Japan Aids to Improve Nutrition for Vietnamese Children

Yesterday afternoon, the signing ceremony of a non-refundable aid contract for two projects in the healthcare sector of the Japanese Government in fiscal year 2014 for Vietnam took place in Hanoi.

At the ceremony, Mr. Yanagi Jun - Ambassador of the Embassy of Japan in Vietnam signed an aid contract with Ms. Ayaka Arai - Project Coordinator of Save the Children Japan in Vietnam for the project "Improving child nutrition and ensuring food security for the poorest" (phase 3) and signed with Ms. Yamaguchi Sumie - Representative Director of JOICFP on the project "Establishing a women's health care center and enhancing capacity for midwives at the grassroots level."

Medical staff check the health of children in the highlands. (Photo: VNA)

Project “Improving child nutrition and ensuring food security for the poorest” (phase 3) with an aid amount of 469,131 USD. The project implementing unit is the Save the Children Japan Organization and the project is implemented in Yen Bai province for 3 years.

Currently, Yen Bai is a province with a rate of stunting and slow development in rural children higher than the national average.

To improve the malnutrition situation in children, over the past two years, the Japan Children's Aid Organization has cooperated with the Department of Health and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Yen Bai province to carry out activities such as: ensuring food, expanding nutritious vegetable gardens, diversifying food security through the use of natural resources, increasing cash income, improving knowledge and skills in health and nutrition... in 6 communes of Van Chan district - where the poverty rate is the highest in Yen Bai province.

With the signed non-refundable aid, the Japanese Government will continue to support the project for the third consecutive year.

The project “Establishment of Women’s Health Care Centers and Capacity Building for Midwives at Grassroots Level” has a grant amount of 591,864 USD. The Japan International Cooperation Agency for Family Planning (JOICFP) is the project implementing unit.

In Vietnam in recent years, thanks to efforts to improve the quality of healthcare and economic growth, the mortality rate of pregnant women and newborns has decreased, however the gap in the quality of healthcare services between urban and rural areas remains large.

For example, in remote rural community health centers, more than half of the health workers have not been trained for a long time.

In the face of this situation, JOICFP, in collaboration with the Vietnam Midwives Association through the Japanese Government's non-refundable aid cooperation implemented by NGOs, has provided high-quality reproductive health services to protect women's health throughout their entire life cycle and built a "Women's Health Center" in Hue city, becoming a model for providing comprehensive health care services for staff of the Vietnam Midwives Association.

In addition, for remote areas of Thua Thien Hue, Quang Tri and Quang Binh provinces, training courses for midwives at commune and district levels and providing community outreach services to localities, implementing health education courses for women and rural people in remote areas... have also been organized.

These projects are projects on key issues in international cooperation within the framework of non-refundable aid cooperation of the Japanese Government implemented by NGOs (projects contributing to poverty reduction in Asia)./.

According to Vietnam+