Our Focus
Vietnam is slowly emerging to become an economic powerhouse in South east Asia. The people's average living standard has improved dramatically since the late 1980s. National statistics show that GDP per capita rose from 156 USD to 482 USD in 2002. The fast growth and global integration have also intensified certain traditional social problems and created new ones. As the average income rises, some problems get much worse and more visible.
Two of the most pressing issues are:
1.
The street children
Vietnam currently has around 20,000 to 40,000 street children, concentrated mostly in Ho Chi Minh City and Ha Noi. However, the real number is difficult to determine. either orphans or abandoned by their parents, these children, mostly illiterate, are forced to survive by themselves on the street.
Survival for them means doing all kinds of possible "jobs", including scavenging, shoe shining, street vending, begging, selling lottery tickets or lottery results, pick-pocketing, and pilfering in the market. Some use alcohol or illegal drugs to relieve the stress and to forget painful experiences, or simply because of peer- pressure.
Others
are trained to
become professional beggars. Still others commit
crimes individually or by joining various gangs. Disabled children may
be sold to strangers who force them to beg on streets. Girls seem to be
in particular danger as the target of sexual assault and exploitation.
Having no chance to a decent future, they are often called: "Dust of
Life".
2. The
disabled person
According
to the Vietnamese Red Cross, there are about 5 to 6 million
people with disabilities, of which 1.1 million are children. 1 million
are Agent Orange victims. With the rapid economic development, which
results in many construction activities, thus work related injuries,
the mobility disabled people constitute a rapidly growing population.
Currently,
there is
no infrastructure to accommodate or to care for disabled people in
Vietnam. Becoming a burden because of their disability, they are often
abandoned by their own family. Many of them choose suicide as the way
out.
Recognizing the desparate conditions in which these people are living
in, Maison Chance-USA's focus is targeting essentially the street
children and the disabled people of Vietnam.
However, this focus is not
exclusive, the organization will also consider helping the extremely
poor, and the people who are in desperate need for help.
