The risk of getting infected with hiv aids of street children in ho chi minh city problems and solutions

HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - ENGLISH GRADUATION PAPER • THE RISK OF GETTING INFECTED WITH HIV/ AIDS OF STREET CHILDREN IN HO CHI MINH CITY PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS by PH~M NGUYEN QUYNH ANH advised by NGUYEN THAI MQNG TUYEN, MA September, 2008 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my family that has given me spiritual and financial support for my life- orientation to get a bright future This is a great opportunity to express my respect to the Board of Director of Department of International Relations - English for creating good conditions to this paper In addition, I would like to thank greatly my dean, Vu Quoc Anh, MA., for his instruction and support during the time doing this paper Especially, I would like to send my deep indebtedness and sincere thanks to Nguyen Thai Mong Tuyen, MA., my adviser, for her early and continuous wholehearted assistance and corrections to complete this thesis Next, I wish to express my thanks to Vu Ngoc Son, MD., PhD., for with me sincere advice and valuable data concerning my field of study Without these materials, my research would have been incomplete Moreover, I am pleased to thank Mr Tran Minh Tan working for the World Vision Organization for helping me contact the places that I did the questionnaire I am also equally grateful to my brother, Mr Chu Quoc Dung, who also works for the World Vision Organization, for his experience in working with street children and inspired me during the time I did this research Besides, my research would not have been so successful if I had not received the help from Thieu Nien School, Thao Dan, Cay Mai Group, Tre Xanh Warm House, Cau Han Project and 70 respondents who participated in the questionnaire serving this study Finally, I would like to thank my friends for their encouragement and help to me in carry out this research ABSTRACT Ho Chi Minh City is the most crowded and developing city in Viet Nam However, besides its prosperity, there are some social problems needed to be solved, and one of them is street children They not have enough conditions to develop with good care and education because of different reasons For instance, some children come from broken families, others try to support their family's income, or some others become street children because of peer pressure Thus, they are easy to be involved in social evils and epidemics, especially, street children in Vietnam in general and in Ho Chi Minh in particular are now facing HIV/AIDS Although the preventive, communicative, and treatable measures are being continued, the risk of getting infected with HIV/AIDS is still high A questionnaire was carried out with [10 children, who seemed to understand about HIV/AIDS but not deeply Therefore, the paper is done with the writer's hope of finding the knowledge of street children in Ho Chi Minh City about HIV/AIDS From that, giving the comments on present situations and recommending some suggested solutions to help them understand this epidemic more clearly and know how to protect themselves effectively • 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS Pages ACKN WLEDG EMENTS i ii AB STRA CT Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 01 1.1 Background 01 1.2 The urgency of doing this research 02 1.3 The aims of the study 03 1.4 The organization of the paper 04 1.5 Limitations of the research 04 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 05 2.1 Street children with HIY/AIDS 05 2.1.1 Who are street children? 05 2.1.2 The overview of HIV /AIDS 06 2.1.3 The risk of getting infected with HIV/ AIDS of street children 08 2.2 Some materials related to the issue Cha pter 3: METHODO LOGY 09 12 3.1 Subjects 12 3.2 Materials 12 3.3 Procedures 13 3.4 Statistical treatment 14 Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 15 Overview 15 4.2 A brief review of personal information of street children 15 4.3 Results of the questionnaire 19 4.3.1 Questions 1, and 19 HI 4.3.2 Questions and 21 a Question 21 b Question 22 4.3.3 Questions and 24 a Question 24 b Question 26 4.3.4 Question 27 4.3.5 Question 28 4.3 Questi on 10 30 4.4 Some suggestions for helping street children learn about HIV/AIDS 32 Cha pter 5: CON CL U SI N 34 APPEND IX 35 APPE ND IX 40 RE FERE N CE LIST 46 iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Page • Figure 4.1 Gender of the street children 16 Table 4.2 Age of the street children 16 Figure 4.3 The ages of the street children 17 Figure 4.4 Family status 17 Figure 4.5 Results of question 19 Figure 4.6 Results of question 20 Figure 4.7 Results of question 21 Table 4.8 Results of question (a) 22 Figure 4.9 Results of question (b) 23 10 Figure 4.10 Results of question 6a 24 11 Figure 4.11 Results of question 6c 25 12 Figure 4.12 Results of question 26 13 Figure 4.13 Results of question 8b 27 14 Figure 4.14 Results of question 9b 28 15 Figure 4.15 Results of question 9c 29 16 Figure 4.16 Results of question 10 30 v I ADVISER'S ASSESSMENTS vi EXAMINER'S ASSESSMENTS • " vii Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background Nowadays, Vietnam is more and more developed to integrate into the international market In addition, our country has become a member of WTO for one year, which creates more chances for us in the international arena However, some specialists of an American Bank of Investment predicted that the GDP growth has been about 7.3% and 7.8% in this year and the next year compared with 8.5% in the last year The inflation was up to 21.4% in April, 2008 (as only 8.6% in August, 2007) These figures reflect a crisis in the balance payment of our country Actually, the life - standard is improved day by day, but the money is devalued which makes the poor's lives difficult Moreover, there are still social problems such as homeless people, beggars, gambling, drug abuse, etc which need to be solved, and one of them is street children They are wandering on the streets to earn their living, and social evils are very close to them As a number of children infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS