World Health Day

Together, we celebrate the World Health Day today. If you ask people: ”What are the most essential things in your life?”, they will highly probably enumerate health. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, we learned to appreciate being healthy even more. Every one of us already experienced the feeling of being ill. And some of us may still suffer from physical or mental pain. Therefore, let us take today a minute to thank all the fantastic people out there who do such great work in trying to keep the world healthy. THANK YOU!

 

Health in Vietnam

Vietnam can exhibit some improvements in public health over the past decade. Further, Vietnam has recently implemented a reform to provide universal healthcare coverage to the entire population. At the moment, there are two types of social health insurance in Vietnam. Firstly, a compulsory social security cover, which applies to all workers on permanent contracts of more than three months. It also applies to several other categories like children, intending to make it universal. The other social health insurance is voluntary and applies to everyone who is not covered by the first one. Despite numerous efforts to provide healthcare cover to the entire population, the Vietnamese health system remains mostly underfunded and suffers from structural inefficiencies. The level of protection offered by the public policy is low, and the rest of the costs left to those using the services remain high.

On top of that, the quality of care in public hospitals urgently requires many improvements since, for instance, hospitals are often overloaded. Meanwhile, there is not enough medical equipment or medical staff to treat everyone. These structural problems seriously affect general health services in hospitals. In 2013, 68% of the total Vietnamese population was covered by social health insurance, with most enrollees from compulsory groups. However, enrollment has remained low among persons whose subscription is voluntary. As a consequence, households face financial risk due to high payments for health care. A study found out that enhanced awareness of the benefits of health insurance could lead more people to voluntarily carry health insurance.

 

Plans to improve the health of the children at Teresa´s orphanage

Health always plays a critical role in Teresa´s orphanage in Kon Tum. To improve the health of the 59 children, we urgently have to adjust the hygienic situation at the orphanage. Still, all 59 children and teenagers live in a single dormitory. Three children must share a bed, and even some kids have to sleep outside on the floor.

As a consequence, the children keep infecting each other. To improve the situation, it is essential to construct another dormitory. Likewise, it is crucial that the building of the new bathrooms can proceed. Until now, there are only two bathrooms for all children, which is simply not enough. How can you help? A donation to our charity can support us immensely in speeding up the process of offering the children a hygienic environment and, thus, improving their health. 

Since the children carry no social health insurance, the medical costs in case of illness are huge. Therefore, Teresa often does not have enough money to buy the necessary medicine or to take the sick child to see a doctor. We plan on looking deeper into the topic of social health insurance in Vietnam. Together with Teresa, we will then decide if it would be reasonable to have social health insurance for all the kids. We will keep you up to date about our decision.

 

Which child does urgently need medical care? 

The 14-year-old Y Phanis dreams of becoming a musician since she loves singing and even writing her own songs. Therefore, her greatest wish is to take music lessons. However, at the moment, Y Phanis feels sick. She looks tired, has a headache and fever. Unfortunately, Y Phanis is not the only child at the orphanage who is ill. Also, Y Duyên, 10-year-old Y Diêu, and 16-year-old Y Hiên have flu-like symptoms. Please consider sponsoring one of these girls, so that they can get all the necessary medical care they need. 

 

Health is essential to everyone´s quality of life. Therefore, let us come together and support each other in getting- and staying healthy. 

 

Get well soon to all the people out there who feel unwell right now! And stay healthy for everyone else!

Resources: 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5403811/

https://www.expatassure.com/vietnam/