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Support for Blind Massage Workers under the COVID-19 Impact in Hue City

On August 11, Center for Knowledge Co-creation and Development Research (CKC) organised the support package delivery ceremony for visually impaired workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic working at the Niem Tin (Hope) Massage Service Center of Thua Thien Hue Province Blind Association. This is a part of the project “Support for blind massage workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in Hue city” initiated by CKC and supported by SEA Junction’s “Staying Resilient Amid the Pandemic in Southeast Asia” grant in partnership with CMB and WIEGO.

 

On behalf of the donors, CKC presented COVID-19 prevention kits and financial support packages to blind massage workers in Niem Tin Massage Center.

 

CKC provided health and safety kits for 31 blind massage workers and two thermometers for Niem Tin Center to enhance the Center’s protective services. A financial support of VND 10.5 million was provided to 15 female workers. Scholarship of VND 6.3 million was granted to nine children from extremely difficult blind households. CKC also transferred a transport cost support package valued VND 6.2 million which will be used as a promotional activity that attracts customers when the Center operation resumes to normal.

 

The COVID-19 prevention kits include hand gel, face shields and face masks to enhance the Center’s protective services.

 

“This is seen as a significant encouragement and timely assistance at a time when blind people have been out of work for an extended period of time and have been unable to locate alternative sources of income since the pandemic’s emergence”, according to Mr. Le Van Loc – Standing Committee member of Vietnam Association of the Blind, Chairman of Thua Thien Hue Province Association of the Blind, Director of Niem Tin Massage Service Center. The COVID-19 pandemic has halted nearly all of the Center’s commercial activities, with the massage service considered the most impacted when social distance and restricted interaction are required during the pandemic.

 

Mr. Loc on behalf of Niem Tin Massage Service Center receives a transport cost support package valued VND 6.2 million.

 

We gratefully acknowledge the timely support of SEA Junction, as well as the enthusiastic collaboration of Thua Thien Hue Province Association of the Blind, for the effective implementation of this activity. We hope that the pandemic situation would be under control shortly, allowing blind workers to resume their usual lives and jobs. Under the framework of this project, CKC will also work with Niem Tin Center to promote its marketing activities during coronavirus crisis.

 

A female massage worker receives support packages from CKC.

 

Tu Nguyen

 

CKC successfully carried out five-day field visits to Quang Loi, Dien Hai, Phu An, Huong Phong, and Loc Binh communes with an expert team in the field of literature and history studies, photography and cinematography from 31 July to 8 August. During the field visits, we not only got a taste of the vibrant local life in the Tam Giang – Cau Hai lagoon, but we also engaged with local leaders, experienced elders, rustic fisherfolk, and young people who are passionate about their homes. Thanks to their enthusiastic support, we have collected valuable resources related to tangible and intangible cultural heritages, particularly oral traditions accumulated and inherited over history, which have been gradually vanished and not fully recorded.

 

“Lagoon tourism development demands a more systematic approach. One of the positive things is cultural heritage, but more efforts are needed in order to preserve it and to choose an appropriate approach which can be bequeathed to the future generation” said by Mr. Luong The Vinh, Former Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Loc Binh Commune. Creating an alternative and sustainable livelihood for local people through tourism development based on cultural and traditional values is an emerging need ​​to reduce overfishing while protecting the lagoon ecosystem.

 

The field trip is a component of the PT Foundation-funded project “Sustainable Tourism through Cultural Heritage at the Tam Giang – Cau Hai Lagoon”, which will result in a publication based on researching, recording and using local cultures. Prior to the trip, local community researchers in five project communes spent a month on collecting and documenting the lagoon’s history, culture, customs, and stories. The field trip allows CKC to verify the research data and information collected and sense the enthusiasm and concerns of the local people for rich cultural values and development potentials of the Southeast Asia’s biggest lagoon.

 

The sun rises over the lagoon at Ngu My Thanh fishing village

 

Sao village is a tiny fisherman’s community in Dien Hai commune with a tradition of fishing and making Sao – fishing equipment.

 

Van Quat Dong market – A one-of-a-kind early morning street market with the freshest seafood caught from the lagoon.

 

Fish drying at the Van Quat Dong early market.

 

Rú Chá – a primitive wetland forest of mangroves on the Tam Giang Lagoon.

 

Ganh Lang (Lang Reef) – a splendid landscape in Loc Binh commune.

 

Impacts by capital projects on local communities, including Indigenous Peoples communities should be comprehensively assessed and mitigated with proper measures and management plans. Beyond that, project owners need to provide affected population with broad community support throughout the project lifecycle. CKC adopted a bottom-up, participatory method in visioning community development in short, medium, and long term interventions. Different groups from communities, especially women and vulnerable groups, were invited, raised their voices and engaged in this social planning process. Community development was envisioned and visualized so that it can be integrated with government, non-government, and project efforts.