increases, so does the need to have an in-depth understanding of the impact of HIV/AIDS on them For this reason, the problem which I will deal with is the risk of getting infected with HIV /AIDS of street children in Ho Chi Minh City Street children in Vietnam appeared at the end of 1980s At that time, it was said that they are "dust of life"; it means that they were wandering, sleeping and working on streets Most of them fell into bad situation after leaving their homes They had to live in cities where they had a danger to be enticed to being prostitution using or selling drugs, and being baits of exploitation [oo.J This number of street children is increasing in Vietnam (Acoleyen, 1999)? I http://vtc.vnlkinhdoanhI180552/index.htm retrieved May 29, 2008 Page 4, Graduation paper ofLe Thi Van, Course (1999-2003) - Sociology department of Open University Children end up on streets for different reasons For instance, some of them escape from broken families or domestic quarrels For others, their parents' poverty leads them to supply family income in the street - living In addition, the breakdown of traditional family values, education, sense of humanity and community structure leave a large number of children without necessary care and support in their growth Street children are not mature enough to understand the social life, so they have become victims of social evils They are involved in drug abuse, illegal alcohol issues and sexual relations, etc These things often happen in urban life, especially in big cities, Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh According to the statistics of the Ministry of Health (2006), there were 8.500 HIV- infected children in Vietnam, most of them were street children However, at present, this figure has not totaled up completely yet In Ho Chi • Minh City, there are 10.000 children in danger of HIV/AIDS because of their unsafe lives3 We can acknowledge that HIV/AIDS epidemic is attacking people, especially children in general and street children in particular 1.2 The urgency of doing this research At present, the newest report of Ministry of Health shows that the total of HIV- infected people who have died in our country is up to 39.180; and the number of HIV- infected people who are still alive is 127.442 cases This epidemic has spread national wide with an average infection ratio 28.6%; and Quang Ninh is the top rank with 54.5%; the second rank is Ho Chi Minh City 47.6%; Hai Phong 46.25%; Can Tho 45%; Thai Nguyen 40.75%; and the last one is Dien Bien 36.83%.4 http://vnexpress.net/VietnamfDoi-song/2006!07/3B9EC http://hiv.com.vn/su-kien/tin-nong/0806433632.aspx 165 retrieved January 9, 2008 retrieved June 9, 2008 Chapter 5: CONCLUSION During recent years, street children have been gathered into centers, warmhouses or they were returned homes, so the number of children wandering on streets is seemed to reduce Yet some of them still hide from community and the authorities, and it is difficult to com near them In this study, we acknowledge that street children at the age of 13 to 18 or adolescents have understood about HIV/AIDS because they are educated However, they not learn about it deeply and that may lead them to wrong behaviors in preventing from HIV/AIDS Actually, children on streets are a pressing problem needed to be solved because they are facing other problems that put them at many risks Therefore, the urgent things must be done as soon as possible to help them know how to face difficult problems such as social evils, diseases in their lives At present, most of local and foreign organizations such as the Vietnam Administration ofHIY/AIDS Control, the Ministry of Labor Invalids and Society Affairs, the UNAIDS, the Family Health International, and Save the Children always think that children are top priority subjects in HIY/AIDS prevention Although they have given many active plans to help the children, the lack of staffs and unequal distribution between regions bring about difficulties in their tasks Thus, a seminar named "Vietnamese journalists with HIV prevention for children"; a conference between departments of a project called "HIY prevention and control", and so on have carried out to overcome obstacles and difficulties and suggested plans for the future In this paper, there were other problems that put street children at risk of HIV/AIDS; those are living in unsafe environment and earning their living or economic reasons However, the writer just focused on the knowledge of street children about HIV/AIDS, and an analysis was done The results showed that the children were seemed to know the basic facts ofHIY/AIDS, but could they avoid traps in their daily lives? With some suggestions above, I hope that they can learn about HIV/AIDS easily, deeply; and know how to protect themselves effectively 34 APPENDIX DAI DICH HIV DANG TAN CONG TRE DUONG PHO Chuy~n b~t dAu ill c~u be danh giay a "khu ph6 Tay" (Ph~m Ngu Lao, Q 1, TP HCM), ten la Blnh "Ii" Ly lich tom t~t nhu sau: khong cha, m~ I~y ch6ng khac, a vai ngo~i tubi, ngo~i m~t, di b\li Hai nam dAu di moc bQc, ban bao; ba nam ti~p theo danh giay; cu6i cling, 15 tubi Blnh b~t dAu su dl,mg rna va di khach Tay Khi cai nghi~n t~i Trung tam Blnh Tri~u, k~t qua thu mau cua em la HIV duang Hnh Bay la truOng h9'P tieu bi~u phat hi~n nhi~m HIV cua tre duemg ph6, nhung khong phiLi la nhfrt Noi d~n tre duemg ph6, ngu&i ta thuemg 10 tre ph~m phap, b~nh truy~n nhi~m ill cUQcs6ng he ph6 Song gi& day HIV theo sau rna va l~m d\lng tlnh d\lc dang la n6i 10 100 nh~t Theo chan cac nhan vien cong tac xa hQi, chUng toi d~n cac di~m nong nhu khu Chg LOO,Ph~m Ngu Lao, BUll Bi~n ti~p c~ v6'i th~ gi6'i mang ten "Tre dUOng ph6" Nhii:ng uu'a tre vo gia cO' Sinh chfulg mu6n mlnh tra mQt dua tre mang ten "tre duemg ph6", nhung cang ngay, nhfrng dua tre bi dlly duemg cang dong Hang ngay, chung ta d~ dang b~t g~p nhfrng dua tre gAy go, da chay n~ng, m~t mui lem lu6c noi nang C\lCcan Khi thl an xin, moc tui thl ban ve s6, ban bao d~o va du thu ngh~ khac M6i dua m6i hoan ciLnh,nhung hAu h~t d~u co ly lich trich ngang d~i lo~i: m6 coi khong nm nuang tva, cha m~ ngugc dai danh d~p, bi I~m d\lng tlnh d\lc hay nM ngheo pMi vaG d&i s6m 35 NgO