The project “Building capacity and removing barriers for people with disabilities in learning about Disaster Risk Management through accessible digital information systems” was launched in Vietnam on 12 January 2016. The event was organized at the office of Lift You Up, located in the Centre for Vocational Training and Rehabilitation for the Young Blind in Hanoi. The ceremony was attended by 33 participants representing the project’s donors, disaster risk reduction (DRR) and disability focused organizations; Assistive Technology Development Organizations (ATDO), consultants who will provide technical guidance for the project, and the media.

Through the ceremony, a representative of Malteser International, who was allocated funding from the UPS Foundation provided the overall information such as why Malteser International initiated the project, as well as its duration, intended outcome and relevant activities. Besides, Mr. Hiroshi, Vice Director of the ATDO in Japan, on behalf of the technical consultancy group presented what DAISY is, the benefits of using it with persons having print disabilities, and gave real examples of its application in other parts of the world.

The participants highly appreciated the idea of the project in using DAISY as a technical solution to remove information barriers for people with print disabilities regarding DRR and other social activities. Mr Hoang Moc Kien, a teacher from Nguyen Dinh Chieu school for blind children said “I heard a lot about DAISY and tried to access to it; however, until now I could not. It is great that this project builds Lift You Up’s capacity and provide equipment to start producing DAISY in Vietnam. Our people with disabilities can benefit a lot from this project”.

Following this opening ceremony, a 10 day basic training on Daisy technology transfer will be provided for core Lift You Up members who are the direct beneficiaries of the project.

DRR team

Malteser International in Vietnam

The event included different activities: display of pictures, good case studies, IEC materials, products made by the communities, including the mountainous area of Tay Giang; ceremony for awards of communications and community initiatives. All these activities emphasized on the goal of the 2015 IDDR launched by the United Nation that aim to:

• Raise awareness of the use of traditional, indigenous and local knowledge and practices, to complement scientific knowledge in disaster risk management
• Highlight approaches for engaging local communities and indigenous people in implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction

In 4 hours of the event, through a variety of performances, the community people from different locations, in particularly the people with disabilities clearly showed that they are the one who know the best on how to help themselves to be safe in disasters. Therefore, if the DRR stakeholders give them suitable assistance, they can contribute to the community’s resilience. Ms Chau, Vice Director of Danang Blind Association emphasized this massage in her performance at the event: “In fact, our blinds can join hazard map drawing activities together with sighted people if the disaster risk reduction stakeholders assist us in participating, for instance, explanation of how to draw, description of the drawing process and preparation of some simple materials to enable the blinds to recognize and use”. The blind and deaf initiatives were received 1^st and second prize in the competition among 6 performances.

The representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Department and Ministry of Labours, Invalids and Social Affairs expressed that the community initiatives for disaster risk reduction shown were good and can be duplicated in other provinces. The 2 Ministries will continue their efforts to strengthen the participation of community, especially at risk group in the community based disaster risk reduction. This will help to use in maximize initiatives of the community in disaster risk reduction.  ”

Aprofile of IDRR 2015:

As many locals in the region rely on their farming for food and income, it has been crucial for Save the Children’s CBA project to support the implementation of geographically suitable alternative livelihood models and increase villagers’ knowledge of locally relevant adaptive farming and animal rearing techniques. This approach lays the foundation for sustainable adaptation that builds resilience in the community and opens up opportunities for the diversification of livelihood methods, which may reduce exposure to risk and market volatility.

Nguyen Xuan Thong lives in Thang Binh district of Quang Nam with his wife and five children. His youngest is 11 and attending school. Another of his children has a disability and must stay at home. To support his family Thong has been farming rice and raising pigs with limited success. He finds it difficult to keep his pigs healthy and gaining weight in light of the severity of the weather in his province.

When Thong’s son participated in the project’s climate change resilience activities at school he passed on the information he was learning to his family. The knowledge and understanding Thong gained about how climate change can contribute to certain diseases and the factors that can affect the health of his family and community compelled him to register for the new livelihood models project running in his community.

