Early Intervention Centres for Children with Physical and Mental Disabilities in Central Vietnam

November 3, 2017

Over the last few weeks I have written several articles about my time in Vietnam where I did some photo documentary work for the NGO, Office of Genetic Counseling and Disabled Children (OGCDC) who run several programs that deal with children and youth with physical and mental disabilities. I wanted to conclude the series with a selection of photographs from all the schools I visited. There were four schools in total that were differentiated by the age group of the children that attended and also by the type of disability the teachers and carers had to manage.

If you would like to read the other articles in this series you can do so by clicking below.

1/ Raising Funds for the OGCDC Hear and Talk Program in Central Vietnam, Hue
2/ Organic Farm for Youths With Disabilities in Hue, Vietnam
3/ The Importance of Early Detection of Hearing Loss in Young Babies
4/ How Recycled Materials Fund Heart Surgeries – Healing The Wounded Heart

Visiting these schools was a very personal and emotional experience for me. The children had disabilities that ranged from hearing loss to more severe physical deformities. Having my own children, it was hard for me to not feel overwhelmed. However, I knew I had a job to do and as I started to photograph the children I felt a lot better. Watching them learn, play and undergo therapy highlighted their strengths and optimism which made me feel stronger in a weird way.

However, whenever I thought my emotions were under control, I only had to visit the next school where I met other children and the feelings would sweep right back over me.

The boy in the photo below typified their spirit and really pulled on my heart strings and set my emotions in overdrive for the following few days with OGCDC. I met him on Day 1 at The Early Intervention Centre in Nam Dong. As I walked through the school grounds, I saw him with the other children in the front classroom of the school. I kept moving through the gardens towards the back of the school as I was being shown around by Phuong, an OGCDC representative.

As I looked back over my shoulder, I could see that he was following me on the outside veranda. It was only then that I realised he couldn’t walk. He was crawling along on his bottom. I kept moving but he kept following me to the point where he couldn’t go any further because the veranda came to an end. When I went up to him to say hello he gave me the biggest smile that you could ever imagine. That was when I almost lost it. Luckily I held myself together long enough to take this photo…otherwise I would have had nothing but my memories to remember that moment by.

For the rest of my time there that boy would always smile straight back at me every time I went near him. He was so full of trust and wonderment towards this tall foreign stranger with a big camera, which says a lot about his character given all the hardships he would have had to have faced since birth.

In fact all the children at each school I went to showed so much joy and eagerness to learn and be happy. They loved having their photo taken. They loved being taught by their teachers and carers.

The teachers do a fantastic job with the limited resources at their disposal, but I could also see that they were getting just as much joy from working with kids and what the kids were giving back to them.

The work that OGCDC has been doing to help children in this region since 1999 is truly amazing. Like many similar groups across the world, they are understaffed and underfunded but they continue to work hard and realise what they do does make a difference.

I have seen firsthand the lives that they have helped and even saved. From young children learning how to communicate so that they can have a better family life. To youths learning new skills so that they have a sense of purpose and are not hopelessly lost when they become adults and turn to begging on the streets for survival. Not to mention the countless of people who have had life saving heart surgery from funds raised by OGCDC activities like Healing The Wounded Heart.

Finally I would like to thank Cris Yudi, an audiology consultant hear in Melbourne. For me, this whole journey started when I saw her post on Instagram about raising funds for OGCDC. After catching up with her for coffee I knew it was something I wanted to do. Cris recently spent three months in Hue where she trained OGCDC staff in various hearing tests and correct hearing aid fitting procedures and also established the Hear and Talk program for newborns.