Ninth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

This paper calls attention to one approach to the health-related wellness problems, especially when the solution to their causes or remedies of them takes time and is too costly for their benefactors. The Wartime use of Dioxin-yielding chemicals has taken its toll on the human health in Vietnam. The estimated number of the disabled children among their postwar generations: 1.2 to 2 million. The government has made “war-remediation” efforts to alleviate the impact of the problem including healthcare services and financial support among others. However, their effectiveness is limited. Only 2% of these children access some form of rehabilitation facilities while their social needs remain largely unaddressed - 46% of the disabled people aged 6 above are illiterate. With this background, we installed an experimental, weekend classes at local primary schools in one of the Dioxin “hotspots” in central Vietnam. Our observations over the past 15 years reveal an important development. Through the weekend classes, known locally as Dream Class, the disabled children have developed what I call “social literacy”—the language and habit of relating themselves to others beyond their families, the routinization of activities independent of the parents preoccupied with the chores of all kind, the diversified means to express themselves such as painting, dancing and singing. The children are no longer isolated from each other and are expanding their social sphere. One desired approach is hinted: the installation of space and time for the disabled in the middle of everyone’s everyday life, and not away from it.