Our story
Miral Welfare Foundation Visits Vinh Long Province of Vietnam
to Proceed Project supporting Persons with Disabilities.
Hyungseok Jung, representative of Miral Welfare Foundation, and Myoungchul Shin, auditor of Miral Welfare Foundation , and Donggeun Yeo, manager of Miral Welfare Foundation visited Social Welfare Center and Center for Persons with Disabilities in Vinh Long Province, Vietnam for five days since 15 January. Vinh Long Province is located at Mekong Delta Area of Southern Vietnam. The area is about twice as Seoul city and has population of 1,044,900 persons.
Vietnam is a country which have an unforgettable and heart-breaking memories. In 1960s, tremendous amount of defoliant has been sprayed to Vietnam. As an effect of defoliant, more than four million people was exposed to defoliant and got disease and ended up having disability. Even though the new born babies are third generations from the exposure, they are born as birth defects. Miral Welfare Foundation have met Hangnyui (Male, 16) who has Cerebral Palsy and Linguistic disorder due to defoliant. He was diagnosed as defoliant patient at the pediatrics when he was young. He can express his opinion only by writing due to his disability. Until now, he has never been to school but he is able to read and write. He is especially good at sending text by using his toes. He goes out to the street with his father and sells lottery ticket to maintain their livelihood.
In Vinh Long Province, 3,1740 persons (3% of the population of Vinh Long Province) are registrated as persons with disabilities. Visual Impairment takes most portion of the census of Rate per Types of Disabilities. When registrated as persons with disabilities, they receive 150,000dong per month as Supplemental Security Income. For that reason, citizens tend to register oneself or family members with disability in order to get benefit. Currently, 6,000persons are registrated as defoliant victims. Among the number of the defoliant victims, 3,244persons are children.
Miral Welfare Foundation donated Occupational Therapy Equipment and Assistive Technology Devices (about 3million dollars) to Private Rehabilitation Facility for persons with disabilities in Vinh Long Province run by Mr. Dieu (71 years old). Mr. Dieu has been treating many patients with disabilities as a doctor. Since his retirement, he is providing occupational therapy to children with disabilities at his house. Nowadays, he is treating 40 children with disabilities with two occupational therapist. By seeing his work and accomplishments, we could realize the importance of early intervention by the case of one patient. The patient could be able to attend school thanks to early intervention.
The situation of the Rehabilitation Facility for persons with disabilities was different with Korea. The first place we visited was Rehabilitation Facility for persons with disabilities run by government. The facility was mainly providing physical therapy and average 60 persons with disabilities were using the facility a day. Speech therapy and Psychological treatment was not a familiar concept to them. Additionally, they could not provide high quality due to out-dated equipment. Considering that children who are less than six years old or who is registrated as disadvantaged class can get treatment for free in charge, it was the least treatment that could encouraging them.
Second place was Huang Kkin Phung Kindergarten, which was implementing integrated education. There was 300 children who is between 3 years old to 5 years old. Even though Huang Kkin Phung was aiming for integrated education, the rate of children with disabilities was relatively low. There were only three children (1% of the registrated children). They were facing difficulties in budget and hiring professional personnel.
Last place was Center of Social Support, social welfare center. It was implementing diverse and holistic programs. There were kindergarten, nursing home, grouphome, vocational rehabilitation center and hospital in one place. The those facilities was divided in two sites and average 250 persons was using a day. They were interested when we shared about Welfare for persons with disabilities of Korea.
Hyungseok Jung, representative of Miral Welfare Foundation, said "It is regrettable to see persons with disabilities and defoliant victims staying at home. It would be great if there are good programs such as grouphome, vocational rehabilitation center and so on. I think we should endeavor to support them."
According to World Health Organization (WHO), 15% of the total population (9 hundred million) of the world is persons with disabilities and rate is increasing due to the increase of population and of an aging population. Everyone is a potential persons with disabilities. Miral Welfare Foundation is stepping ahead in order to support persons with disabilities and help them go through their difficulties. We hope that warmth can be felt to the persons with disabilities and defoliant victims.