project: vietnam

Task: Provide meals for hospital patients
Partner: Local Red Cross of District Tam Binh
BGR members: Kim Behan (leader), Jennifer Wheeler
Adviser: Thich Tri Hoang
Project schedule: January 2009 — January 2010

Project description:

BGR awarded a grant to the Red Cross to provide meals to patients at the Da Khoa Huyen Tam Binh hospital in the province of Vinh Long in southern Vietnam.  Da Khoa Huyen Tam Binh hospital is known to its constituents as “the hospital of love” because of its compassionate care.  Since hospitals in Vietnam do not customarily provide meals for patients, impoverished families with loved ones in the hospital sometimes must choose between feeding themselves and feeding their ailing family member.  The grant from BGR thus helps to relieve families of the burden of making heartbreaking decisions about how to distribute limited household food resources.

BGR funds enable each of fourteen Red Cross volunteer teams to prepare meals for patients for four weeks.  In total, between 14,000 and 16,800 meals will be provided to patients over a period of 13 months, beginning in January 2009.  Funds are used to purchase tofu, vegetables, spices and charcoal for cooking.  Rice is provided by the local government.

Project Impact:

• Provides 14,000 to 17,000 meals to hospitalized patients over a 13-month period, from January 2009 through January 2010.
• Alleviates the burden on families who must take meals to hospitalized loved ones

Hunger Challenges:

Overview: Vietnam’s economic growth rate has been nothing short of meteoric. As a result, many indicators of human well-being have improved: rates of infant and child mortality, life expectancy, percentage of the population living in poverty. These gains, however, do not completely redress all the serious challenges facing Vietnam.

Issues: Approximately three-quarters of all Vietnamese live in rural areas. The disparity in income levels between urban and rural populations grows as the nation’s economy prospers. Inflation disproportionately affects the poor both in urban and rural areas, exacerbating issues of hunger and food security.

Poverty: Nearly 30 percent of the population still lives below the international poverty line.

• 14 percent lives below the food poverty line.
• Approximately 20 percent of all children are malnourished.

Other issues: Vietnam is one of the countries most affected by global climate change. Rising sea levels and more frequent natural disasters could easily erase the country’s impressive economic gains.