DSpace at VNU: The role of social organization in resolving children related problem in Ho Chi Minh city

DSpace at VNU: The role of social organization in resolving children related problem in Ho Chi Minh city tài liệu, giáo...

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION IN RESOLVING CHILDREN RELATED PROBLEM IN HO CHI MINH CITY

Michiko Yoshii

Introduction

Background

Vietnam shows a very rapid economic development since the 1990s, pushed

by Doi Moi policy of economic liberalizafion Vietnam records 4.8% - 9.5% economic growth every year between 1990 and 2011

Along with this rapid growth, the gap between rich and poor develops more and more, and new social problems arise during the same period, such as cormption, HIV-AIDS, drug, human traffic, domestic immigration to big cities, development of slums, etc And among children related social problems, street children problem can be considered one of the most serious one Their number in big cities is increasing despite national economic growth

For this children related problem in Vietnam, how does the govemment address it? Or does it close the eyes on it? And what is the role of social organizafions in Vietnam beside its govemment? Do social organizations recognize the problem and do they try to resolve it? If yes, what is their position vis-a-vis the govemment? These are the questions that came from the observation of these problems in Vietnam

Objectives

In this study, I aim to highlight the role of the social organizations in Vietnam,

to discover how they could contribute to solving children related problem

Vietnam is a socialist country under leadership of the Communist Party It also

is considered as a developing country, and it receives ODA or intemational civil society's support for its social development, including the support to resolve street children problem

Mie University, Japan Presentation to the 4'^ International Conference on Viet Nam Studies, 26-28 November 2012, Hanoi

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Based on these conditions, my objectives in this study are:

1) to show how social organizations contribute to resolve the street children problem

2) to analyze how 2 conditions of Vietnam to be a socialist and developing country influence to the caring activities to street children

In trying to find the answers to above questions, I hope this study can bring a contribution, even a small one, in solving child related problems, giving some hint

to those who are combating everyday for children care and also those who are deciding policies sitting down in their director room

Methodology

The research fields are fixed at Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) HCMC is the most populated city in Vietnam and its number of street children also is the biggest The concern of the govemment, the social organizations also of the international donor community is very high for the street children issue in HCMC

These are reasons why, I chose HCMC as research fields

Both states run organizations and social organizations specialized in the care

of children with the purpose of solving the problem of street children in HCMC are visited and investigated regularly Organizations' responsible and NGOs' director were interviewed Children taken in charge were also interviewed

The research in HCMC was realized in Sep 2011 and Feb.2012

1 "Social organizations" as difined in this study

Social organizafions visited for this study are those which satisfy all of following 5 condifions: 1) Organized, 2) Private, 3) Not profit-distribufing, 4) Self-governing, 5) Voluntary, as defined for the notion of "civil organizations" by Salomon el al (Salomon el al 2004:8) In Vietnam, whether the organization is officially registered or not as an NGO or with other status is not distinguished, both official and un-offieial organizations are considered as a social organization, only if its activities are really private (not belonging to the government), not for profit (not private company for profit), self-governing (can decide to stop it by themselves), and voluntary (no one obliged them to do it)

In Vietnam there are Mass Organizations' which are very similar to civil society organizations but mainly conducted by the government Since there are

1 The Mass Organizations are defined as "organizational structure of the people divided by professions or social categories with purpose of propaganda of the state for the social development" (Shiraishi 2000: 42) Their activities are often very near to those of NGOs

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

eases of real private/voluntary organizations who borrow the name of a Mass Organization, I consider them all as social organizations in order to simplify the discussion There should be some Mass Organizations who acts as govemment representative, but this study has no main interest to discover them

2 Street children problem in Vietnam

2.7 Existing Literature and Definition

For existing literature on the problem of street children in HCMC, there are Terre des Hommes Foundation (2004) and So Khoa hoc-Cong nghe Thanh pho H6 Chi Minh and So Lao dong-Thuong binh va Xa hoi Thanh ph6 H6 Chi Minh (SKHCN ) (2005) The first one is a research report by an intemational NGO with detailed interview of children living on the street Its characterisfic is to reveal each child's real intention, but no deep consideration on caring NGO The latter one is a report made by Vietnamese govemment with detailed description on govemment measures Flowever, the report considers the governmental and mass organization as

"Civil Society" and does not mention about the social organizafions as defined in this study

There still are two other researches on street children in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City; Duong and Ohno (2005) and Nguyen and Trinh (1998) Both of them have detailed reflections on causes or realifies of children, but very few considerations about the caring actors

