VCF

To date, Heartbeat Vietnam has saved the lives of over 3,040 children and the number keeps growing. We’ve also provided family grants for travel, food, education, and/or medical expenses to over 200 families, and continuing care grants for 71 families.

Since 2007, the FedEx Delivers Heartbeats Mobile Medical Outreach Clinics have provided free health care to 22,174 children in 28 districts and 33 provinces,  including 10,963 cardiac ultrasounds, 1,327 pre- and post-operative checkups, and counseling.  Through the clinics, we found 4,373 children who needed heart surgery, most of whom had never been diagnosed.

Path to a Brighter Future: Scholarships for Ethnic Minority Girls

VCF partnered with Vu A Dinh, a Vietnamese scholarship organization, which assisted us in screening and selecting choosing the beneficiaries. Fifty scholarship recipients from 24 ethnic minority groups hailing from 24 provinces were chosen in the summer of 2010. Three annual “Dream Meeting” conferences have taken place in Hoi An, Ho Chi Minh City, and most recently in Hanoi, during which all the girls convene to take part in three days of workshops on various topics such as good study habits, health and nutrition, and self-confidence and motivation. The girls graduated from high school and took their university entrance exams in July 2012. We’re happy to report that they all passed and are now matriculating in universities or junior colleges across the country such as the Foreign Trade University, Hanoi Law University, Commerce University, Science & Technology University, and Ho Chi Minh Medical University.

Brighter Path School Report for 2010-2011

International Management Initiative for Vietnam

• IMIV established as social enterprise within VCF & registered with relevant authorities.
• Honored with a designation as a Clinton Global Initiative.
• Detailed business plan developed and incubated within VCF.
• Brand identity designed and website launched (www.imiv.org).
• Key international academic and institutional partnerships developed.
• Local strategic license partner identified and MOU signed.
• Pilot public enrolment programmes from SIM launched in 2010.
• Vietnamese SME numbers rose from 250,000 in 2005 to 500,000 by the end of 2010.

• Since 2007, “Instruments in Hand” has donated 3,464 pieces of capacity building equipment to hospitals in Vietnam with a value of over $642,000

• Since 2008, “The International Symposium for Cardiac Care” has presented 32 interactive tele-education programs to 2,862 doctors and nurses in 9 sites all over Asia, and broadcast worldwide with as many as 60 countries signed in to the webcast (2,690 participants through webcast). The sessions were in Cardiac Surgery (17 sessions), Cardiology (3 sessions), and Intensive Care (11 sessions) with presenters that included the very top surgeons in this field, and the amazing Critical Care team at Boston Children’s Hospital, a Harvard Medical School Teaching Hospital.  This year we began the Neonatal Care Series (1 session) with world experts from Harvard Medical School as presenters.

• Since 2009, “Critical Response” emergency care program has trained and certified 436 doctors and 39 trainers from 124 hospitals in Pediatric Advanced Life Support and donated 99 life-saving crash carts to emergency rooms and intensive care units in 67 hospitals. These crash carts are saving an average of 2 children per week which means now this program is saving 200 children a week! We need more funders for additional carts and courses so we can save more children.

• Since 2010, “Survive to Thrive,” has built neonatal capacity by providing upgrades and renovations to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at DaNang Women and Children’s Hospital ($111,000) and providing 42 pieces of life-saving equipment valued at $139,960. The NICU has become the regional referral center for surrounding provinces. VCF continues to seek donors for additional life saving NICU equipment for this region where neonatal mortality is very high.