Nguyen Thi Hoang Van said that the VPDF funds operate on two main areas including peace and development issues. Among the areas of social protection, protection for vulnerable groups has been one of the priorities of the VPDF in recent years to ensure equal treatment for the whole society.
In his speech, Dong Huy Cuong, General Secretary of the VPDF and deputy head of the Department for multilateral affairs under the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations (VUFO), cited that in Viet Nam vulnerable groups account for more than 20 percent of the country’s population. About 9.2 percent of them are the elderly, 7.2 percent are people with disabilities, and 5 percent are in low-income families. They also include about 1.5 million children with special backgrounds, 1.8 million households that need support due to natural disasters, fires and lean harvest, 234,000 discovered HIV patients, 204,000 drug addicts, and 30,000 domestic violence victims.
These groups are facing a number of challenges and barriers relating to their interests, responsibility, self-esteem, health care, education, information, employment, capital, and support systems, Cuong noted.
Over the past years, Viet Nam has issued concrete policies to support vulnerable groups, social organizations of Viet Nam and other countries have also launched many programs and projects to assist them. However, because of both objective and subjective reasons, there remain limits of these groups’ access to the help of the State and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Pham Dai Dong, head of the Policy and social assistance division at the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs’ Department of Social Assistance, noted ensuring social welfare is an important task of the whole political system and the entire society. Models of social support must be diverse and include both material and spiritual support. Social support should be shared by the State and the society, and it should ensure that persons encountering risks receive timely assistance from the State, organizations and the community, he added.
Sharing her country’s experience, Iris Assenmacher – Counselor in charge of social issues at the German Embassy in Viet Nam – said the German Government’s viewpoint on social welfare for the disabled is to combine regulations and policies in all fields, from social assistance, social insurance to employment aid, while respecting their self-determination.
At the two-day workshop, participants are set to discuss such issues as the legal framework and system of social assistance in Viet Nam and German, share local NGOs’ experience in supporting vulnerable groups.
Ha Anh