The present study can be characterized by its focus on the caring organizations with the analysis of the potential for social organizations' contribution It also recommends future orientations for the care

The definifion of street children varies among govemments, intemafional organizations and NGOs This study adopts "children under 18 years of age, eaming money through casual, street-based activifies such as begging, scavenging, peddling, portering shoe-shining, pickpocketing, petty theft , or children who risk doing so and have no chance to develop their own capability"

2.2 Number and Evolution

The statistics show very variable number of street children in HCMC, from 7,000 (The Committee for the Protecfion and Care of Children) to 11,000 (Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, DOLISA) (Terre des Hommes Foundation 2004:98-99) This variafion results from the difference in definifion of street children in each organization and the difficulty to count them

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Table 1: Evolution of the number of street children

in Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City Year

1993

1996

1997

1998

1999

200]

2002

2003

2004

2011

Vietnam

12 749

19 047

23 093

22 000

19 000

Ho Chi Minh City

2611

6 500

10351

8 500

8 000 More than 10 000

Source: SKHCN 2005: 7, 21 and hearing from DOLISA

The Table 1 shows a decrease between 2002 and 2003 in spite of the general tendency of increase over the whole period It can be supposed that the big intemafional sports event SEAGAME held in Vietnam in 2003 pushed the authority

to remove many slams in big cities and Public Security Police made a big campaign

of arrest of street children Big events such as this usually causes a decrease in the number of street children but it is temporary and it cannot be considered as a general tendency (Duong and Ohno 2005:7)

In conclusion, the number of street children in HCMC cannot be exactly counted, its number is supposed to be more than 10,000 with the most narrow definition, and has a general tendency to increase except in case of special campaign of removal by the authority

2.3 Situation and Causes

Personal history of each street child in HCMC is different from one child to another In synthesis of exisfing literature, we can obtain the most common portrait

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

of o:ie street child : boy, 14 years old, Kinh ethnicity', bom in the country side of the Soulhem Region of Vietnam, with 1^' year primary school level education, has 2 brothers and/or sisters, living with family, father is daily laborer in a construction she, mother sells vegetables on the street, the reason why he becomes street child is poverty of the family, immigrated to HCMC together with family, his own job is selling lottery tickets, his parents telling him how to sell them, working more than 8 hours per day, daily income is 10,000 to 20,000 VND^, his income is spent for household, be never heard about the UN Rights of the Child, but heard about the risk of dmg, no knowledge about HIV/AIDS, never commited a criminal offence except a fight with other street children, his most happy moment is when he gets money, his biggest fear is drug, he wishes to receive a vocational training (SKHCN 2005:27-36)

In existing literature, the causes of street children are divided into (1) broken family, (2) mindset problem and (3) economic migration (Duong Kim Hong and Ohna 2005:22-24) The field research shows complicated combination of different causes in each case As kind of cares to street children, there exists 24H care in dornilory, poverty reduction for the family such as introduction of micro-credit system, scholarship, free of charge classes replacing the public school, etc As the causes differ from one child to another, the caring organization must choose an appropriate way to care for each child If all street children are only put in a center and the center let them retum home, some of the causes cannot be removed If the child is in a (1) broken family, he will come back on the street after receiving doneslie violence from coming back home The child who had (2) a mindset problem will try to cam money on the street if his or his parents' mindset is not changed And the child in (3) an economically migrated family will continue to cam morey on the street of big cities if the family's poverty is not reduced

In order to solve the problem of street children, it is indispensable to analyze the causes and remove them We need to take different measures for each child, since what caused each to be in the street is a complex combination

2.4 Government measures against the problem

In existing literature in 2009, Yoshii analyzed the govemment measures and synhesized them in "well developed legal basis'\ "good organization of adn inislralive institutions", "rational thinking in policy making" and "not app-oprialed way of realization in the field" Why do problems arise on field though

1 Ehnicity in majority of Vietnam

2 As of the time of research, US$1 equals about 15,000 VND

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there are well developed laws, organizations and policies are all ready? It is because

of 3 problems observed on 3 different levels of state organization They are: "lack

of capacity of state employees at field level", "tendency to look for the good mark

at middle manager level", and "priority given to the supreme theme of stability at state level"

Thus the govemment takes care of street children because they can be an element of insecurity (state level), rapid decrease of their number will bring on a good mark (middle manager level), and these children should be beaten for easier control (at field level)

