Orphans into loving families in Vietnam

At the end of May, the team delivered its first official workshop - a milestone event for this project. The workshop, which was intended to be a trial, was entitled ‘Introduction to Foster Care’ and was the first activity on the 2018 Training Plan. The Deputy Director General, Madame Hoa, and other key staff from our government partner attended, as well as the whole Care the Children team. Although not without a few (mainly technical) hitches, the workshop was a great learning opportunity, giving the team plenty to think about before delivering the first workshops to the two pilot Social Protection Centres (orphanages).

In June, the project team visited one of the two pilot project sites in Hanoi.  The meeting was designed to help us gather more information on childcare in the area and within the orphanage and to help the staff from the Social Protection Centre understand more about the background to foster care.

The first training module (Introduction to Foster Care) has been developed and is scheduled to take place in September. We will be running three workshops; one at the national level and then two at the provincial level.  This will ensure that the key stakeholders will be familiar with the concept of foster care and why it is a positive alternative to institutional care. Once complete we will then deliver all the initial core training in the following months this year.

One of our early objectives was to become registered as an NGO in Vietnam. We have just received the fantastic news that we have been approved! This has taken just over four months and, from speaking to other NGOs in the area, has been extremely quick. 

We look forward to the upcoming months, working with our government partners in the training workshops as we continue the work to see the development of foster care for children as a positive alternative to institutional care.

Once again, thank you for your support and staying connected to our work.