as part of an MoU signed on Tuesday in Hanoi.

Representatives of the health ministry’s Medical Services Administration and eight local and international NGOs sign an MoU on collaboration in rehabilitation activities to improve life quality and community integration of the disabled in Vietnam on Tuesday in Hanoi.

The eight NGOs include: the Action to the Community Development Center (ACDC), the Vietnam Assistance for the Handicapped (VNAH), the Medical Committee Netherlands-Vietnam (MCNV), the International Centre (IC), the Humanity & Inclusion (IH), the Center for Creative Initiatives in Health and Population (CCIHP), the Sustainable Health Development Center-VietHealth, and the Institute of Population, Health and Development (PHAD).

“Each NGO has its own strengths in rehabilitation and helping people with disabilities integrate into the community. The co-operation with NGOs will help minimising overlaps between organisations, while enhancing the effectiveness of care and support activities for people with disabilities,” said the MSA Director Lương Ngọc Khuê.

Khuê added that the collaboration with NGOs will promote the development of rehabilitation activities as well as activities to support people with disabilities in Việt Nam.

Under the framework of the USAID-funded agreement, collaboration activities will focus mainly on development of healthcare models and rehabilitation facilities for the disabled in the country, improve the law and policies on rehabilitation as well as improve the capacity of rehabilitation centres in some project areas. The agreement will also aim to strengthen human resources training in rehabilitation and improving medical services for people with disabilities in the country.

Việt Nam has developed a rehabilitation network from the central to local level with two hospitals and rehabilitation centres at the central level; 38 provincial rehabilitation and traditional medicine hospitals; and 550 rehabilitation departments of general hospitals, and central, provincial and district hospitals.

More than 9,000 out of 11,000 communes with medical staff have been trained in rehabilitation and about 25 per cent of communes can provide rehabilitation services in the commune and community-based rehabilitation.

By end of 2019, there were currently more than 11 million elderly people and around 6.2 million people with disabilities in Việt Nam, according to the MSA. — VNS