Project offers treatment and care for drug users
The
200,000 USD project, managed by the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids
and Social Affairs (MOLISA), will be carried out in Truong Thi commune
of Thanh Hoa city, Thanh Hoa province, Tien Hai town of Thai Binh
province’s Tien Hai district and Muong Khen commune of Hoa Binh
province’s Tan Lac district.
The project’s objectives
include increasing beneficiaries’ access to drug detoxification
services, and restoring health for drug users, thus reducing drug
addiction’s effects on community’s health, including HIV transmission.
It
also aims to raise local authorities’ capacity on building and
developing drug treatment networks and a healthy community, as well as
duplicate the project’s model to turn it into a nationwide social
service network to reduce drug demand.
According to
MOLISA, the proportion of drug users under 30 years of age increased
from 45 percent in 1996 to 57 percent and 68 percent in 2001 and 2010,
respectively.
By Dec. 2009, 147,000 Vietnamese people
were reported to use drugs, of whom, 84.72 percent were heroin addicts
and 11.58 percent used opium./.