Help 75 abandoned orphans with HIV infection,Hanoi

1. History of the Educate Labor Social Center No 2 Hanoi      

Center No 2 is located in Yên Bai commune, Ba Vi districst, Hanoi. It was established under Decision No 1782/QDUB, issued on August 26th, 1992 by the Hanoi People's Committee. Recently, Center No 2 has been subordinated to the Hanoi Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs.

Since the implementation of Decision No 5527/QDUB, issued on September 21st, 2001 by the Hanoi People's Committee, Center No 2 has been given the duty and respossibility to  nurture and care for orphaned children in Hanoi, who have been abandoned and are infected with HIV.

2.    Center No 2’s Operations

  a.     Number of Children

Total number of abandoned and orphaned children who are HIV infected, who have been raised in the Center: 79 children (Total number sorted by gender: boys: 42 and girls: 37).

Children currently at the Center: 75 children

• 74 children are aged from 0 to under 18 years: 74 children (includes 10 children aged from 6 months to 24 months)
• 1 child is over 18 years of age.
• 72 children are currently undergoing ARV treatment.
• 20 childrenare currently on prophylaxis treatment

b.     Number of Employee

There are 14 permanent staff as well as 22 contract staff acting as fostered mothers. These include:

• 19 mothers contracted to assit in raising of children.
• 3 seasonal contracted employeese
• 14 administrative and medical staff

c.       Subsidies for each child, currently living at the Center

• For meals: VND 825,000/month (US$ 40/month)
• For other expenses: VND 50,000/month (US$ 2,5/month)

The mothers and staff at the Center provide attentive daily care and treatment for each child; and monitor each child's health situation in order to provide timely, accurate and efficient help and treatment when needed.

The children are required to be fed the correct diet according to their age, and there is a special care regime for those children who are either sick or young. The daily menu of the children is required to be rich, varied and nutritious food and also must be considered delicious and tasty by the children. Moreover, they also need to drink milk 2-3 times a day and eat a serve of fruit each day in order to strengthen their resistance and maintain the effectiveness of their health treatment.

According to Mr. Vu Minh Nam – Vice manager of the Center’s Caring and Feeding Department, fees raised for each child should be VND 1,300,000/month (US$ 65/month). These fees only cover the elementary things for each child including food, school learning tools and vitamins. The government subsidies for the children are not enough and therefore, the Center has always looked for sponsorship from local and foreign organizations. 

Because there are some open space surrounding the children’ homes, the staff of the Center have made gardens and the Center recently began producing its own vegetables for use in the daily meals for its children.

3.       Proposal from the Institute of Population, Health and Development

The PHAD would like to raise money for Center No 2 as part of a proposed project which will mainly focus on:

• The building of a house for growing closed indoor mushroom. Mushroom dustlike spores and technical planting tools and training will also be required.

Therefore implementing a model of self sufficient food production for Center No 2 is feasible because:  

• The quality of products is totally controlled and it helps keep the children’ immune systems healthy;
• Planting indoor closed mushroom is very easy process. Mushroom is also superior fresh food sources, which can provide rich nutritious alternatives which are suitable for sick children;
• Extra mushrooms can also be sold to military camps and local markets in the area and generate additional income;
• The Center’s staff and older children can organize their time and take turns working on breeding hens and planting mushrooms.