In addition to receiving one sow and 50 percent of the costs to build a pig pen, Thong and his wife also attended training sessions with staff from the Agriculture Extension Centre and other villagers. In these sessions they learned techniques to ensure their pigs could thrive despite the changing weather. These included building the pig pen with sloping floors and north- or south-facing to avoid cross breezes; the separation of the piglets from their mother; adding a light to warm piglets; cutting down sharp teeth; and the neutering of male pigs when they are five days old, which allows them to grow faster. This training has all contributed to the increased wellbeing of Thong’s livestock, so that they are healthier, reach maturation and can be sold for meat at a good price.

Thong learned the techniques and building requirements that enabled him to use his pig waste to produce biogas – a sustainable energy source – through the installation of a biogas digester. Each day his pigs produce five to six hours’ worth of gas, which has saved the family time and money as well as saving countless trees because Thong no longer needs to go to the forest and cut down trees for firewood.

As a result of the family’s achievements, three other families have replicated the model utilising their own means. To ensure that his neighbours have accurately set-up their new waste treatment centre and pig pens, Thong regularly visits to check out their work, communicate his expertise and share experiences and lessons learned.

When asked whether he would prefer to be given additional technical trainings or another sow, Thong explained that he would favour the skill-set training as he finds this to be far more useful to his family both now and into the future.
Through training local villagers with the skills required to adapt to climate change in a locally-relevant way, the members of this community are being introduced to skill development, livelihood diversification and strengthening of existing livelihoods ensuring they are more sustainable and cost effective, and that they can increase income, inspire confidence and encourage community ownership to achieve resilience.

Save the Children

Some pictures:

In order to raise the schools’ capacity and active role in self-protection, Binh Dinh and Phu Yen Chapters did not conduct the DRA themselves but instead let the school do it while the VNRC chapters assisted them. The evaluation team of each school includes 10 members selected from the school disaster management boards. These are the teachers who participated in Safe school training courses organized by German Red Cross and the 2 VNRC Chapters from November 2014 to February 2015. Safe school is not only a crucial topic for teachers and students, but also for the parents. Therefore, in order to conduct DRA comprehensively, in total, 210 teachers, 210 students and 210 parents from the 7 primary schools have been directly involved in the assessment.

[Nhon Binh no.1 primary school (Quy Nhon city)] Teachers, students and their parents discussing on the history of natural disasters at the school and the surrounding area with the facilitation of the teachers who are in the school evaluation team

Mr. Vo Chi – Head of Parent Association of Hai Cang primary school, shared that: “The local people sometimes do not understand clearly about disasters, risks, and damages. These activities really helped us widen our knowledge. Moreover, when disasters occur, children are usually mentally shocked. I think this assessment did prepare for the children to actively respond when disasters come. In addition, I think it is always true that if we have disaster preparedness and response (DP&R) plan, we can respond better and more actively so as to reduce damages caused by natural disasters.”

Mr. Vo Chi (second from the right) with the teachers, other parents and students conducting “Operation calendar” tool which aims at listing the different hazards and the different school activities occurring during the calendar year.

Ms. Pham Thi Thu Ha, an art teacher, eagerly shared that “The DRA is such a rare activity that teachers, parents, and students cooperated with each other to implement. I found that the children and their parents participated in the evaluation very actively and they really enjoyed it. I wish there would have more activities like this for teachers, students and parents to learn from each other.” She also talked about how the assessment changed her thoughts and behaviours: “As an art teacher, I was not interested in integrating the topic of DP&R in my lessons. From now on, I will actively integrate this topic into my lessons in order to guide my students what to do and not to do in DP&R”.

