Second Interview with Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuong
Caretaker at Cam Nghia Commune Rehabilitation Center, Quang Tri Province

Operation Orange: Could you please tell us more about yourself? What brought you here to work?

Ms. Thuong: I was a village health worker. The commune committee assigned me to come here. I was sent for additional training on caring for children with disabilities, such as rehabilitation therapy. The local authorities sent me to shadow other care facilities to learn from their experience. I’ve been doing rehabilitation work for 17 years now.

When I first started, I only made 800 thousand dong per month. Then it gradually increased to 1.2 million, 1.5 million, 2.5 million, 3 million. Only in the past three years have I reached 4 million. This money is an allowance, not an official salary. When I retire, I won’t get any pension. Nothing.

Many people have come here, but they can’t handle the work. Five people have already left. They work for a few months and then say it’s not enough to live on, so they leave. But if I leave now too, who will take care of these children?

Operation Orange: Could you tell us about the sources of support for the center and the difficulties that families face?

Ms. Thuong: Donors only provide partial funding, mainly for moral support. The children do receive disability allowances, but only a few hundred thousand dong. The highest amount is 900 thousand dong per month. The second tier is 700, and the third tier is 540. This money is only enough to buy milk and basic supplies for the children. Food costs have to be completely covered by the parents. There are many children with cerebral palsy who are bedridden and can’t come here, about seven of them.

Since we are located far from the city, our circumstances are much more challenging than in delta regions. People can’t bring supplies here easily. Fortunately, some organizations care about us, and some schools occasionally pay a visit once a year to provide support. There’s a project that provides lunch money, 15,000 dong per child. But once the project funding ends, the meal money stops.

30% of households here are classified as poor, and most of the rest are struggling. In the city, people can have more diverse job opportunities. Here, we only have forest work, farming, and cultivating fields. There are no other sources of income.

Families send their children to the center, firstly, because they can receive care, meals, and training, and secondly, because it relieves burden so that their parents can go to work and earn additional income. Some families are afraid their children might be abused. The children are grown-up but are intellectually vulnerable, so they send them here where I can watch over them safely.

Government resources are scarce. We mostly rely on project funding. The government only provides infrastructure, like physical facilities and electricity for daily cooking. But they can’t cover other material needs. The government budget also comes from the people, but the people here don’t have enough money to contribute. That’s why our conditions are so grim.