Although the project implementation period is only within 8 months (July 2022 – February 2023), we really hope that partners, and participants will join hands with the State to repel the problems: child marriage/ consanguineous marriage in Krong Pa in particular, Gia Lai province in general.

• 50 EM students are empowered to increase their “voice” and opportunities to become change agents in the community through BCC activities with effective messages about gender equality, reproductive health (RH), life skills and protection of girl rights;
• 20,000 students, parents and the community will increase knowledge and change attitude after participating in media events on the project’s topics;
• 75 teachers, malaria volunteers (CMATs), DEMA, OEMA officials with increased capacity, will conduct and maintain communication activities, access, and support families at risk of child marriage/consanguineous marriage in the area;
• 30% of students will change in knowledge and attitudes about: Gender equality, RH Care; safety sex; prevention of STIs, abortion; the negative implications of child marriage, consanguineous marriage; life skills;
• 20% of the knowledge and attitudes of parents/caregivers in the project topics and life skills to deal with and end child marriage, consanguineous marriage, v.v..
• 8,000 EM youth (11-25 years old;
• 8,000 parents/caregivers/family members of the student;
• 1,500 people living in the surrounding areas of 07 intervention schools and 03 communes of Krong Pa District;
• More than 2,500 community people will be benefited from communication activities conducted by 24 CMATs in the 11 malaria project communes.
• Approximately 100 home room teachers/biology teachers/school counselors, students, parents’ associations, CMAT, OEMA members will be trained to conduct awareness-raising communication activities, counseling, supportive interventions in cases of unwanted pregnancy/abortion, ending for child marriage, consanguineous marriage.
• More than 100,000 indirect beneficiaries (including leaders/officers and employees at all levels of government) receive information through the mass media.

• Krong Pa district is one of the leading districts in Gia Lai province with 127/882 child marriages and 01 consanguineous marriage;
• The percentage of ethnic minorities in Krong Pa accounts for 70%, Gia Rai, Cham, and Ede are the three largest ethnic groups here.
• They live scattered in the fields and farming is their main job, other adults were often away from home to work as workers. The proportion of poor and near-poor households accounted for 17.9% and 10.7% respectively, of which the number of ethnic minority (EM) households accounted for 90%.;
• Illiteracy in the district accounted for 11.2% and the rate drop out of school of EM children are higher than that of Kinh children and of EM girls are higher than that of EM boys.;
• Adolescents do not have the opportunity to access and receive contraceptive support services (32.1%); Adolescent childbirth (10-19 years old) is 7.7%.

Source: Reports from Gia Lai Provincial Department of Health – 2022

Although Gia Lai province has implemented the project of “Reducing child marriage  and consanguineous marriage in ethnic minority areas, for the 2016 – 2020 period” however its effectiveness was low due to a number of factors namely: 1) Traditional concepts and practices are quite open about pre-marriage sex, traditional marriage practices, misconceptions held by EM people; 2) Incomplete understanding of: Gender equality, reproductive health (RH) care; Safe sex; STIs, abortions; the negative implications of under-age marriage, consanguineous marriage; Life/coping skills dealing with unsafe sex, teenage childbirth, and the lack of access to comprehensive RH and SH services therefore adolescent ended up with unsafe sex leading to unwanted pregnancy – most cases were resulted in child marriage. Consequently, there is an increase of 13 pairs of child marriages compared to that of 2020 ; 3) The participation and capacity building of EM girls has not been mobilized to communicate to the youth and surrounding communities.

In fact, it has been shown that the most directly affected by child marriage and consanguineous marriage are girls. Girls are more directly affected than boys: career development opportunities are lost due to dropping out of school to being a “wife/mother” while boys don’t have to as women have to do housework, taking care of the family, children is considered women’s job; Health decline is also more than that of boys/men because their bodies are not fully developed, they work too hard and face more chances of her dying due to complications during  pregnancy, childbirth;  On the other hand, the pressure of socio-cultural conception – not accepting the unmarried but already pregnant, while the economy is difficult, the family lacks labor, so the custom of “stay-in-law” will be the best solution for the families. In ethnic minority families, the care and management of minors by families and schools has not been paid much attention, which is also one of the reasons for the increase in the rate of child marriage and consanguineous marriage.