Ms.Ha (orange shirt ) with the students and parents drawing maps showing the different risks and vulnerabilities of Hai Cang primary school and the surrounding areas

Teachers, parents and students of Hai Cang primary school developing the “problem tree” to identify the school’s risks

Overview of meeting on DRA introduction at Hoang Quoc Viet primary school (Quy Nhon city)

Based on the assessment’s results, the school disaster management boards together with the teachers have developed their annual safe school plan. The plans propose structural and non-structural measures such as establishment of water filter systems or repairing electricity systems, etc. in order to ask for the involvement and support of the Departments of Education & Training, local authorities, other external organisations and donors to build safe school model more effectively.

Although during the DRAs the school evaluation teams have showed their limitations in methodology, assessment tools, information collecting skills,…the schools and parents did express their high appreciation to the activity as well as their enthusiastic participation. In short, this activity remains a good initiative which showed that the school communities (Board, teachers, students, parents…) are taking now an active role in assessing, planning and building safer schools. This is one of the significant achievements of the FPP in the school sector since empowerment of the project beneficiaries is a critical step in building safer schools during natural disasters as well as in general./.

Bui Thi Minh Chau
GRC PO in Binh Dinh

The main purpose of the model is the application of appropriate farming techniques (determine the appropriate calendar, use good varieties and take care by suitable techniques) to promote rice to grow well in the seedling stage to avoid cold and frost in the flowering stage. It helps increase rice yield in the winter-spring crop. The project has supported the farmers with agricultural materials, training and technical guidance. During the four months of implementation, knowledge on seed selection, calendar determination, weeding, caring, watering, detection and effective disease prevention has been supported continuously.

Despite facing many difficulties in the process of implementing the model, e.g., prolonged cold and frost, people are not familiar with technical application in rice cultivation. Methods of growing rice adapting to climate change has been too difficult to understand for the locals. However, good organization, management and implementation mobilized the active participation of people who now understand and comply with the requirements of the project to minimize the risk of the adverse weather conditions.

After four months of implementation, people know how to classify and use varieties, to keep varieties, weed, feed fertilizer properly and use irrigation water efficiently, and the work of combating rats has also been transferred successfully. Mr. Pham Van Dot, team leader of the model told us, “The model helped us understand the effectiveness of technical application in rice cultivation. Applying techniques brought the real effectiveness beyond our expectations. Rice yields were estimated at 2.5-3 quintal per sao”, he added “Application of new varieties (KD18) brought out higher yields by 50-60% compared to the old ones, strong and healthy rice resistance to pests and diseases. The proper use of irrigation water is more effective during droughts and increased the efficiency of fertilizer. Application of nylon prevented the disturbance of rats better than before”. According to Mr. Pham Van Kem, head village of Con Ro, the model showed new or good ideas compared to the previous thinking. The previous models only cared about productivity and pay less attention to prevention techniques under the adverse weather conditions. He said, “people following the model learned that their paddy fields have less grass and diseases and they no longer worry about the disturbance of rats and gain more rice, …”

During the coordination and direction during the implementation of the model, project officers and local officers learned valuable lessons in directing and guiding the implementation of production activities. According to Mrs. Le Thi Tram, vice president of Ba Bich CPC, the enthusiastic and responsible support of project officers not only helped households who implemented the model grow rice well but also improves qualifications and technical transfer method of communal agriculture officers in the context of adverse weather and climate change. Mrs. Tram recommends that the project continue to support the summer-autumn crop so that other people in other villages also can benefit.

After overcoming the initial difficulties, the results obtained from the model are very good. Villagers and local authorities are happy that the project had appropriate approach methods and brought high efficiency to rice production in their locality. On behalf of beneficiaries, Mr. Pham Van Dot emotionally gives thanks for the help of Plan International, Center for Rural Development in Central Vietnam and authorities at all levels for facilitating his group to have such a good harvest as today. Mr. Dot as well as the group commit to continue sharing knowledge and experience in the process of implementing the model with other people in the community and expects that the project will continue providing technical assistance in the next crop to the group and people not currently received the benefits.

