Nghệ An: medicines for the local population

Background

A mountain commune on the Laos border

The Tam Hop border guard post, part of the Nghệ An provincial border guard, watches over 26.27 km of border with Laos. Its area is Tam Thai commune, a border zone with high and rugged mountainous terrain.

The commune has 1,767 households, or 7,786 inhabitants spread across 11 villages. The Mong, Thai and Tay Poong ethnic minorities make up 99.05% of the population. Living standards have improved in recent years, but 303 households are still poor (17.15%) and 344 near-poor (19.47%).

Bringing care closer to the people

The population is scattered over a vast area: reaching a place of care is far from easy for the inhabitants. The Tam Hop post runs two joint medical teams, made up of military and civilian staff, in the villages of Huoi Son and Pha Lom. Each has one intermediate-level military health worker.

These teams provide consultations and screenings, give first aid and treat common illnesses. They also monitor the population’s health and quickly report any epidemic situation. Every year they examine and treat hundreds of people and hand out more than 20 million dong worth of medicines free of charge. Together with the commune health centre, they also organise consultations, screenings and medicine distributions for poor families, as part of the “Spring at the border – Warming villagers’ hearts” programme.

A call for support

To keep operating steadily and better meet basic health needs, the post launched an appeal to associations, companies and philanthropists. It asked for common medicines and medical supplies: a box of medicines, a roll of gauze or a first-aid kit can help someone in need.

Our action

Our primary mission is to equip schools in northern Vietnam, but we could not ignore this call for help.

Thanks to donations collected locally by Hoa in Hanoi, we were able to buy 29 kg of medicines. Shipping them to the border took several weeks because of floods in the region.

Source: appeal for support from the Tam Hop border guard post (translated from Vietnamese). Beneficiary unit: Tam Hop border guard post, Nghệ An provincial border guard command, Huoi Son village, Tam Thai commune.