Before this situation, Center for Health Consultation and Community Development (CHD) implemented project “Eliminate child marriage, consanguineous marriage through improving the capacity and increasing the participation of EM girls” to “Eliminate child marriage, consanguineous marriage, and teenage childbearing/teenage births through improving the capacity and increasing the participation of EM girls, teachers, families at schools/ boarding EM schools, and Community Malaria Action Teams (CMAT)  in Krong Pa district of Gia Lai Province”.

The project has been funded by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) – Canadian Embassy in Vietnam to implement from July 2022 to February 2023 with the cooperation of the Department of Health, Center CDC and School Administrator, teachers, students of 07 schools (1 district boarding school, 03 secondary schools, 03 high schools), and Community Malaria Action Teams (CMAT) in Krong Pa district of Gia Lai Province)

The project will be implemented by the CHD Center in close cooperation with the Department of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). School Administrator, teachers, students of 07 schools (1 district boarding school, 03 secondary schools, 03 high schools), and Community Malaria Action Teams (CMAT) in Krong Pa district of Gia Lai Province) to “Eliminate child marriage, consanguineous marriage, and teenage childbearing/teenage births through improving the capacity and increasing the participation of EM girls, teachers, families at schools/boarding EM schools, and Community Malaria Action Teams (CMAT)  in Krong Pa district of Gia Lai Province”.

With this initiative, the project will contribute significantly in joining hands to end child marriage and consanguineous marriage in Krong Pa district, Gia Lai province.

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Sincerely thanks for all your support and cooperation with CHD throughout the years.

 What did the bus station leaders do?

“The bus station leaders have signed contracts with street vendors, allowing them to trade and do business within the bus station, provided that they had to comply with the general regulations of the bus station. When implementing the project of building a smoke-free environment, we have invited all street vendors at the bus station and disseminated the ban on selling cigarettes and advertising in the shopping cart. In case of being detected, they would be fined 100,000 – 500,000 VND. If such violations happened again, their contracts would be terminated.”

Tran Van Phuong – Deputy General Director of Mien Tay Bus Station

“The leadership team started the project with the participation of all departments. All employees were encouraged to participate and remind everyone. Whenever they saw someone smoking, they immediately reminded him/her. This personal responsibility has a community meaning. At first they gently remined smokers, and then guided them to places where smoking is allowed and finally applied the fines  as stipulated by  the bus station.”

Dinh Tan Tai – Leader of the bus station cleaning team

 Opinions of smoking behavior monitors

“Whoever was punished at first was also hostile. I understood their attitude, but after all, when seeing them on the street, I still happily patted the shoulder, gently advised and explained: “You don’t blame me, you broke the rules. I am just the enforcer. If you break the rules, you will be penalized.” Therefore, after two years, violations committed by employees, drivers, and bus attendants have significantly reduced.”

Nguyen Van Binh – Leader of the bus station security team

 Results achieved

The bus station leaders have promulgated internal regulations and conducted the emulation assessment with criteria of “no smoking at work” and with strict penalties. The operation plans of the bus station were assigned to departments with specific supervision of each area. Contracts signed with partners providing services at bus stations all have contained criteria related to the ban on buying/selling, advertising, and smoking at the station and on the bus.

Over the last two years, photographic evidences and 254 sanctioned cases have been recorded (mainly drivers and flight attendants) with the total amount of VND 109 million and 8,922 passengers smoking at the bus station were reminded. No cases of officers and employees at the bus station smoking at the workplace have been recorded, and another result was recorded, i.e., there were 9 employees who quit smoking when the regulations and emulation ratings were issued.

 Local government coordination and support

Enforcing a smoke-free environment in public places and strengthening sanctions requires a combination of functional units to ensure the strict compliance with the law, especially by local authorities. The coordination and inter-sectoral supervision at the two bus stations, enhancement of communication and reminder have resulted in a sharp decrease in the number of smokers at the bus stations. Smokers have voluntarily come to the designated place to smoke. The acts of buying/selling tobacco were conducted stealthily other than openly as before.

