DSpace at VNU: The role of social organization in resolving children related problem in Ho Chi Minh city

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION IN RESOLVING
CHILDREN RELATED PROBLEM IN HO CHI MINH CITY
Michiko Yoshii

Introduction
Background
Vietnam shows a very rapid economic development since the 1990s, pushed
by Doi Moi policy of economic liberalizafion. Vietnam records 4.8% - 9.5%
economic growth every year between 1990 and 2011.
Along with this rapid growth, the gap between rich and poor develops more
and more, and new social problems arise during the same period, such as
cormption, HIV-AIDS, drug, human traffic, domestic immigration to big cities,
development of slums, etc. And among children related social problems, street
children problem can be considered one of the most serious one. Their number in
big cities is increasing despite national economic growth.
For this children related problem in Vietnam, how does the govemment
address it? Or does it close the eyes on it? And what is the role of social
organizafions in Vietnam beside its govemment? Do social organizations recognize
the problem and do they try to resolve it? If yes, what is their position vis-a-vis the
govemment? These are the questions that came from the observation of these
problems in Vietnam.
Objectives
In this study, I aim to highlight the role of the social organizations in Vietnam,
to discover how they could contribute to solving children related problem.
Vietnam is a socialist country under leadership of the Communist Party. It also
is considered as a developing country, and it receives ODA or intemational civil
society's support for its social development, including the support to resolve street
children problem.
Mie University, Japan. Presentation to the 4'^ International Conference on Viet Nam Studies,
26-28 November 2012, Hanoi.
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Based on these conditions, my objectives in this study are:
1) to show how social organizations contribute to resolve the street children
problem
2) to analyze how 2 conditions of Vietnam to be a socialist and developing
country influence to the caring activities to street children.
In trying to find the answers to above questions, I hope this study can bring a
contribution, even a small one, in solving child related problems, giving some hint
to those who are combating everyday for children care and also those who are
deciding policies sitting down in their director room.
Methodology
The research fields are fixed at Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). HCMC is the
most populated city in Vietnam and its number of street children also is the biggest.
The concern of the govemment, the social organizations also of the international
donor community is very high for the street children issue in HCMC.
These are reasons why, I chose HCMC as research fields.
Both states run organizations and social organizations specialized in the care
of children with the purpose of solving the problem of street children in HCMC are
visited and investigated regularly. Organizations' responsible and NGOs' director
were interviewed. Children taken in charge were also interviewed.
The research in HCMC was realized in Sep. 2011 and Feb.2012.
1. "Social organizations" as difined in this study
Social organizafions visited for this study are those which satisfy all of
following 5 condifions: 1) Organized, 2) Private, 3) Not profit-distribufing, 4) Selfgoverning, 5) Voluntary, as defined for the notion of "civil organizations" by
Salomon el al. (Salomon el al. 2004:8). In Vietnam, whether the organization is
officially registered or not as an NGO or with other status is not distinguished, both
official and un-offieial organizations are considered as a social organization, only if
its activities are really private (not belonging to the government), not for profit (not

private company for profit), self-governing (can decide to stop it by themselves),
and voluntary (no one obliged them to do it).
In Vietnam there are Mass Organizations' which are very similar to civil
society organizations but mainly conducted by the government. Since there are
1. The Mass Organizations are defined as "organizational structure of the people divided by
professions or social categories with purpose of propaganda of the state for the social
development" (Shiraishi 2000: 42). Their activities are often very near to those of NGOs.
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THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION.

