On Tuesday, World Vision International and Da Nang’s Son Tra District authorities entered into an agreement to implement the Son Tra Urban Area Development Programme (UADP) and start the deployment of the 1^st phase of the project.

Funded by World Vision Singapore, the over 20 billion VND project will be implemented between 2015 and 2027 and it will be divided into 3 stages.  The 1^st stage will run from 2015 - 2018, the 2^nd from 2018 – 2023, and the 3^rd from 2023 – 2027.

UADP will aim to improve the district’s childcare and education programmes, create future opportunities for young people, and ensure child sponsorship and protection.  Another focus will be on helping the district’s wards of Tho Quang, Man Thai, Nai Hien Dong, and Phuoc My increase their resilience to the effects of climate change and disaster risks.

It will bring benefits to over 67,000 local residents, 25,466 of whom are children.  In addition, financial aid worth 6 billion VND in total will go to helping the families of poor or single women.

Under the project, priority will be given to increasing the quality of education and care programmes for children at local private pre-schools and improving nutrition for local poor children under 5. 

Special attention will also be paid to improving soft life skills for local primary and senior high school pupils, and offering career orientation programmes for young people aged between 19 and 24.  In addition, training courses will be provided for local residents to help them cope with natural disasters and the effects of climate change.

Son Tra District now has around 2,000 poor families and 1,600 poor children who are in need of help.  In addition, there are hundreds of single women who are unemployed, whilst the local social welfare programme has yet to be enhanced effectively.