FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ca Van Tran, President
Viet-Nam Assistance for the Handicapped
Tel. 703-847-9582; catran@vnah-hev.org
Viet-Nam Assistance for the Handicapped Secures Funding
from American Schools and Hospitals Abroad for Rehabilitation Clinic
Clinic is First ASHA-funded Humanitarian Project in Vietnam
McLean, VA, Oct. 20, 2006 - Viet-Nam Assistance for the Handicapped (VNAH) announced today that it has secured funding from American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (ASHA) to fund construction of a rehabilitation clinic in Danang, Vietnam's third largest city. ASHA is a congressionally mandated USAID program that funds projects abroad to effectively provide foreign nationals the benefits of American ideas and practices in education and medicine. This clinic will be the first ASHA-funded humanitarian project in Vietnam.(www.usaid/asha.gov)
ASHA awarded a grant to VNAH to construct a two-story rehabilitation clinic as part of the 100-bed Danang Binh Dan General Hospital, Vietnam's first private hospital. The new clinic will address the tremendous shortage of quality rehabilitation services for the urban population of Danang city as well as the ethnic minority populations in rural areas. Currently, many men, women and children in the region suffer from mobility and other problems-often caused by landmines or war injuries-that can be treated and, in some cases, cured if quality care is made available to them.
The new non-profit rehabilitation clinic, which will be constructed next year, will provide charitable care to patients, as well as serve Danang City as a demonstration and training center for physical therapists, physicians and nurses in a U.S.-based model of diagnostic and therapeutic care. Regional Rehab at Georgetown Hospital in Washington, D.C., will help VNAH introduce American rehabilitation care standards and protocols.
"We're very grateful for ASHA's generous support of this project," said Ca Van Tran, president of VNAH. "Because the rehabilitation clinic will serve as a training center for professionals in the field of rehabilitation medicine, it will not only help patients with immediate needs, but it will help future generations as well."
Vietnam Assistance for the Handicapped (VNAH) is a non-profit, non-political organization dedicated to meeting priority humanitarian and development needs in Vietnam. VNAH's projects focus on helping people with disabilities lead rewarding and productive lives that include the ability to fully participate in their nation's and their community's social and economic affairs. For more information about VNAH, visit our website: www.vnah-hev.org