eases of real private/voluntary organizations who borrow the name of a Mass
Organization, I consider them all as social organizations in order to simplify the
discussion. There should be some Mass Organizations who acts as govemment
representative, but this study has no main interest to discover them.
2. Street children problem in Vietnam
2.7. Existing Literature and Definition
For existing literature on the problem of street children in HCMC, there are
Terre des Hommes Foundation (2004) and So Khoa hoc-Cong nghe Thanh pho H6
Chi Minh and So Lao dong-Thuong binh va Xa hoi Thanh ph6 H6 Chi Minh
(SKHCN...) (2005). The first one is a research report by an intemational NGO with
detailed interview of children living on the street. Its characterisfic is to reveal each
child's real intention, but no deep consideration on caring NGO. The latter one is a
report made by Vietnamese govemment with detailed description on govemment
measures. Flowever, the report considers the governmental and mass organization as
"Civil Society" and does not mention about the social organizafions as defined in
this study.
There still are two other researches on street children in Hanoi and Ho Chi
Minh City; Duong and Ohno (2005) and Nguyen and Trinh (1998). Both of them

have detailed reflections on causes or realifies of children, but very few
considerations about the caring actors.
The present study can be characterized by its focus on the caring organizations
with the analysis of the potential for social organizations' contribution. It also
recommends future orientations for the care.
The definifion of street children varies among govemments, intemafional
organizations and NGOs. This study adopts "children under 18 years of age, eaming
money through casual, street-based activifies such as begging, scavenging,
peddling, portering shoe-shining, pickpocketing, petty theft..., or children who risk
doing so and have no chance to develop their own capability".
2.2. Number and Evolution
The statistics show very variable number of street children in HCMC, from
7,000 (The Committee for the Protecfion and Care of Children) to 11,000
(Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, DOLISA) (Terre des Hommes
Foundation 2004:98-99). This variafion results from the difference in definifion of
street children in each organization and the difficulty to count them.
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Table 1: Evolution of the number of street children
in Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City
Year

Vietnam

1993
1996

Ho Chi Minh City
2611

12 749

1997

6 500

1998

19 047

1999

23 093

200]

10351

2002

22 000

2003

19 000

8 500

2004

8 000

2011

More than 10 000

Source: SKHCN... 2005: 7, 21 and hearing from DOLISA.
The Table 1 shows a decrease between 2002 and 2003 in spite of the general
tendency of increase over the whole period. It can be supposed that the big
intemafional sports event SEAGAME held in Vietnam in 2003 pushed the authority
to remove many slams in big cities and Public Security Police made a big campaign
of arrest of street children. Big events such as this usually causes a decrease in the
number of street children but it is temporary and it cannot be considered as a
general tendency (Duong and Ohno 2005:7).
In conclusion, the number of street children in HCMC cannot be exactly
counted, its number is supposed to be more than 10,000 with the most narrow
definition, and has a general tendency to increase except in case of special
campaign of removal by the authority.
2.3. Situation and Causes
Personal history of each street child in HCMC is different from one child to
another. In synthesis of exisfing literature, we can obtain the most common portrait
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THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION...

of o:ie street child : boy, 14 years old, Kinh ethnicity', bom in the country side of

the Soulhem Region of Vietnam, with 1^' year primary school level education, has 2
brothers and/or sisters, living with family, father is daily laborer in a construction
she, mother sells vegetables on the street, the reason why he becomes street child is
poverty of the family, immigrated to HCMC together with family, his own job is
selling lottery tickets, his parents telling him how to sell them, working more than 8
hours per day, daily income is 10,000 to 20,000 VND^, his income is spent for
household, be never heard about the UN Rights of the Child, but heard about the
risk of dmg, no knowledge about HIV/AIDS, never commited a criminal offence
except a fight with other street children, his most happy moment is when he gets
money, his biggest fear is drug, he wishes to receive a vocational training
(SKHCN... 2005:27-36).
In existing literature, the causes of street children are divided into (1) broken
family, (2) mindset problem and (3) economic migration (Duong Kim Hong and
Ohna 2005:22-24). The field research shows complicated combination of different
causes in each case. As kind of cares to street children, there exists 24H care in
dornilory, poverty reduction for the family such as introduction of micro-credit
system, scholarship, free of charge classes replacing the public school, etc. As the
causes differ from one child to another, the caring organization must choose an
appropriate way to care for each child. If all street children are only put in a center
and the center let them retum home, some of the causes cannot be removed. If the
child is in a (1) broken family, he will come back on the street after receiving
doneslie violence from coming back home. The child who had (2) a mindset
problem will try to cam money on the street if his or his parents' mindset is not
changed. And the child in (3) an economically migrated family will continue to cam
morey on the street of big cities if the family's poverty is not reduced.
In order to solve the problem of street children, it is indispensable to analyze
the causes and remove them. We need to take different measures for each child,
since what caused each to be in the street is a complex combination.
2.4. Government measures against the problem
In existing literature in 2009, Yoshii analyzed the govemment measures and

