Intervention for children with special needs is one of the key areas that the organization strives to implement in order to contribute to poverty alleviation in the community where the Thiện Chí Center is carrying out community development. Poverty affects people for various reasons related to health, economics, education, and more. It is evident that when a family—especially a poor family—has a child with developmental disorders such as autism, language disorders, hearing impairment, hyperactivity, Down syndrome, intellectual disabilities, etc., the psychological and financial pressures can be immense. Furthermore, if a child does not receive early intervention from a young age, they will face many difficulties integrating into the community, starting with kindergarten and primary school, and may become a burden on the family and society. When parents have a child in need of special education, they must stay at home to care for the child, paying significant costs for interventions, consultations, and caregiving. Therefore, for poor families carrying this burden, the path out of poverty will be much longer. That is why Thiện Chí makes efforts every single day—never leaving behind the most vulnerable members of society—to work alongside families to intervene and create a better future for the children while reducing the burden on parents, allowing them to focus on improving their livelihood and working toward poverty alleviation.
We started working with children with special educational needs in 2008. At that time, we focused on capacity building for primary school teachers and established the "Hạnh Phúc" intervention room, where children with difficulties in school received support with life skills and learning outside of regular classroom hours. In 2012, we began visiting individual families to teach children literacy and numeracy and organized group sessions on social skills, a program known as the "Community Learning Box." In 2017, we initiated direct intervention at the center for hearing-impaired children—this served as a precursor to our current intervention program where parents bring their children to the center weekly. In 2018, we joined the "Narrowing the Gap" program of LIN and secured funding to begin "early intervention" for children aged 2-5 with different special educational needs. Today, we provide individual and group interventions for 37 children, supported by 3 staff members trained in special education.
So, how does the community participate in this program? Education is the foundation for poverty alleviation, and education is an area of great societal concern. Through intersectoral collaboration, when children are identified with difficulties, kindergartens help by referring them to the center for intervention and facilitating intervention during school hours, recognizing that effective intervention at the center enables the child to better integrate into school. Meanwhile, parents contribute by bringing their children to the center daily, teaching their children at home under the center's guidance, and providing partial financial support to sustain the program. Moreover, parents act as a bridge, introducing children with difficulties in their community to the intervention center.
Is this program sustainable? To date, many children who have received intervention have shown promising results. Those who participated in the community learning program have grown up and now have jobs that support their families. Younger children speak confidently, communicate well, and integrate smoothly into kindergarten and primary school. Their parents are delighted and can now work with peace of mind to improve their quality of life. Today, the community in Đức Linh District recognizes Thiện Chí for its work with children with special educational needs—could this be considered a community-built brand? This is evidenced by the growing number of referrals from the community for children to receive timely interventions. Thanks to the spread of successful intervention cases, the sharing of experience and knowledge about special education interventions, and the active participation of parents, the program has been able to sustain and grow. It has become a special program that the organization implements in Vietnam, carrying a unique significance—"special poverty alleviation" through special connections and support for each individual child at the right time, to create a profound impact on the child, the family, and the community in both the present and future.
