Spotlight Vietnam: ActionAid Programs and Partners at Work
Central to ActionAid’s anti-poverty strategy is our programming and collaboration with locally based organizations. In Vietnam, where ActionAid works in 20 provinces, our Reflect strategy and partnership with the Center for Workers Rights, are improving the lives of the people we serve.
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Reflect: Bringing Empowerment and Dialogue to the Community
ActionAid's Reflect approach links adult learning to empowerment, and strengthens the voices of poor people in the decision-making process at all levels. Developed 15 years ago by ActionAid as an approach to adult literacy, Reflect is now a tool for building people's capacity to communicate through whatever medium is most relevant to them. Today, the tool is used by over 500 organizations in 70 countries.
Although Vietnam's national literacy rate hovers at 90 percent, women, minorities and those living in remote areas of the country are disproportionately represented among the illiterate. Through workshops in villages and communities around the country, Reflect seeks to reach these groups that have been left behind.
Thach Thi Dan and her husband have been attending Reflect workshops in Hoa Thinh village for four months.
“We have both learned valuable things,” she says. “We have learned how to protect our children from disease and I have learned how to read, for the first time in my life. Before I knew how to do this, I could never go far from my home, because I was afraid of getting lost. I could not read the name of the streets, you see. But Reflect has taught me how to read street names, so I don't have to get lost any more.”
Reflect also provides a safe forum for dialogue, helping its members to overcome prejudice.
Fourty-year-old Ban Dinh Hanh credits the group with teaching him to respect his wife.
“I will be honest,” admits the father of two, “in the past I always thought I knew best, because she is a woman and I did not think highly of her.”
That began to change when he became a member of Reflect.
The Center for Workers’ Rights: Providing Resources and Advocacy
The Center for Workers’ Rights (CWR), a Hai Phong based organization founded in 2005 with support from ActionAid, currently works with 310,000 local workers. Focusing primarily on female migrant workers, the center offers several programs including training courses on labor law, social and medical insurance, and leadership skills.
In addition to providing a resource for workers, the CRW also assists local children and schools. Nine-year-old Nguyen Thi Minh is one child who has benefited from the organization’s child sponsorship program.
At home, Minh’s mother is dying from cancer. Having lost her father at the age of two, Minh will be an orphan when her mother passes away. The CWR is providing financial and medical assistance to Minh and her family. The organization has also contributed to her school.
“Our wish [came] true when CWR helped my school to build a new toilet,” said Minh. “Now we [don’t get] wet when using it on rainy days. We have clean water to wash our hands….We are very happy and thankful for what you have done for us.”
Child sponsorship and school programs are not the only ways in which CWR has expanded its efforts. The organization also advocates for those living and working in the poor communities it serves. Collaborating with the local media, CWR has drawn public attention to its work. This attention has served as a platform for advocacy, leading to dialogue with city officials about the low standard of living, housing difficulties, and rapid inflation facing the community’s poor.
In Vietnam, ActionAid’s partnership with local organizations is empowering the nation’s poor. While approaches such as Reflect allow ActionAid to combat the recurring themes that face poor people everywhere, grassroots organizations such as the CRW address country and community specific problems. Please join us in ensuring that local community programs continue to receive the support they need.