synhesized them in "well developed legal basis'\ "good organization of
adn inislralive institutions", "rational thinking in policy making" and "not
app-oprialed way of realization in the field". Why do problems arise on field though
1. Ehnicity in majority of Vietnam.
2. As of the time of research, US$1 equals about 15,000 VND.

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VIET NAM HQC - KY YEU HOI THAO QUOC TE LAN THlT Tlf
there are well developed laws, organizations and policies are all ready? It is because
of 3 problems observed on 3 different levels of state organization. They are: "lack
of capacity of state employees at field level", "tendency to look for the good mark
at middle manager level", and "priority given to the supreme theme of stability at
state level".
Thus the govemment takes care of street children because they can be an
element of insecurity (state level), rapid decrease of their number will bring on a
good mark (middle manager level), and these children should be beaten for easier
control (at field level).
3. Activities of the social organizations and obtained results
3.1. Diffusion of the notion of "social work" and training of social workers
Vietnam is a socialist state of one party mle. And socialist stales theoretically
have no notion of social work or social workers. In existing literature, Oanh
explains about the situafion of Vietnam in 1975-1985 as following:
(...) once socialism was built up, society would no longer have problems. (...)
Social work and social workers were. In theory, not needed. In Soviet and Chinese
models, social workers did not exist. (Oanh 2002:p. 88)
The same author continues about the Doi moi period :
(...) Between 1985 and 1990 when the country started to open its doors and
adopt a market economy, social problems that had disappeared for a time quickly

reappeard. First the problems concerned neglected urban children, (...) and they
are developing faster than expected: (...) (Id.:pp.88-89)
In face of this situation, the govemment started requesting help from former
social workers in the South Vietnam before 1975 like this author, and also from
intemafional donors.
Here I introduce a case of one social organization, taking care of street children,
helped by intemational donors and that contributed supplying social workers.
FFSC (Friends for Street Children)' is a Vietnamese NGO under Catholic
Committee of HCMC (Mass Organization), taking care of 1,500 street children in 8
centers in HCMC. In 1990 the fiiture founder, Mr. Tran Van Soi got a scholarship
from HEKS'', an intemational NGO in Switzerland, to make 1 year study of social

1. FFSC (Friends for Street Children), 140/4 Vo Thi Sau, Dist.3, HCMC, Vietnam.
2. Catholic Committee of HCMC, 15 Tu Xuong, Dist.3, HCMC, Vietnam.
3. HEKS, Hilferwerk der Evangelischen Kirchen Schweiz, Seminarstrasse 28, Postfach 8042,
Zurich, Switzerland.
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THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION.

work in France. Convinced of the importance of social work and after having
founded FFSC, he started distributing scholarships to young Vietnamese in 1994 in
order to help them becoming social workers. From then until 2011, a total of 750
people got scholarship. The fund for scholarships was supported by M I S E R J O R ' , a
German NGO.
Those who were al the bachelor level studied in Department of Women
Studies in HCMC Open University for 4 years. They became NGO staff after
graduation. Master level students were sent to the Philippines for 2 years to be a
manager class staff of NGOs. Those who continued to doctor degree stayed in

