VOVNews: Could you brief us on the Vietnam Blind Association’s activities in recent times as it is preparing for its 7^th national congress?

Mr Soat: Founded in 1969, the association’s main tasks are to gather the blind in an organisation to care for their physical and spiritual lives and create all possible conditions for them to integrate well into society. The association’s chapters have been established in 42 out of 64 provinces and cities across the country with more than 54,000 members.

Since its establishment, the association has organised Braille classes for more than 22,000 blind people, of whom nearly 1,000 children have attended pre-integration classes, and after graduation, about half the number of those children have attended classes with ordinary students at all grades. Currently, 85 blind students are studying at universities and colleges.

Every year, the association’s printing workshop supplies millions of pages of books, newspapers and publications in Braille to the blind across the country. Currently, it has three types of publications: newspapers in Vietnamese, newspapers in Braille and talking books.

The organisation has also paid attention to art performances with hundreds of art troupes of the blind established across the country. It has regularly organised cultural festivals, attracting a large number of its members.

It has also frequently organised sports and physical training tournaments for the blind. Many visually-impaired people have won noble awards at national and regional Paralympic Games.

VOVNews: What has the association done to help the blind overcome difficulties, get suitable jobs and integrate into the community?

Mr Soat: Besides spiritual lives, the association has also paid attention to caring for their physical lives because most of the blind meet difficulties in life. The association has so far organised thousands of vocational training courses for the blind across the country. We have created conditions for graduates to attend local production workshops or develop household economies. We have established 147 production establishments for 40,000 blind people, and their incomes last year ranged between VND400,000-1,500,000 per month. We are especially interested in the practice of massage as it suits the blind and generates higher income.

In addition, the association has created conditions for the blind to borrow credits worth VND33.1 billion from national development funds to develop household economies. Thanks to credits, many blind people have escaped hunger and poverty and become well-off. The association has also repaired dilapidated houses, dug wells, provided medical insurance cards and inquired into the blind’s heath.

VOVNews: What do you think of the Party, State and the community’s assistance and care for the disabled?

Mr Soat: The Party and State have provided special care for the blind’s physical and spiritual lives at all times, even in wartime. Notably, the protection and care of people with disabilities has been legalised. In 1994, the State issued an ordinance on granting preferences to those who rendered great services to the nation, including people with disabilities and orphans. In 1998, the National Assembly Standing Committee adopted an ordinance on disabled people, with specific plans of action to protect and care for disabled people and orphans. 

For the community, mutual assistance in times of trouble has become a fine tradition of the Vietnamese nation.

We appreciate businesses and other philanthropists for their good deeds towards the disabled, including the blind. We hope more humanitarian activities will be launched to help the disabled integrate into the community. We also hope that the blind will get appropriate jobs at State agencies and businesses to support themselves and, more importantly, gradually overcome their hard lives.

By the way, we would like to thank VOV for broadcasting about the blind and the VOV youth union for making special programmes for the blind, as well as producing talking books.

VOVNews: What have you done in response to the National Day of Disabled People?

Mr Soat: The association’s Executive Board recently met and worked out programmes of action for 2007. Accordingly, we have launched a campaign to promote unity, creativity, equality and active integration into the community among the blind. The campaign aims to raise public awareness of the need to protect and care for the disabled which is the responsibility of the Party, State, families and the disabled themselves.

VOVNews: Thank you.