Efforts made to ensure best care for children with disabilities

with the COVID-19 pandemic, they face even greater risks of exclusion, poverty and a lack of access to crucial services.

They are less likely to attend school, access medical services, or have their voices heard in society.

Their disabilities also place them at a higher risk of all forms of abuse, and often exclude them from support during emergencies.

They are often missing from national statistics, becoming ‘invisible’ to decision makers, service providers and the public.

Children with disabilities are highly vulnerable to stigma, discrimination and segregation from the rest of society.

The COVID-19 pandemic poses a serious risk to the well-being of every child, but those with disabilities face multiple threats because of the challenges they already face in their daily lives.

We are building on initiatives that are already in place to safeguard their health, education, protection and participation, as well as the shared knowledge gained from long-term partnerships and new, innovative approaches.

We are pushing for their full inclusion and for far greater consideration of their needs in the response.

We will mobilize these partnerships to focus on key priorities for children with disabilities throughout this crisis and beyond.

We are also targeting the discrimination that often pushes those with disabilities down the priority list for medical attention, working with health services to ensure that decisions about treatment are based on human rights.

Children who live with a physical, sensory, intellectual or mental health disability are among the most excluded of all the world’s children.

Poor access to health, education and child protection services has put them at higher risk of violence, abuse and exploitation

children with disabilities living in the country’s 400 public or private orphanages lack the individual attention, education and medical care that they need to develop to their full potential.

Residential care can have a devastating impact on a child’s brain development, causing lifelong health implications. Time is therefore critical, as after the age of five, children are less likely to respond to intervention.

Our priority is to keep these children out of residential care and in a family setting instead.

Our local specialists train and assess orphanage staff and families on how to care for children with special needs, stimulate and feed them properly, ensuring family placements are safe, successful and sustainable.

With your support we can ensure a better future for thousands of disabled Vietnamese children.

Increasing numbers of children are in need of special protection in Viet Nam.

Many families, particularly in rural areas, face new pressures brought about by socio-economic development that have led to an increased number of abandoned, neglected, abused and exploited children.

This will be achieved through enhancing national legislation and creating foster and respite care for children without parental care, those with disabilities and exposed by other vulnerabilities.