From this success of the model, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport and the City People’s Committee agreed to expand this model at different bus stations, waterways, and ferry terminals in HCMC where passenger transportation services are provided.

Written by CHD

In recent years, the socio-economic development has increasingly developed, especially in big cities, which are considered as “promised lands” for poor rural people who want to escape and “changing their lives”, looking forward to a new better life.

According to the population census results of the General Statistics Office in April, 2019: The Red River Delta is the country’s largest population concentration with 22.5 million people, accounting for 23.4%. In which, Hanoi is the most populous city (8,053,663 people) and has the second highest proportion of migrants in the whole country, accounting for 61.2% (209.3 thousand people).

 Overall, about 75% of the workforce (including migrants) are currently employed in the informal sector with more than 18 million jobs. They are mainly self-employed, unpaid care workers, workers in industrial parks or informal enterprises, or as factory workers with short-term labor contracts (Oxfam Report 2015). Most often, they have little or no legal protection and no bargaining power to ask for a raise. Therefore, in accessing, participating in, or benefiting from the policies of the Social Security Program (Social Insurance, Health Insurance, Unemployment Insurance, Social Allowance), they are unknown or skip. Only 23% of migrant workers in the informal sector have health insurance and none of them benefit from social insurance.

Facing the current trend of socio-economic transformation, one of the popular and easy-to-earn freelance careers, being chosen by many migrants in HCM, especially after Covid-19 epidemic (the number of unemployment people increased rapidly), is grab drivers of Grab Limited Company.

National target for the period 2012 – 2020: states that “Social security programs are established to ensure that all people have at least a minimum level of income and the opportunity to access basic social services. essential for education, health, housing, clean water, etc. as well as forming a social security system that covers the entire population, contributing to gradually increasing incomes, ensuring a safe, equal and happy life of the people”.  But in fact, many informal workers (self-employed) still have limitations and barriers in accessing and participating in these Social Security Programs and one of those typical subjects. is the workforce of technology drivers in general, and Grab drivers in particular.

Therefore, the initiative “Surveying the current condition and Promoting participation of Grab drivers to improve their access to social security schemes and working conditions” was designed to achieve the target Promoting Grab drivers’ access to social security schemes, identifying the employment relationship, protecting the rights, expanding the coverage of health insurance, social insurance, supporting legality and improving working conditions to the targeted objects: Technology drivers of Grab company in Hanoi, through: i) Increase the participation of Vietnamese General Labor Union (VGCL) in improving the policy and protecting the rights of technology drivers/ migrant workers. At the same time, ii) enhance mobilization of networking acting for migrant workers (M.net), labor research network (LRG) and other non-profit organizations, such as ILO, IOM in commenting on policy modification to targeted groups.

Estimated around 100.000 Grab drivers (of which about 50% are migrant workers from other provinces) in Hanoi will be participated and benefited from this proposal.

After that, Consultancy Center for Health and Community Development (CHD) together with Vietnam General Confederation of Labor (Labor Relations Department) and Grab Company conducted the first series of activities: 1) Survey the status of Grab technology drivers on working conditions and employment in terms of understanding, accessibility and participation in social security service programs; Need/desire to improve working conditions; 2) Conduct in-depth interviews with representatives of a number of ministries, departments, sectors, mass organizations, international organizations, Mnet network, and some labor experts, lawyers – comments on Labor Relations job; Limitations, barriers and policy “gaps” between Grab drivers and Social Security policies and programs.

Although the quarantine is being implemented in accordance with Directive 16 of the Government, in 03 weeks from 12^th to 31^st August 2021. Interviewers from the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor and the CHD Center actively and successfully interviewed 100 Grab technology drivers currently working in Hanoi, as well as having discussions with leading representatives of the Policy and Law Department of the General Confederation, the Institute of Workers and Trade Unions, the Legal Department of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the Institute for Community Health Development Light – LIGHT, ILO, Oxfam…

The results of this survey, CHD and the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor will present in the Talkshow scheduled at the end of September 2021.