Not only the model in Ba Bich commune but also other models in Ba Dinh, Ba To and Ba Xa communes have achieved good results and people also have the same comments and thoughts as Ba Bich commune. With this initial success, it is hopefully that people and local authorities will continue to maintain, share and replicate the project achievements to other households in the villages and communes. Groups of households directly implementing the model in Winter-Spring crop will be the important nucleus for other people to visit and learn. From that, the activity of growing rice in this locality is increasingly effective and adapts well to the context of climate change.

Do Cao Anh and Phan Cong Tam
Center for Rural Development in Central Vietnam

Some pictures of harvesting rice models

Addressing the opening celebration, representatives of the People’s Committee of Danang city and Disaster Management Center (DMC) identified the importance of community participation in disaster prevention, especially the participation of people with disabilities and the elderly in order to promote integration, strength and experience in disaster prevention.

The talk-show session were considered an active and practical importance to the participation of the representatives of Danang city People’s Committee and Disaster Management Center (DMC), representatives of the elderly with disabilities in the community of Danang city and Elderly Association participating in the village flood prevention committee.

During the talk-show, some contents were shared and discussed lively and practically:

• Representatives of the elderly shared life problems of the elderly (with disabilities) at home, in the community and when a disaster occurs; experiences of the elderly should be exploited in the disaster prevention and the needs of the elderly and people with disabilities participating in disaster prevention activities.
• Representatives of the People’s Committee of Danang city, Mr. Huynh Van Thang, Deputy director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vice President of Center for Flood and Storm Control, Search and Rescue of Danang city shared the city activities in disaster prevention with the participation of the community; considered it as one of the core issues that the city has been implementing with the support of local and international organizations and determined the role of the elderly contributing in disasters prevention .
• Disaster Management Center (DMC) provided general information on themes of International Day for Disaster Prevention in recent years, the significance of the theme “The elderly with disasters 2014: Resilience for Life”, the role of the elderly in connection of generations, life experience, experience in disaster prevention and ensuring solidarity and mobilizing all resources in the community.

At the roundtable discussion after talk-show, numerous comments from representatives of  Association of People with Disabilities, the elderly mentioned the difficulties in access to disaster prevention activities, especially developing disaster prevention plan, training and education; representatives of the Ministry of Labour – Invalids and Social Affairs stressed the problem of people with disabilities and the elderly being currently given special attention and promoted the strength and ensured inclusion of people with disabilities and the elderly in the disaster prevention. To achieve this goal, developing a propaganda team and signing a memorandum with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is very important, and has been currently discussed and developed.

Talking to the participants, the Disaster Management Center (DMC) highlighted standpoints of the government directing the participation of communities, especially vulnerable groups in disaster prevention in the Disaster Prevention Law, National Strategy for Disaster Prevention and Mitigation to 2020, the project “Raising public awareness and community-based disaster risk management”, the important role of local government at all levels, social and political organizations, especially Association of People with Disabilities, Elderly Association, international organizations in the implementation of specific activities for people with disabilities and the elderly so that they could participate and contribute to practical activities in the local disaster prevention. These are considered the most important factors to realize the Government’s direction and expectations of the disability community and the elderly.

The celebration also includeds communication activities such as exhibitions, music activities, drama by the Association of people with disabilities and the elderly of city and provinces of Danang, Hue and Quang Tri that were made by themselves and performed. This is seen as a strong message about the role and expectations to contributing the strength in disaster prevention in the community.

Closing the ceremony, the participants evaluated communication activities celebrating the International Day for Disaster Reduction very practical and expect more activity for gradually including the disabled and the elderly in disaster prevention.

(Department of Information and Statistics – Disaster Management Center)

Attending the meeting were CCN’s members from the provinces and cities including Hanoi, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Hue and Danang. All the members of the Executive Board were present and alternated in conducting the meeting.

