Global Reach: Grantee Partners

Vietnamese American NGO Network (VANGO Network)

Context:

The National Committee for Population and Family Planning in Vietnam estimates that for every child born, there is one aborted, making it 1.6 million abortions a year, of which around 320,000 (20%) are estimated to be amongst adolescents according to the Journal of Vietnam Families (Giadinh Vietnam, 2016). With 60% of teen pregnancies resulting in abortions, this could be pro-rated to approximately half a million teenage pregnancies a year in the country. Amongst young people aged 15-24; over 35% are not aware of reproductive health (Family Planning and Population Control Unit, Ministry of Health, Vietnam) and amongst sexually active teenagers, only 2% use contraceptives. In the province of intervention Thua Thien Hue, teenage pregnancies have dropped from making up 1.45% of all pregnancies in 2011 to 0.87% in 2018. However, the rate of teen abortions have increased from 18% to 75% in the same period. This is with significant under-reporting on both teenage pregnancies and abortions. VANGO’s Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health (ASRH) programme was started in response to the rise in teenage pregnancies in Vietnam. The programme also aims to address the related social factors like e.g. domestic violence, early sexual debut, lack of sexuality education and depressive symptoms, which were amongst the priority factors associated with higher odds for teen pregnancies identified from two national Survey Assessments of Vietnamese Youths (SAVY) in 2003 and 2008. VANGO has seen first-hand that these social factors disproportionately affect children and young people from resource poor settings, especially those from ethnic minority communities, and therefore works with 23 of 57 communities classified as being at the lowest end of government poverty index.

Organisation:

VANGO’s mission is to strengthen humanitarian and development work in Vietnam. The NGO has four goals to build civil society: Capacity strengthening, Inter-organisational Communications and Community Awareness, Advocacy, and Partnerships. Its founders and leadership team are respected in the Vietnamese philanthropy sector. VANGO was a founding partner for the Health Initiative through Peer Education (HIPE) programme, which addresses health and social issues in the most disadvantaged communities through youth empowerment and community engagement. HIPE trains marginalised school-aged young people through an innovative peer-education model in leadership, life skills, community mobilisation, professional and career development, SRHR and health education and wider societal issues. HIPE Peer Health Educators deliver health information in urban and rural schools, and make condoms available to youth.

Current Grant:

EMpower's third and final Girls Fund grant to VANGO funds the continuation of the Healthy Initiatives through Peer Education (HIPE) programme and will support 60 girls aged 10-14 as Peer Health Educators (PHEs), engage with 550 girls and 450 boys aged 10-14 in 4 schools and 2 communities (1,060 young people) and work with 60 adults (30 parents from the existing HIPE Community Coalition and 30 community members including parents, community leaders and government officials). The programme has 4 components: 1. Capacity enhancement of 60 very young adolescent girl PHEs, 2. School based programmes in 4 schools on SRHR and child protection related topics, 3. A community-based engagement programme and capacity enhancement for youth through a creative art project and 4. A newly introduced community forum for girls.

Primary Location: Hue, Vietnam

Website: http://va-ngo.org/

Funded Since: 2014

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