3 Activities of the social organizations and obtained results

3.1 Diffusion of the notion of "social work" and training of social workers

Vietnam is a socialist state of one party mle And socialist stales theoretically have no notion of social work or social workers In existing literature, Oanh explains about the situafion of Vietnam in 1975-1985 as following:

( ) once socialism was built up, society would no longer have problems ( ) Social work and social workers were In theory, not needed In Soviet and Chinese models, social workers did not exist (Oanh 2002:p 88)

The same author continues about the Doi moi period :

( ) Between 1985 and 1990 when the country started to open its doors and adopt a market economy, social problems that had disappeared for a time quickly reappeard First the problems concerned neglected urban children, ( ) and they are developing faster than expected: ( ) (Id.:pp.88-89)

In face of this situation, the govemment started requesting help from former social workers in the South Vietnam before 1975 like this author, and also from intemafional donors

Here I introduce a case of one social organization, taking care of street children, helped by intemational donors and that contributed supplying social workers

FFSC (Friends for Street Children)' is a Vietnamese NGO under Catholic Committee of HCMC (Mass Organization), taking care of 1,500 street children in 8 centers in HCMC In 1990 the fiiture founder, Mr Tran Van Soi got a scholarship from HEKS'', an intemational NGO in Switzerland, to make 1 year study of social

1 FFSC (Friends for Street Children), 140/4 Vo Thi Sau, Dist.3, HCMC, Vietnam

2 Catholic Committee of HCMC, 15 Tu Xuong, Dist.3, HCMC, Vietnam

3 HEKS, Hilferwerk der Evangelischen Kirchen Schweiz, Seminarstrasse 28, Postfach 8042, Zurich, Switzerland

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

work in France Convinced of the importance of social work and after having founded FFSC, he started distributing scholarships to young Vietnamese in 1994 in order to help them becoming social workers From then until 2011, a total of 750 people got scholarship The fund for scholarships was supported by M I S E R J O R ' , a German NGO

Those who were al the bachelor level studied in Department of Women Studies in HCMC Open University for 4 years They became NGO staff after graduation Master level students were sent to the Philippines for 2 years to be a manager class staff of NGOs Those who continued to doctor degree stayed in Philippines 3 more years to become professors of social work in Vietnamese universities

The above ease of FFSC shows the contribution of social organization in supplying adequate human resources based on scientific knowledge for resolving children related problem

Influenced by general tendency of the reality, the Department of Women Studies in FICMC Open University changed its name in mid-1990s and now is called Department of Social Work In the same time period, 2 other universities in HCMC, University of Human and Social Sciences and HCMC University of Law created Departments of Social Work Finally, the govemment itself officially recognized the "social worker" as a profession in 2011

Here is a case of visit and interview to high level govemment officer in HCMC ft was realized in Sep 14, 2011 at DOLISA

Mr Vo Tmng Tarn is General Director of Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee (DOLISA) He has been to the Philippines to visit social workers and he himself has a master degree in social work No need to say how he realizes the importance of social work in the care of street children

He explains about a new project of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), starting in 2011, to train 6,500 social workers among the civil servants The necessary budget for the training will be offered by foreign donor The eight (8) visited care centers for street children mn by social organizations

on about 40-60 in total in HCMC, all have at least one social worker among its staffs The cases described in this paragraph clearly demonstrate how the social organizations in Vietnam, supported by international donors, contributed to diffuse

I MISEREOR, Mozartstrasse 9, Aachen, Germany

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the new nofion of social work and supplying social workers, not only to social organizations but also among state mn institutions

3.2 Introduction of international care technics

Intemational civil society contributed so much to transfer the know-how of child care in Vietnam Here 1 will mention 2 cases in HCMC

Lang Thieu nien Thu Due (LTNTD) (Thu Due Child Village or Village Marina Picasso)' is a state mn children care center belonging to DOLISA Situated

on East suburb of the city center, it has a large 2,2 ha land with 15 small homes for total 162 children They are divided into family with one "Mother" and 5-10 children living together

The village was first founded in 1991 by Marina Picasso, grandchild of the famous painter, in partnership with DOLISA In 2002, the donor retreated and since then, it eonfinues to be run by DOLISA itself with 400,000USD annual running cost The care technics for children continued without major change since 2002, the care staffs, all civil servants of DOLISA had been trained on site during the presence of the foreign donor

The area with green gardens is beautifully maintained, and I was very surprised to see even a swimming pool, looking like on of a resort hotel, also maintained to be used by the children

