President Phúc calls for a safe, healthy and friendly environment for children

President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc on Tuesday presents gifts to children with disabilities at the Hà Nội Nurturing Disabled Children Centre in Chương Mỹ District’s Chúc Sơn Town on the occasion of International Children’s Day. VNA/VNS Photo An Đăng

HÀ NỘI — President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has urged ministries and sectors at all levels to pay more attention to supervising the implementation of children’s rights to create a safe, healthy and friendly living environment for children.

He paid a visit and gave gifts to disabled children at the Hà Nội Nurturing Disabled Children Centre in Chúc Sơn Town, Chương Mỹ District for International Children’s Day on Tuesday.

The Hà Nội Nurturing Disabled Children Centre was established in 1978. More than 500 children with disabilities have been cared for and nurtured there since then.

Among a total of 137 children cared for at the centre currently, there are 111 children with hearing impairment and 26 with intellectual disabilities.

The centre organises 11 classes for children and provides them with life skills to help integrate into the community. Each child is given a monthly allowance of VNĐ2.1 million.

Phúc praised the great efforts of the centre’s teachers and employees for wholeheartedly caring for 137 disabled children at the centre. He said that the children’s good physical strength, as well as receiving vocational training and going on to gain jobs, was a testament to the dedication of teachers and employees of the centre for children.

Phúc said there were nearly 700,000 children with disabilities in the whole country. In Hà Nội alone, there were 12,560 children with disabilities.

“The protection and education of children is a strategic and long-term issue in the country, as children own the country’s future,” he said.

The protection, care and education of children with disabilities had been prioritised with many policies on social benefits, as well as access to health, education, vocational training, orthopaedic surgeries, tuition fee exemption and free legal aid.

The President praised the system of schools for children with disabilities and the NGO SOS Children’s Villages for their great efforts in caring for and educating children with disabilities so that no one is left behind.

He emphasised that the legal system and policies on the protection of children’s rights were quite complete, but must be perfected to create a safe, healthy and friendly living environment for children, especially children with disabilities and children with disadvantages.

He urged all the authorities to pay more attention to improving the quality of supervision and assessment of the implementation of children’s rights and protecting children from domestic violence, school violence or accidents.

He also said that it was necessary to expand the fields of vocational training and medical treatment for children while promoting their talents so that they could have a better life and contribute to society in their own ways.

The child database system needed to be developed to better do its job, he added.

Phúc suggested the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs create the best conditions for social centres to operate and provide supportive policies for both children and those who work in these centres.

On this occasion, Phúc presented VNĐ100 million (US$4,312) and school supplies worth VNĐ200 million ($8,624) to the centre. — VNS