ANESVAD foundation - Spain and the Vietnam Women's Union
The initial target of ANESVAD was to assist poor and lonely patients. Since 1970, ANESVAD begun fighting against leprosy in the leper colony-island of Culion (the
ANESVAD is also supporting various projects on construction and up-grading of hospitals, healthcare centers; training for health workers; provision of medicines and medical equipments; vocational training, construction of schools; assistance of war victims, refugees and migrants... in various countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa.
ANESVAD has been working in
ANESVAD has been cooperating with the Vietnam Women's Union (VWU) since 1999 through the project “Provision of equipment and improvement of the communal clinics, water supplies and construction of sanitation facilities for households in the three communes Ky Van, Ky Thinh, Ky Ha in Ky Anh district, Ha Tinh province” with the total budget of US$ 100,000. The project aims to provide funds to upgrade the infrastructure and purchase some essential equipment for these clinics; provide funds for poor households to upgrade the water pipe system, to build water filter and containers, to upgrade sanitation facilities and cattle sheds for better environmental sanitation; to conduct training on environmental sanitation and healthcare for Women's Union (WU) members in these 3 communes; and strengthen the capacity for members of the commune WU executive committees. The project was implemented within 18 months from April, 1999 to October, 2001 and had over fulfilled its objectives in addressing critical problems and brought benefits to villagers. More than 16,000 people, especially women and children of the 3 project communes benefited from the project. This first project has built up successfully an effective model of involving community's participation. It also contributes to broadening the cooperation between ANESVAD and VWU.
In 2000, ANESVAD supported VWU US$ 7,928 to implement the project on “Communication and Education on healthcare and nutrition” in the 10 communes of Nam Dan district, Nghe An province. After one-year implementation of the project, women's awareness and knowledge on healthcare and nutrition has been improved through better care for themselves as well as for their family members. Through these activities, the knowledge and skills of the motivators and WU staff have been improved significantly. Women have acquired the basic knowledge on healthcare and nutrition, good skills on communication and counseling on healthcare and nutrition in their communities. 10 project communes have integrated the project activities with family planning, clean water and environmental sanitation, poverty alleviation...etc. Based on these results, Nam Dan WU has replicated this model to other non-project communes in the district.
In 2001 ANESVAD and the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation (Agencia Espanola de Cooperation Internacional - AECI) has co-financed the program “Improvement of primary healthcare conditions” for 4 districts of Nghe An province (Nam Dan, Yen Thanh, Tan Ky, Anh Son), 2 districts of Ha Tinh province (Duc Tho, Vu Quang) and 1 district of Thanh Hoa province (Hoang Hoa). This program has involved the cooperation and partnership with various agencies (ANESVAD, People's Aid Coordinating Committee - PACCOM, VWU and People's Committee at all levels...), in which each agency is responsible for specific components. The program is implemented from 2001 - 2004 and it will be monitored and supervised by PACCOM and VWU. ANESVAD funds US$84,703 for WU districts to implement the component "Communication and Education on Healthcare and Nutrition ".
As one of the two local consultant agencies, VWU is responsible to monitor the implementation by provincial, district and commune Women's Unions; formulation of the questionnaires and evaluation indicators on the situation of localities and impact of the program component towards community's health and women movement at the end of the component. The main activities of this component are: conducting training for motivators at provincial, district and communal levels on healthcare, nutrition, environmental sanitation and communication skills; communication of pregnant mothers and mothers with small children the knowledge on health care and child rearing in appropriate way; community communication (contest on healthcare, nutrition and environmental sanitation, conducting IEC campaigns, and health checkup and medicines provision...) and good nutrition model.
All projects funded by ANESVAD have been implemented effectively, contributing significantly to improving people's awareness on healthcare for the community, women and children and to improve the capacity of VWU staff at all levels and attract more women to join VWU.