On behalf of the CCN’s Executive Board, Mr. Vo Chi Tien, coordinator of the CCN and officer of the Center for Rural Development in Central Vietnam delivered a brief report on the performance of the network in the first four months. Some key activities such as upgrading the CCN website and organizing the study tour of models on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and mitigation were implemented and brought good results. Besides, Mr. Tien also shared some important information from the conclusion of the Executive Board on 28 March to all of the CCN’s members.

After reporting about the network operation, the members of the study tour alternately presented from their notes and lessons learned from the models of four provinces of Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh and Phu Yen during the period of April 16-20, 2015. Whether members participated in the study tour or not, they exchanged valuable lessons, especially about the models able to be replicated. These were the models of disaster risk management and climate change adaptation, and company/cooperative model to help people cultivate medicinal plants.

At the meeting, all members agreed about some such key activities in the second quarter of the year 2015 including: meeting of the Executive Board; reporting, writing and translating the documentation after the tour; training on communication planning and summarization of the project funded by Plan International.

The meeting took place in an open and extremely friendly atmosphere.

Photo 1: CCN meeting to summarize the first quarter of the year 2015

Photo 2: Members of the network shared their comments

Bao Hoa

Sacred Kitchen is the soul

Thanks to a study tour to five provinces of Central Vietnam organized by the Central Climate Change Network (CCN), we learned that 95% of the population of Tay Giang district, Quang Nam province are Cơ Tu ethnic people. This is the place for many traditional festivals, arts and cultural activities imbued with national identity. At this location, in the ancient time, the kitchen stove was not only a place for cooking meals and drinks but also a part of the Cơ Tu souls. They use kitchen stoves for heating and lighting at night against the risk of cold and predators of Truong Son Range. Beginning with the building of the house, the local people always had a fire burning which is considered the most sacred place in the house and burns forever in order to bring prosperity and happiness.

Due to the sacred kitchen, Cơ Tu ethnic people have more taboos. They do not locate the kitchen in place where the sun shines in. It is because according to their perceptions, sunlight and fire which are hot will be a bad omen. They will turn off the stove if there are strangers or guests that they do not welcome. Children are not allowed to start the fire. If a village or a guest outside the village comes without seeing flame or kitchen smoke, it means the owners are not at home and they should not enter.

Next to the kitchen, many epic stories, business stories and family stories are handed down from generation to generation. Kitchen smoke for thousands of years have been mingled around the village and permeated on everybody’s skin of Cơ Tu origin. They put their feet to the kitchen direction to keep their feet warm when they sleep around the clay stove.

In Tay Giang district, crossing the streams or hillsides, we could see women and mothers bringing baskets of firewood. They not only bring baskets of firewood to use, they also consider good baskets of firewood as gift sets in the cold weather; one example is that the bride’s family usually give firewood to the broom. Mrs. Ho Thi Hoa (Bhalêe, Tay Giang district, Quang Nam province) said, “I go out to bring back baskets of firewood on average once every 3-4 days. Once, I only went 4-5 kilometres to find firewood. But now I must go further due to less and less firewood”.

To improved stoves

Understanding clearly about the local culture but always worried about the health hazards and environmental resources in the context of climate change and other natural disasters, management board and implementation boards of the project “Encouraging the sustainable conservation of forest resources in Tay Giang district” funded by Malteser International organized an aggressive communication campaign and supported Tay Giang people with 50 improved stoves  purchased from Bac Giang province.

We had an opportunity to visit the home of Mr. AlangVoi (A Tep 2, Bhalêe commune, Tay Giang district). Mr. Voi said excitedly “After attended training courses and painting contests of the project, my family paid money to buy an improved stove. With only 135 thousand dong to buy a stove, now I only need one basket of firewood for 20 days instead of 3-4 days as before“.

The traditional kitchen is a part of human soul of Bhalêe people. However, its historic mission is no longer consistent with the current living conditions of the local people. Because the Tay Giang forest as well as many other forests are become exhausted, firewood is increasingly scarce. In addition, the women collecting firewood work so hard, climbing the mountain and passing over streams with many dangers. Mrs. Vo Thi Be – Women’s Union of A Tep 2 village, Bhalêe commune told us “After a period of mobilization and training, farmers who were supported by the project came back to the village and prepared propaganda for Co Tu people to understand the advantages of improved stoves”.