Philippines 3 more years to become professors of social work in Vietnamese
universities.
The above ease of FFSC shows the contribution of social organization in
supplying adequate human resources based on scientific knowledge for resolving
children related problem.
Influenced by general tendency of the reality, the Department of Women
Studies in FICMC Open University changed its name in mid-1990s and now is
called Department of Social Work. In the same time period, 2 other universities in
HCMC, University of Human and Social Sciences and HCMC University of Law
created Departments of Social Work. Finally, the govemment itself officially
recognized the "social worker" as a profession in 2011.
Here is a case of visit and interview to high level govemment officer in
HCMC. ft was realized in Sep. 14, 2011 at DOLISA.
Mr. Vo Tmng Tarn is General Director of Department of Labor, Invalids and
Social Affairs, Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee (DOLISA). He has been to
the Philippines to visit social workers and he himself has a master degree in social
work. No need to say how he realizes the importance of social work in the care of
street children.
He explains about a new project of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social
Affairs (MOLISA), starting in 2011, to train 6,500 social workers among the civil
servants. The necessary budget for the training will be offered by foreign donor.
The eight (8) visited care centers for street children mn by social organizations
on about 40-60 in total in HCMC, all have at least one social worker among its staffs.
The cases described in this paragraph clearly demonstrate how the social
organizations in Vietnam, supported by international donors, contributed to diffuse
I. MISEREOR, Mozartstrasse 9, Aachen, Germany.
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the new nofion of social work and supplying social workers, not only to social
organizations but also among state mn institutions.
3.2. Introduction of international care technics
Intemational civil society contributed so much to transfer the know-how of
child care in Vietnam. Here 1 will mention 2 cases in HCMC.
Lang Thieu nien Thu Due (LTNTD) (Thu Due Child Village or Village
Marina Picasso)' is a state mn children care center belonging to DOLISA. Situated
on East suburb of the city center, it has a large 2,2 ha land with 15 small homes for
total 162 children. They are divided into family with one "Mother" and 5-10
children living together.
The village was first founded in 1991 by Marina Picasso, grandchild of the
famous painter, in partnership with DOLISA. In 2002, the donor retreated and since
then, it eonfinues to be run by DOLISA itself with 400,000USD annual running cost.
The care technics for children continued without major change since 2002, the
care staffs, all civil servants of DOLISA had been trained on site during the
presence of the foreign donor.
The area with green gardens is beautifully maintained, and I was very
surprised to see even a swimming pool, looking like on of a resort hotel, also
maintained to be used by the children.
The second case is Christina Noble Children Foundation (CNCF)^ CNF is an
intemafional NGO of UK, founded in 1991 in Vietnam. The founder Chrisfina
Noble herself was a street child in Ireland when she was young. The office of CNF
is situated in the upper-class residential area of the city center in District 3. On the
same land, there is Trung Tam Nuoi Tre Khuyet Tat va Suy Dinh Duong (Care
Center for Handicapped and Malnourished Children)^ It takes care of 90
handicapped children of 0-6 years old on a 24H basis. There are 52 staffs, all sent
by DOLISA, partner of the project. The land also belongs to DOLISA, but all
mnning cost is in charge of CNCF.
The CNCF recently signed the renewal of the contract for 10 years, thus the
center will continue at least until 2021, 30 years from its foundation.

1. Lang Thieu nien Thii Due, 18, Vo Van Ngan, Phuong Truong Tho, Dist. Thu Due, HCMC,
Vietnam.
2. Christina Noble Child Foundation, 38 Tu Xuong, Dist.3, HCMC, Vietnam.
3. Trung tam Nuoi tre mo coi khuyet tat va suy dinh duang, same address as CNCF.
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THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION...

Inside sight of the center as well as the strict respect of regulations for visitors
are similar to Europe. No picture taking allowed, even without children. The interior
is so clean and so beautiful that 1 felt like on a small island of Europe surrounded by
Vietnamese ocean. No used clothes or toys accepted, the donors are asked to give
only brand-new articles. Annual budget of the center is 4,000,000,000 VND
(21,0O0USD as of Mar.2012).
Ms.Son Thu Trinh, Vice-Director of CNCF says, the govemment staffs have a
tendency to consider that the handicapped children have no human rights and try to
give them only minimum care for their life. The NGO, on the other hand, tries to
change that, give children a chance to go out, tries to speak to them, let them listen
to music, organize excursions and decorate their room with light colors. Gradually
the government changes and begins to understand what are the child rights.
Above presented 2 eases shows how intemafional social organizations
contribute to transfer their technics of child care to the govemment and its staffs, by
mnning child care centers in partnership with DOLISA for years.
In the first ease, the one of LTNTD, the foreign donor already retreated out,
and DOLISA by itself continues the same kind of care. In the second ease of CNCF,
foreign NGO still continue to cooperate with DOLISA in continuing to make
technology transfer and let them understand child rights.
3.3. Promotion of "socialization (xa hoi hoa) " by the government

