Opening the meeting, Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Ha highly appreciated the cooperation between MOLISA and the CFC organization in supporting children with special circumstances in Vietnam through the implementation of the alternative care model.

After nearly 04 years of implementing the cooperation agreement (since 2017), 4/5 goals have been completed at the first phase, including making a list of children in need and eligible to receive alternative care and selecting eligible families for alternative care; organizing alternative care training courses at home in 07 modules for 287 child care workers; equipping necessary knowledge and skills for the staffs on the alternative care model.

The Deputy Minister assessed that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has seriously affected the progress of the model implementation in two localities (Thai Nguyen and Hanoi). Alternative care is a new model in Vietnam, so public awareness is still limited.

Mr. Rober Glover, CEO of CFC, expressed his excitement about the results that Vietnam has achieved in implementing the alternative care model.

CFC hopes that both parties can work together to find ways to achieve the goal of supporting children in need with alternative care from child protective service providers to return to their families in the community.

At the working session, Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Ha assigned the Department of Children Affairs, Department of International Cooperation to closely coordinate with the CFC organization to complete activities.

She emphasized the effectiveness of information technology applications to replace direct contact forms to strengthen the capacity building of social workers and child care workers in the localities.

In particular, it is necessary to coordinate and utilize resources to enhance communication and raise awareness about alternative care in Vietnam...

At the end of the meeting, Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Ha wished that CFC would share experiences in implementing alternative care models for children in other countries around the world and believed that MOLISA and CFC organization would continue to cooperate more effectively in the future./.