According to the local residents, improved stoves are easy to use, quick to start, reduce the need of firewood by 50-60% and create less smoke. Mrs. Be said that “Previously, children often had a cough and lung diseases. At first, we do not understand but after attending the training course, we gradually realized that it could be due to smoke”.

With 50 stoves supported by the project, now women at communes have ordered 604 more stoves and asked the project to bring them back. It has been a success beyond expectations. Mr. Le Huu Lap, project officer in charge of organizing a communication campaign to encourage the use of firewood saving stoves supported by Malteser International in Tay Giang district, said, “Women have experienced a reduction in the burden of work and men consciously help their wives and mothers do the cooking. And more important, the number of children having respiratory diseases caused by smoke is reduced. While awareness of the local people about forest protection has been improving significantly. Thus, communication does not only stop with changing a stove but also does many things for the community”.

 Bao Hoa

Photo 1: Use of firewood-saving stoves – women reduce their labor power

Photo 2: People of A Tep 2 village are exciting when using improved stoves

Photo 3: Less smoke stove

Photo 4: Close-up of a firewood-saving improved stove

The main goal of this training was to provide the how-to knowledge to build up a safe school for the school staff, especially for the school Disaster Risk Management (DRM) board. The safe school model is made of several steps which can be summarize as (1) common awareness-raising activities, (2) school Disaster Risk Assessment (DRA), (3) participatory school Disaster Risk Management planning and (4) promoting the interest of school managers in developing a safe school.

A teacher presents her group discussion’s results on the risks, vulnerabilities and capacities of her school and the recommendations to build a safe school (Hai Cang primary school – Quy Nhon city)

Post training interviews showed that the participants, especially the school managers really valued receiving safe school-related knowledge and highlighted the change in their awareness in terms of school safety. They thus expressed their commitment in developing the safe school model to their schools, including mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management-related knowledge and skills in school curriculum in the future.

Mr. Truong Dinh Long – a teacher of Nhon Binh no. 2 primary school (Quy Nhon) shared that “The training is very useful for my teaching. I would like to integrate the knowledge I obtained into lessons at school so that my students will also know about safe school model and be able to protect themselves in case of natural disasters. Personally, due to this training course, I think my life becomes more interesting because I learnt new knowledge.” In addition, Mr Dao Thanh Tung, a vice principal and a deputy manager of the school DRM board of the school Le Quy Don in Ward 1, Tuy Hoa, also emphasized: “We will frequently integrate the safe school-related knowledge where possible in order to increase the students’ awareness in DRM leading to school safety”.

Training class for teachers of Bach Dang primary school – Ward 6, Tuy Hoa city

Moreover, Ms. Huynh Thi Kim Thanh, a teacher of Hoang Quoc Viet primary school (Quy Nhon city) said that: “Thanks to the training, now I know how to make a Disaster preparedness (DP) plan for a school in order to find solutions for better preparation, response and recovery from a disaster. I also learnt how to use DRA tools to assess school’s disaster risks, which provide important inputs for building up a safe school.”

Closing session of the training for teachers of Hai Cang primary school – Quy Nhon city

After the safe school training, each project primary school in Quy Nhon and Tuy Hoa cities will conduct a Disaster Risk Assessment in their school, a critical step to identify and understand disaster risks of the schools and build a safe school.

Bui Thi Minh Chau
GRC PO in Binh Dinh

Duy Tan commune is not far from My Son Sanctuary – a world cultural heritage site about 5km to the north that lies on the southern bank of Thu Bon river with many types of war damage. The commune was densely filled by many memorial sites. The commune had a total population of only 6000 but had 1500 soldiers killed in action and 129 Vietnam heroic mothers. From the past to now, this area has considered agriculture to be the key sector as the others are relatively less developed.

