Giao-Diem Humanitarian Foundation: Vietnam

The Giao-Diem Humanitarian Foundation serves as a bridge connecting people in the rural areas of Vietnam with those who want to help alleviate the sufferings from years of war and destruction. The nonprofit organization began in 1991 and focuses on providing financial and nutritional support to schools, orphanages, nursing homes for the elderly, mobile health clinics, and assistance for victims of natural disasters, such as hurricanes and floods.

AmeriCares has been a partner with the Giao-Diem Humanitarian Foundation since 2000.  AmeriCares provides the organization with essential medicines and supplies which help support monthly medical missions and ongoing health care programs. This partnership is addressing major malnutrition and poverty within the country, focusing on initiatives such as the Pediatric Nutritional Program.

The Pediatric Nutritional Program is a school-based initiative which began in 2004 to provide children with daily enriched and nutritional diets. In its first year, the percentage of participating children who were underweight dropped significantly, from 41 percent to 14 percent. Today, the program has provided an additional 300 students with nutritional supplements.

Through AmeriCares support, the program is able to reduce malnourishment by providing them with supplementary products as well as teach them to utilized local resources, such as soy and peanuts, which are affordable. In addition, the program teaches proper nutrition and empowers both parents and teachers through their active participation in the program.

AmeriCares also provides nutritional supplements to more than 20 orphanages and programs for disabled children throughout Vietnam.