One of our favourite project stories from the last few months was during a Training Needs Assessment (TNA) visit to our pilot project site in Thai Nguyen province (just under two hours’ drive from Hanoi).

We spent the morning meeting with provincial city government officials, most of whom we had met before, and discussed some technical details of the project, training strategies and other project plans. We also distributed a questionnaire to capture their understanding of the training needs required for them and their staff (a critical part of the process to help tailor our training programme for the Vietnamese cultural and political context, as well as measure knowledge and attitude change over time). The officials raised excellent questions, many of which were quite detailed, and touched on other pressing social welfare developments within senior levels of government.

After lunch we then headed out into a ‘commune’ (third-tier administrative region) of Thai Nguyen where we met with about 20 community leaders (all women!). These upstanding citizens, who US$5 a month, play an important role in the health of their communities by championing the government’s social initiatives by scooting around neighbourhoods on their mopeds to make home visits, help administer social support, and meet regularly to feedback on local developments.

We enjoyed a much more informal atmosphere as we shared about the pilot foster care project plans, and listened to their thoughts and ideas, much of which was accompanied with anecdotes and jokes! As we walked out of the building where we met, one of the ladies in the group turned to Thomas and said enthusiastically and convincingly: