Street Vision - Vietnam (1998 - 2007)
Location: South East and Far East Asia, Vietnam
Keywords:
Project Background
Street Vision.
Photography by street and working children.
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 1998 - today
Partners: Education for Development and Ho Chi Minh Child Welfare Foundation
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam’s government officially espouses a Marxist-Leninist philosophy, yet today communism and capitalism coexist. In 1986 the economy and organisation of Vietnam underwent a huge change with the beginning of Doi Moi, a policy of shifting a centrally- planned, isolated socialist barter economy to a market economy. This has had a profound impact on not only the economy of Vietnam but also family and community life. The country at large is fast urbanising. There are more tourists, more taxis and shops but there are also many more very poor people.
More than 40 million (60%) of those living in Vietnam today are under the age of 21. Officials estimate that 19,000 children are living hand-to-mouth on the streets of Vietnam’s cities. Non-governmental organisations double that figure in their estimates. Most of those children are in Ho Chi Minh, many driven from their rural homes through poverty, neglect, abuse or exploitation, drawn in their droves to the cities’ promise of profit.
There is no welfare state in Vietnam: NGO-funded shelters offer 1,000 beds to children arriving in Ho Chi Minh, leaving the remainder to sleep in parks, on roundabouts, in railway stations, outside shops or on any other free piece of pavement. Some children exchange labour for a minimum wage and inadequate shelter. Others, particularly in tourist areas, routinely work and wander the streets until dawn.
Every year since 1998, Street Vision has accepted over 20 such children on its documentary skills and photography beginner and advanced courses. Over 20 students have gone on to work within the professional photographic industry, assisted by the Street Vision Club - a mentoring programme set up with professional Vietnamese photographers.
Through photography, all the students have gained self-esteem, a sense of purpose and fun and a means through which they can combat society’s negative image of them. Their work has been personally presented to Vietnamese ministers and has been exhibited worldwide, including in New York during the UN Special Session on the Rights of the Child.
In 2004 Street Vision is working towards setting up a photographic resource centre for street and working children in the city which will comprise a teaching area, an exhibition space, a shop and a mini-lab. This centre will further the vocational and income generational potential of the project.
Street Vision is managed in Vietnam by the Ho Chi Minh Child Welfare Foundation.
To contact the foundation directly please write to Mme Bich at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)