How to close a project: Authorities, communities make music together

HAIPHONG, August 17, 2011 - This morning, U.S.-based humanitarian group World Vision held an 80-person workshop to conclude a project that, for more than five years, has developed community solutions for HIV care and support in Haiphong and Ho Chi Minh City. Public agencies, systematically involved on the project's boards from the outset, presented agreements to sustain all services. The event was one of dozens planned by international and Vietnamese NGOs in the final months of Community REACH, an umbrella project that Pact has implemented under USAID since 2006 to provide technical assistance and PEPFAR funding for a strengthened civil-society role in Vietnam's HIV response.

Hoang Trung Hieu, vice-chair of the district People's Committee (right), gives a token of appreciation to Le Minh Hoa, chair of an inspiring team of HIV-affected schoolkids who will continue their peer awareness campaigning under the Education Department. The Women's Union takes over World Vision's homecare and small loan activities, while self-help groups move to the Center for Population and Family Planning.

"I'll stop when people living with HIV no longer face stigma": The story of Nguyen Thi Thanh (right) won top honors among the Most Significant Change vignettes in the project reports, for her tireless homecare work with others affected by HIV. World Vision's team served 4,512 adults and children in 2010.

To view this spotlight story as a printable one-pager with map, click here (PDF, 475 Kb).

Browse Vietnam's other spotlight stories here.