Start date: October 2007
Expected end date: September 2020
Support Office: World Vision Malaysia
Location: Ba Thuoc District, Thanh Hoa Province

1. Program Background:

1.1 Location
Ba Thuoc is one of 27 districts located in the west of the Thanh Hoa province. It is approximately 120 km from Thanh Hoa city, and 270 km from Hanoi. It takes four to five hours to travel by car to Cang Nang town, the centre of Ba Thuoc district.

1.2 Population, Demographics, Social Dynamics
Located in the south of Hanoi, Ba Thuoc encompasses 222 villages. The population is 21,753 families with approximately 104,000 inhabitants.

Each family now has fewer children after the family planning programme was improved in the district. Traditionally, two to three generations including grandparents, parents and children live together in a house. At present, most families comprise two generations.

1.3 Cultural Setting
There are three major ethnic groups in Ba Thuoc, namely, Muong (51%), Thai (32%) and Kinh (17%). Their main spoken languages and dialects are Vietnamese, which is the national language, Thai and Muong, which are ethnic minority languages. Among the population, 99 percent know Vietnamese, except the old generation, who speak their dialects.

People of different ethnic groups live together in perfect harmony. Marriages among different ethnic groups are common as cultural practices and religious belief are not much different among the groups.

1.4 Economical Situation
Ba Thuoc is one of the poorest districts in Thanh Hoa province. Up to 50.2% of its population struggle with poverty when their monthly income as defined by the government’s poverty criteria is below VND400,000 (US$20). Communities predominantly live on agriculture in the district.

The common characteristics of the poor in the district are:

• Lack of labor force.
• Lack of food.
• Lack of access to quality services.
• Daily struggling with diseases and disabilities.

Main causes of poverty in Ba Thuoc are:

• Low productivity due to low prices for agricultural products, out-of-date production techniques.
• Difficult transportation, lack of markets and difficult market accessibility.
• Lack of water for farming due to poor irrigation system and deforestation in the past.
• Lack of land for cultivation and animal husbandry.

1.5. Agriculture
Up to 97 percent of local people live on cultivation and animal husbandry but these activities are underdeveloped. The local agriculture concentrates on self-consumption. Main crops include wet rice, corn, cassava, peanut, soybean, sweet potato and vegetable.

Land is allocated to farmers for long use and most of the land is on terraced fields (sloping land or step farming), which requires a lot of labour force for farming activities.

Farmers in Ba Thuoc face these main challenges:

• Lack of land and water.
• Harsh climate.
• Backward cultivation techniques and poor extension system.
• Crop diseases.

Animal husbandry faces high costs, which lead to poor cost-effectiveness, lack of fodder, backward animal raising techniques and epidemic diseases in the district.

Some training courses on animal husbandry were organised to local farmers but they were ineffective. The trainees were low education level and the training courses were not well-designed.

1.6. Education
Illiteracy and school drop-out rates are high. Local schools don’t have enough classrooms so students of two grades often study together in one classroom. Most schools lack teaching equipments, learning aid, water and sanitation systems, libraries and functional rooms.

There is only one vocational training school for drop-out students in the district. Unemployment among young people is a concern in Ba Thuoc and local authorities work hard to create jobs for young people.

The Vietnamese Government has issued guidelines to set up Community Learning Centres (CLC) at local level. Till date, 23 CLC have been established in Ba Thuoc district but these centres haven’t worked effectively due to budget shortage, lack of proper management and low training quality.

1.7. Health
Local awareness about disease prevention is poor while there is scarcity of both safe water and hygienic facilities at community. Health stations are downgraded and they are in need of health workers.

The common diseases in Ba Thuoc are diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections (ARI), gynaecological diseases, physical and nervous breakdowns. Diarrhoea and ARI are the main causes to death among local children under five. Diarrhoea often occurs during rainy season, especially from May to August, when drinking water is contaminated and the weather is wet and hot.

2. Ba Thuoc ADP
World Vision works closely with the local government and community to understand the root causes of poverty and develops a program to help to improve the quality of life of people in Ba Thuoc.

Ba Thuoc ADP is an integrated and long-term program to directly support more than 18,072 people in four communes of Ba Thuoc district. The ADP’s interventions are tailored specifically to communities’ need, focusing on healthcare and protection, water and sanitation, education, disaster mitigation education and capacity building. This holistic approach encourages community participation and ownership, builds a firm foundation for the program’s sustainability and addresses the root causes of poverty, in which Child Well-being Aspirations are focused.

Program development

World Vision trains mothers and caregivers on child nutrition and child health.

• Health workers receive medical training on HIV and AIDS raising awareness and treatment, nutrition awareness, proper hygiene and sanitation practices, treatment of fever and other preventable diseases.
• Essential equipment is provided to commune health stations, increasing their capacity to deal with a variety of common health issues in the area.
• Commune health stations are upgraded or rebuilt, clean water supply systems and latrines are provided to local schools and communities.

World Vision assists local schools to implement Active Learning Methodology.

• Teachers receive training course on new teaching methods, which helps to improve the teaching quality at kindergartens, primary and secondary schools. Children have more opportunities to learn in an interactive way at school.
• Learning conditions have been improved when kindergarten classrooms, playgrounds, and school latrines are upgraded or constructed school supplies are given to kindergartens and primary schools.
• Communication sessions on children’s rights are implemented at school and village, promoting local awareness of child safety and protection.

With World Vision's support, community members initiate and implement their development activities at their villages.

• Members of Programme Management Boards at district, commune and hamlet levels are trained on programme management skills, sponsor relationship and leadership.

A sponsor talked with his RC at their school when visiting the ADP.

• Sponsorship project with registered children (RC) has helped children to build their passion, living skills and ambition as well as to give more care to other people. Children are more active to participate in community activities and to raise their voices. The relationships between RCs and sponsors have developed well when the number of RC increases every year.
• The ADP organises regular raising awareness sessions to improve parents’ understanding about sponsorship relation at villages and makes sure the correspondence between RC and their sponsors is implemented in time.
• Ba Thuoc ADP now has 2,250 RC.

3. Other supports from World Vision Vietnam

• Community members are supported to upgrade local infrastructure including the construction of local roads which helps community members gain easier access to health stations and to carry their agriculture products to markets.
• Gift of Hope: The project, funded by WV Malaysia, supports poor children with school supplies and warm clothes so they can go school and have good health during cold weather.
• LIFT project: Funded by WV US, the Livestock Investment for Transformational Development (LIFT) assists about 100 families with livestock development for their income generation.