Vietnam faces several challenges in the health sector including HIV AIDS, Tuberculosis, malaria, filariasis, cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, Hepatitis A and E, typhoid fever and many others. The standard of medical facilities in Vietnam varies; medical facilities and care in most public hospitals, especially area outside the Hanoi and Ho Chi are poor. The patients are unable to afford their treatment and drugs. Asia Horizon has been cooperating with Tan Dinh polyclinic to provide the basic health service to the poor community. Forty doctors and twenty nurses working there, it has approximately 80-100 patients every day. This health project aims to support the underprivileged and disadvantaged patients who are from poor communities of Vietnam. The resources are donated by rich people, organizations in Vietnam or overseas. We welcome all the volunteers to join this program, and it is also an opportunity for volunteers to know much more about Vietnamese real life.
Volunteer’s Activities
As a volunteer, you will be working in Tan Dinh Clinic and assisting the doctor and nurses with examining the patients. You will take care of the patients and encourage them for their self esteem. You will provide counseling and education to the people and patients on first aid and preventions. If you are a doctor, you will work with some other doctors; share your knowledge and experiences with them. You will work a half-day or all day, from Monday to Friday.
Project Skills Required
This project is open to both student nurses and doctors. You will have to work in local hospital and clinics. Therefore, you must have the proof of qualification as a health professional, medical student, doctor or nurse. Because of the risk involve in this project, volunteers without medical background can’t work in this program. Finally, you need to be kind, eager to work with poor and disadvantaged people, generous, flexible, learning and unbiased.
Arrangement of Room/Food/Supervision
We will make an appropriate provision for food, room and supervision for its volunteers from the very beginning of their arrival to the country to the end of their project. You will get a brief orientation about the premise and the schedule of the program, living with the Vietnamese host family is a great opportunity to understand the Vietnamese life, language (especially vietnamese), culture, tradition and people. A typical Vietnamese meal (lunch or dinner) will include steamed rice or noodles, a soup dish to eat with rice, a meat (chicken, duck, beef or pork) or fish dish, and a vegetarian dish. Spring role is the most popular Vietnamese dish either deep fried or served fresh with raw vegetables, grilled prawn, crab, pork or chicken. Volunteers are also equally encouraged to make some dished of their hometown. You can get the breakfast at morning where as lunch will be prepared in 1 pm, you are allowed to take the readymade lunch packet in the project if you want and dinner is served 7 or 8 at evening. You can also get the food from outside if you wish; there are numbers of affordable restaurants and hotels in Philippines. You can’t expect a luxurious bedroom while staying with the host family. However, volunteers joining Asia Horizon-Vietnam’s orphanage program stay with the children in a hostel. Asia Horizon arranges a separate room along with a communal bath with cold water and fan for volunteers in both the host families and hostel accommodations but sometimes they may share the room if the number is large. Volunteers are expected to share same life style while staying with the host family; they may join the daily activities such as cooking, cleaning, washing and so on. Though the local fare will be provided twice a day, you will really enjoy the way of Vietnamese hospitality and generosity to the guest.
Project Location
Placements of our primary school volunteers are located in Hanoi. Hanoi, a city between the rivers, built from lowland, has many scenic lakes and sometime is called "city of lakes”. As the capital of Vietnam for almost a thousand years, Hanoi is considered the cultural centre of Vietnam, where every dynasty has left behind their imprint. The city has many interesting cultural and historic monuments for visitors. With the rapid growth of population, an abundance of shopping centers has been built in Hanoi.
Visa Information
Citizens of certain countries can visit Vietnam (for less than 30 days) without an Entry visa, those countries include: most Asian countries, Korea, Japan and Scandinavians. Citizens from all of other countries are required to get an entry visa before departure or you can get the visa upon arrival to Vietnam. But we strongly recommend you to get a tourist visa prior to your arrival. It saves time and hassle of filling out the form in the airport, making sure you have all the documents required, and queuing up to apply for the visa. But if there is no Vietnam Embassy or Consulates in your country, then we recommend visa upon your arrival to Vietnam.
Project Information
Program Date: Asia Horizon volunteer Program begins with your arrival at the Hanoi Airport in Vietnam on Sunday, the day before of your project. A one-day orientation about the program including project sites, types of work, local food, climate, safety issues, health issues, culture people etc. will be provided in Manila office before you start the project.
Program Fees: Our program fee is 80-100% less than most international volunteer organizations. |
