Title: “Little Sun: a project to support childhood in one of the floating community on the Red River Delta”

 

Sector: Education.

 

Place: one of the floating community on the Red River Delta, close to the Long Bien Bridge, in the state of Phuc Xa, district - Ba Ding (Hanoi).

 

Local counterpart: Solidarites Jeunesses

 

Period of implementation: 2008-2009

 

Financiers: Archdiocese of Trento, GTV, Solidarites Jeunesses.

 

Beneficiaries: direct beneficiaries of the project are 22 (8 mothers and 10 children). The indirect beneficiaries are all the members of the families of the beneficiaries and the community all together.

 

Context:

 

The floating communities next to the Long Bien Bridge on the Red River Delta are made of immigrants coming from the neighboring provinces, unprovided of documents of identity and permissions of residence. This turns them into an irregular presence forced to live under conditions of marginalization.

Their middle income is approximately half a dollar per day and older children are often forced to work in order to financially support their families. The place where they live as well as the pollution of the surrounding environment and water are the major cause of diseases and infections which are very much spread within the community.

 

Description:

 

Single mothers are forced to work in order to support also financially their family but, if it is true that in the villages of origin there is a social net taking care of the children, it is also true that this support does not exist under the Long Bien Bridge. Together with the Vietnamese NGO Solidarité Jeunesse (SJ), GTV intends to create a day-care center for children, where they can live in a safe and stimulating environment and get ready for scholastic integration. As time goes by, gradually the management of the center will be transferred to the mothers.

 

 

The main activities are:

 

1. Construction / preparation of the boat where the day-care center will be.

2. Basic Sanitary assistance

3. Balanced diet

4. Pre-school activities (Early Learning)

5. Teaching of general abilities (Social and Life Skills Program)

6. Acquisition of basic accounting notions and money management

7. Obtainment of the birth certificates and registration for the children