The second case is Christina Noble Children Foundation (CNCF)^ CNF is an intemafional NGO of UK, founded in 1991 in Vietnam The founder Chrisfina Noble herself was a street child in Ireland when she was young The office of CNF

is situated in the upper-class residential area of the city center in District 3 On the same land, there is Trung Tam Nuoi Tre Khuyet Tat va Suy Dinh Duong (Care Center for Handicapped and Malnourished Children)^ It takes care of 90 handicapped children of 0-6 years old on a 24H basis There are 52 staffs, all sent

by DOLISA, partner of the project The land also belongs to DOLISA, but all mnning cost is in charge of CNCF

The CNCF recently signed the renewal of the contract for 10 years, thus the center will continue at least until 2021, 30 years from its foundation

1 Lang Thieu nien Thii Due, 18, Vo Van Ngan, Phuong Truong Tho, Dist Thu Due, HCMC, Vietnam

2 Christina Noble Child Foundation, 38 Tu Xuong, Dist.3, HCMC, Vietnam

3 Trung tam Nuoi tre mo coi khuyet tat va suy dinh duang, same address as CNCF

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Inside sight of the center as well as the strict respect of regulations for visitors are similar to Europe No picture taking allowed, even without children The interior

is so clean and so beautiful that 1 felt like on a small island of Europe surrounded by Vietnamese ocean No used clothes or toys accepted, the donors are asked to give only brand-new articles Annual budget of the center is 4,000,000,000 VND (21,0O0USD as of Mar.2012)

Ms.Son Thu Trinh, Vice-Director of CNCF says, the govemment staffs have a tendency to consider that the handicapped children have no human rights and try to give them only minimum care for their life The NGO, on the other hand, tries to change that, give children a chance to go out, tries to speak to them, let them listen

to music, organize excursions and decorate their room with light colors Gradually the government changes and begins to understand what are the child rights

Above presented 2 eases shows how intemafional social organizations contribute to transfer their technics of child care to the govemment and its staffs, by mnning child care centers in partnership with DOLISA for years

In the first ease, the one of LTNTD, the foreign donor already retreated out, and DOLISA by itself continues the same kind of care In the second ease of CNCF, foreign NGO still continue to cooperate with DOLISA in continuing to make technology transfer and let them understand child rights

3.3 Promotion of "socialization (xa hoi hoa) " by the government

As Mr.Tam, General Director of DOLISA says in his interview, the government tries to socialize (xa hoi boa) the care for children "Socialization" in Vietnam means not only the govemment but also "let many actors in society take care" of street children

In the 2006 field research, Yoshii collected some cases of difficulties on social organizations' activities There were cases of order of local authority to close free of charge classes for street children, cutting off the electricity supply to children shelter, order to close whole children care centers, etc (Yoshii 2009)

In the 2011 field research, all of the 6 social organizations specialized in children care visited replied that some difficulties with local authority still exist, but compared to several years before, the situafion has improved and the acfivities are easier to bring than before

Following is the number of social ortanizations' care centers for children in HCMC given by DOLISA:

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Table 2: Number of NGOs' centers for children in HCMC by specialization

Kind of center

Classes for handicapped children

Shelter for children with 24H care

Free of charge classes with 200-600 children

Vocational training center

Independent groups with different specializations

Total

Number

54

61

32

21

102

270

Source: Hearing from DOLISA in 2011

Promoting the socializafion, DOLISA let above social organizations run centers for children with more and more freedom and on the site of these centers everyone tesfifies that the promotion is really taking effect, even if still partially This liberalizafion of social organizations' activity should be obtained, first because of lack of resource of the government for children care, but second because

of a big effort of the social organizations to give adequate care to the children The liberalization also can be considered as a result of social ortanizations' activities

4 Analysis

Based on the obtained results as showed in above chapter 3,1 analyze here the points fixed as 2 objectives of present study;

4.1 How social organizations contribute to resolve street children problem?

In Vietnam, as described in chapter 3., 3 main results of social organizafions were observed They are: (1) Introduefion of new nofion of social work, (2) Introduction of intemafional care technics with respect to the right of the child, (3) Change the govemment's attitude against social organizations from repression to cooperation The number of street children is still increasing and the problem is not resolved, but we can conclude certain contribution of social organizations in resolving child related problem

4.2 How 2 conditions of Vietnam to be a socialist and developing country influence the caring activities to street children?

Here we can observe fundamental stmeture in child care activities Vietnam, a developing country, has big possibility to receive funding from the foreign donor