Blind seek jobs plus diversity

VBA president Cao Van Thanh, made the call at a workshop held in Hanoi on June 16 to spotlight a common predicament of many blind people in Vietnam. Many, especially those living in mountainous and rural areas, are unemployed and are dependent on their families.

Phan Thanh My, who is with the (State-owned) People's Aid Co-ordin-ating Committee (PAC-COM), said last year, there were 213 projects funded by international organ-isations involving people with disabilities in Vietnam, but only 20 had anything to do with the blind.

She said these proj-ects did not directly give support to the blind, but to projects related to healthcare, social affairs and employment that also included the blind.

My suggested that the VBA should come up with ideas to diversify livelihoods for the blind by placing them in jobs other than conventional ones.

She also suggested the VBA beef up its work on fund-raising and model them on the operations of other international non-governmental organisat-ions or countries that have good practices of caring for the blind.

Dinh Thi Nguyet, from Catholic Relief Services (CRS, cited information technology as a job suitable for the blind.

At the workshop, the VBA praised international organisations that had given assistance to it over the past years.

Among them were the Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted, the Swedish Association of the Visually Impaired and the Embassy of Japan in Vietnam.

The workshop was held with the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations.