The year 2022 marked an important milestone in Project RENEW’s efforts to support families with disabled persons affected by the war consequences. In January 2022, Project RENEW officially joined an alliance of five Vietnamese organizations to implement “Inclusion Project One” aimed at improving the living conditions of disabled persons in provinces heavily sprayed with Agent Orange. Funding is provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

With Research Center for Inclusion coordinating the effort, Project RENEW together with Quang Tri Charity Association, Fund of Genetic Counseling and Disabled Children, and Vietnam Health Improvement Project have joined the Alliance for All Inclusion (AAI) and have started to undertake activities to provide physical rehabilitation and home-based care services to families with disabled persons in the three provinces of Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue, and Quang Nam.  Life’s realities have shown that disabled persons encounter many difficulties in their daily lives, especially the need for physical rehabilitation and health care. Committed to helping people overcome these problems, the AAI has been funded by USAID with an amount of US$838,562 for the first year of this project.

Implementing this new Project will enable RENEW to expand services into A Luoi District, Thua Thien Hue Province – one of the areas most heavily sprayed with Agent Orange and other herbicides – along with improving living conditions of Agent Orange families in two districts of Gio Linh and Hai Lang, Quang Tri Province.

In recent months, RENEW has collaborated with our partners to conduct needs assessments among the community of disabled persons in A Luoi, Gio Linh, and Hai Lang districts prior to providing health care and rehabilitation for people with disabilities. 

“New funding provided by USAID Vietnam has enabled Project RENEW to undertake interventions within our expertise and experience to significantly improve the living conditions of disabled persons,” said Nguyen Hieu Trung, Project RENEW Coordination Manager. “This Alliance is an effective model of cooperation that promotes the strengths of each of the members toward the goal of making life with disabilities more bearable.” 

The Project named “Improvement of living conditions of disabled persons in provinces heavily sprayed with Agent Orange Project” is implemented in the three provinces of Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue, and Quang Nam (Project Inclusion One). It is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, with National Action Center for Toxic Chemicals and Environment Treatment (NACCET) under Ministry of National Defense being the responsible organization through the Center for Creative Initiatives in Health and Population (CCIHP).