Project 2002
In 2002 DONXA chooses a project in the Co Loa community in the Dong Anh district, at about 20 kilometres north of the Vietnamese capital Hanoi.
Objective: Development of the Charity Classroom into a Disabled Children Relief House, a shelter house for mentally disabled children.
The objective of the “old” Charity Classroom was to offer the disabled children of Co Loa an adapted teaching program and to guide them in their development. In 2001 the building and the interior were in a very poor state.
There was a shortage of visual didactic material. The essential aids needed for working with mentally disabled children were nonexistent.
The shelter centre was too small to take care of all the mentally disabled children of Co Loa community. The “new” Disabled Children Relief House has become a little school for Children of the Co Loa community. The “new” Disabled Children Relief House has become a little school for remedial education. The children can go there to school ntil they are 16.
At the moment the number of students fluctuates between 15 and 20. The students are mentally disabled children, often like their parents, born with their handicap as a result of the frequent use of chemical deforestation means during the Vietnam war.(Ex. Agent Orange).
Miss Do Thi Kien is already teaching, on her own, for 14 years these disabled children. For the moment she receives a monthly salary of 44 Euro.
Thanks to DONXA support, local construction workers were able to rebuild the poor little class into a modern and well equipped “school as well as shelter centre” for the mentally disabled children of Co Loa.
The building of the Disabled Children Relief House started in December 2002 and was finished in June, 2003.
The final details were arranged during the visit of 4 Belgian DONXA volunteers to CO Loa in November 2003.
On 16 November the Co Loa village celebrated the official “opening” of the new school for mentally disabled.
Those present were: The mayor and public servants of Co Loa, the president of the Disabled Children Association in Hanoi, teachers, children, Vietnamese and Belgian volunteers.
