Over the past 17 years, the Da Nang Care Center for Victims of Agent Orange (AO) and Unfortunate Children under the municipal Association of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (DAVA) has been a place not only to care for, teach, and provide vocational courses and rehabilitation services for victims of AO and disabled children, but also to give them further energy to integrate into the community, and overcome guilt and low self-esteem in life.

Children at the Da Nang Care Center for Victims of Agent Orange and Unfortunate Children are taught to sew. Photo: N.Q

Tireless efforts made to soothe AO pain

The Da Nang Care Center for Victims of AO and Unfortunate Children was established in 2006 and currently has 2 facilities at 15 Nguyen Van Hue in Thanh Khe District, and in Phuoc Hung Village, Hoa Nhon Commune, Hoa Vang District.

Currently, the center is caring for, nurturing, and providing vocational training, and rehabilitation services for, nearly 100 children of AO and those with disabilities.

It is also a representative unit for DAVA to receive and effectively use cooperation programmes and projects funded by individuals and organisations at home and abroad to deploy support activities for local victims of AO.

In recent years, the care, transportation, and organisation of meals for children at the center have always met nutritional needs and food hygiene and safety.

Also, children at the center are assessed for their levels of disability and learning to be classified into appropriate educational classes for step-by-step progress. Every year, the center cooperates with associations and unions to organise fun, entertainment and picnic activities for them.

Thanks to special care from teachers and staff of the center, many children there have been equipped with social living skills and have well integrated with their families and the community. Many of them are offered jobs, such as making chiffon and beaded flowers, and incense, and sewing, by the center after integrating into the community.

Affected by AO on his body, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Phuong, born in 1981, residing in Lien Chieu District is only 95cm tall and weighs 20kg. More than 10 years ago, Mr. Phuong was facilitated by the center to learn the profession of making incense. With his unremitting efforts, he was retained to become a vocational teacher of incense production at the facility No. 1.

Mr. Phuong confided he will continue to spread his will and experience in vocational training for children of AO at the center so that they will have a better life in the future.

Efforts to overcome difficulties

According to Mr. Bui Trung Hieu, Deputy Director of the Center, recently, the center has received special attention from agencies, units and organisations at both home and abroad. Thanks to this, activities at the center have increasingly expanded and developed. Child care, education, and rehabilitation are highly effective, contributing to helping to reduce the burden on their families and the society.

However, the center operates on mobilised funds, so there is difficulty in paying staff salaries. Many employees of the center have held many different jobs, working even on days off, holidays, and Tet, but their salaries do not ensure a stable life.

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Kim Yen, 54, residing in Hoa Khanh Bac Ward, Lien Chieu District, has worked for nearly 15 years at the center. Her main job is to teach literacy and social integration skills to children at the facility in Hoa Nhon Commune but her current salary is just over VND3 million/month.

Mrs. Yen said that her simple happiness is to see children at the facility reading every word, making each incense stick, growing vegetable beds, serving themselves, doing household chores, loving each other, and being polite to visitors.

Chairman of DAVA To Nam said the center will continue to make efforts to care for and teach AO and disabled children, aiming to help them integrate into the community.

Reporting by NGOC QUOC - Translating by M.DUNG