Development