As Mr.Tam, General Director of DOLISA says in his interview, the
government tries to socialize (xa hoi boa) the care for children. "Socialization" in
Vietnam means not only the govemment but also "let many actors in society take
care" of street children.
In the 2006 field research, Yoshii collected some cases of difficulties on social
organizations' activities. There were cases of order of local authority to close free of
charge classes for street children, cutting off the electricity supply to children
shelter, order to close whole children care centers, etc. (Yoshii 2009).
In the 2011 field research, all of the 6 social organizations specialized in
children care visited replied that some difficulties with local authority still exist, but
compared to several years before, the situafion has improved and the acfivities are
easier to bring than before.
Following is the number of social ortanizations' care centers for children in
HCMC given by DOLISA:

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VIET NAM HOC - KY YEU HOI THAO QUOC TE LAN THU TU
Table 2: Number of NGOs' centers for children in HCMC by specialization
Kind of center

Number

Classes for handicapped children

54

Shelter for children with 24H care

61

Free of charge classes with 200-600 children

32

Vocational training center

21

Independent groups with different specializations

102

Total

270

Source: Hearing from DOLISA in 2011
Promoting the socializafion, DOLISA let above social organizations run
centers for children with more and more freedom and on the site of these centers
everyone tesfifies that the promotion is really taking effect, even if still partially.
This liberalizafion of social organizations' activity should be obtained, first
because of lack of resource of the government for children care, but second because
of a big effort of the social organizations to give adequate care to the children. The
liberalization also can be considered as a result of social ortanizations' activities.
4. Analysis
Based on the obtained results as showed in above chapter 3,1 analyze here the
points fixed as 2 objectives of present study;
4.1. How social organizations contribute to resolve street children problem?

In Vietnam, as described in chapter 3., 3 main results of social organizafions
were observed. They are: (1) Introduefion of new nofion of social work, (2)
Introduction of intemafional care technics with respect to the right of the child, (3)
Change the govemment's attitude against social organizations from repression to
cooperation. The number of street children is still increasing and the problem is not
resolved, but we can conclude certain contribution of social organizations in
resolving child related problem.
4.2. How 2 conditions of Vietnam to be a socialist and developing country
influence the caring activities to street children?
Here we can observe fundamental stmeture in child care activities. Vietnam, a
developing country, has big possibility to receive funding from the foreign donor
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THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION...

community. And the donors, not only gives money to Vietnamese organizations, but
also gives new notion of social work, child right or new technics of child care. They
also influence the govemment for more free activifies for social organizations.
As a socialist country, Vietnam needs to make an effort to promote freedom of
social organizafions' acfivities. If not, the govemment should find only itself to take
care of all street children. It will not be possible with only govemmental budget and
know-how. Vietnam is also a developing country and its open door policies let
many international donors to support social organizations in child care.
Thus the 2 conditions of Vietnam to be socialist and developing country are
connected between them and form a future orientation for this country to take.
Conclution
From this study, we can conclude at first, the importance of social
organizations' contribution to resolving street children problem. It is certain that the
problem is far from having been totally resolved. In contrary, the number of street

children is still increasing. However, necessary care by professional social workers
with respect to the right of the child and new care technics are introduced to Vietnam
grace of the social organizations which receive direct support from intemational
donor community. Their role is quite big and if they had not have existed, street
children problem should have been more severe than actually, can we suppose.
In that sense, the socialization of the care, as described in 3(3) is a key issue.
Even in keeping socialist regime, Vietnam should promote the socialization of
children's care activity more and more, in order to let those social organizations to
lake activities with more freedom and ease. Thus, I hope, one day, there will be no
more children working on the street.

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