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COVID-19 response emergency support for people with disabilities in Hai Duong province. Source: UNDP Vietnam

Since the coronavirus broke out in Hai Duong province on January 27, it has recorded 689 COVID-19 local infections, becoming the largest outbreak in the country.

A list of people with disabilities and people with visual impairment has been compiled by the Association for People with Disabilities of Hai Duong Province and the Association for People with Visual Impairment of Hai Duong province to request for support based on the following criteria: people with a disabilities who are economically and socially affected by COVID-19, and/or people with disadvantaged backgrounds who had not yet received the support of other agencies, unions and donors.

Due to the effects of COVID-19, many people with disabilities have lost their jobs and suffered lower incomes, and many others have to be isolated to prevent the spread of the pandemic, leading to their extremely difficult circumstances and lack of daily essentials and epidemic prevention equipment.

The Disability-Inclusive COVID-19 Recovery Project of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Vietnam, through this emergency assistance for people with disabilities in Hai Duong province, is taking prompt action to build forward better and promote a disability inclusion in the post COVID-19 period.

Specifically, the project provided visually impaired people who were listed as COVID-19 F1, F2 cases and people with disabilities with extremely disadvantaged backgrounds in Hai Duong province with gift packages (including masks, hand sanitizers, rice, cooking oil, milk) from February 26th to 28th, 2021. This assistance aims to help people with disabilities cope better with the challenges caused by the resurgence of COVID-19 in Hai Duong, while the whole province is going through social distancing under the demand of the Prime Minister.

COVID-19 response emergency support for people with disabilities in Hai Duong province. Source: UNDP Vietnam

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa (38 years old), her husband, and her 14-year-old son are visually impaired and are going through quarantine at the Office of the Association for People with Visual Impairment of Hai Duong with 40 other people and 4 children. All of them have just completed their 21-day quarantine at the concentrated quarantine site of the province.

Reminiscing about her quarantine experience, Hoa emotionally shared her feelings: “All 48 members of the Association became F1 since we had been working with a person listed as F0. We went through three COVID-19 tests and were all negative. This re-emergence of COVID-19 has indeed resulted in many severe consequences. Last year, we lost our jobs for four months and in 2021 we continued to lose our jobs, possibly until the end of May. Now the quarantine is making it extremely difficult for us to go shopping and buy essentials, especially when we have no income to get by. Therefore, the arrival of packages of masks, hand sanitizers and essential items of the United Nations Development Program to us is at the right time. We are very grateful and happy.”

From the quarantine site, Ms. Dinh Thi Dieu Thuy, Chairman of the Association for People with Visual Impairment of Hai Duong excitedly called to share that her members had received the gift packages and distributed them to everyone in the remote areas: “The gifts for those in need, who are quarantined in other locations, will be distributed after the lockdown expires. Tonight, we will no longer have to think and worry about what to eat tomorrow and the next day. Thank you very much, UNDP! Hopefully, in the future, we can continue to meet and work with UNDP staff in other meaningful activities.”

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