Save the Children to open office in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam and Can Tho city

Save the Children office in Can Tho will focus on education, healthcare, disaster relief, and prevention of violence against children.

Save the Children is planning to open a representative office in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, and Can Tho city, as the growth engine of the region, is suitable to be the location of this office, said the organization's Country Director Dragana Strinic.

Export processing and industrial parks are growing rapidly in Can Tho, leading to the fast growth of the number of children whose parents come from other localities to work in the city. This fact has caused difficulties in managing and ensuring children's life quality.

Save the Children office in Can Tho will focus on education, healthcare, disaster relief, and prevention of violence against children.

The organization will coordinate with the local educational sector to improve children's reading and writing skills through learning toolkits with proven effectiveness. It aims to expand the teaching of Vietnamese as the second language for local ethnic minority children through bilingual education programmes.

To end violence against children, the organisation will work with the municipal Department of Education and Training to step up preventive measures and protect children from violence and abuse by educating students on forms of abuse and self-defence skills, encouraging parents to regularly talk to their children, and giving parents advice on the education of children at different ages.

Save the Children will coordinate with the municipal Department of Health to provide free check-ups, treatment, and medicine for disadvantaged children while popularising basic health knowledge to low-income families, rural residents, and ethnic minority people.

It will also join hands with schools and localities to promote food fortification for mothers and children through giving milk, vitamins, and tonics to malnourished students, pregnant women, and new mothers.