Like many residents in Quang land, Mr. Vo Dinh Trung (living at Thu Bon Tay village, Duy Tan commune, Duy Xuyen district) was born in the period of divided nation, dedicated with their youthful enthusiasm to the national liberation and reunification. Surviving in the war and coming back to the motherland, he was seriously wounded, having lost his leg at the battlefield and suffered many injures.

Mr. Trung is always hauntingly worried about how to improve his family’s standard of living and raise his children when his beloved wife was required to be the breadwinner. While the area along Thu Bon river has experienced vulnerabilities due to climate change, increasing floods and droughts, abnormal changes of climate as the previous pasturing is no longer adequate due to being at high risk of epidemics.

Approaching the technique
Identification of raising chicken is a popular activity, suitable for most types of rural households, especially the poor households because of low investment and easy to consume products. The project “Child-centered climate change adaptation” surveyed and developed the model “backyard native chicken adapting to climate change” in Quang Nam province.

On April 2014, the project meeting introduced its objectives and household selection criteria reached Duy Tan commune. This was the first time Mr. Trung heard about the strange concept of climate change and raising chickens adapted to climate change. But then, with the determination of constant desire to reduce the burden on his beloved, and to make “the leg disability not disable”, he registered to implement the raising chicken model of the project.

A few weeks later, a project officer came to his house to survey and evaluate his family’s capacity. To be chosen for funding for developing the model, he was supported with 50 chickens, some kinds of food, means to take care for and some materials for building a coop. Most importantly, Mr. Trung was trained and guided in the techniques for building coop, selecting the breeding, and raising chickens in accordance to adapting to climate change.

We visited his family on an early summer day after a flood earlier in the month with the outdoor temperature of 39-400C. Standing under the shady and fresh frames of gourds and Thiên Lý flower (Telosma cordata) with many coconut leaves, Mr. Trung said that “Thanks to the front playground system, the coop surrounded by 2m high fence of bamboo with B40 aerated net; vines planted on the top so it could be protected against the heat in summer, hot weather, and supply daily vegetables and fruits. This frame system helps chickens have a cool playground in harsh summer days and increase feed intake and achieve better growth. Vines frame plays a role as green food supply with additional natural vitamin and cellulose for chicken”.

In addition to completing the building coop process under the guidance of the project consultant, Mr. Trung also vaccinated with vaccine, disinfected the coop to ensure chicken agile, healthy and shiny feathers… thus its vital resistant and resistant to abnormal changes of weather are very good. On sunny days, he feeds chicken with vitamin C. He also collects waste and treats it by microbial enzymes to reduce odors and bacteria.

First season of sweet fruit
Previously, Mr. Trung’s family raised pastured chickens which themselves dig to find food. The rate of chicken deaths ranged from 30-40%, and only a few survived. Since application of the model, rate of death is very low, about 5-10%. Only after three-month raising, his chicken flock was averaging 1.5-2kg in weight, less disease with the survival rate up to 90%, rapid growth, and delicious chicken meat compared to grazing Ri chicken. From the first breeding, now his flock has divided into 3 ages including baby chick, cockerel and reproduction chicken. Until the time we visited, his flock had produced more than 200 eggs and provided two households with food , one of whom is the purchasing household.

From practical experience and lessons-learned from raising chickens, Mr. Trung concluded that “This model was being learned by many people living in the commune. In my opinion, the most important step to achieving good results was to comply with the technical requirements. Yet, during the implementation process, some households had ignored the process, had not built strong coops in accordance to the design so it resulted in low efficiency. Although this is only the “first season of sweet fruit” but in my point of view, this model could be fully replicated”.

Chicken growing well

Mr. Trung feeds chicken in the cool net house

Mr. Trung is thrilled to receive an image-gift from the representative of Save the Children in Vietnam

Bao Hoa
Center for Rural Development in Central Vietnam (CRD)