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Transforming Lives

Language: English | Vietnamese
Hao with his new skateboard, which helps him move around his house instead of crawling.

Living with severe cerebral palsy made it difficult for Nguyen Minh Hao, 31, to take care of his daily needs. Getting out of bed and personal hygiene were impossible without his mother’s help. As they both grew older, it become more challenging for his mother, his only caregiver, to get Hao in and out of bed for daily activities. He spent most of his time lying in bed, unable to do to anything.

A client receives services at a district health clinic in Hai Phong.

When Hieu Trinh Thi married five years ago, she knew that her husband Truong might be HIV positive since he had been an intravenous drug user in the past. In Hai Phong, Vietnam, where the couple lives, 44 percent of people who inject drugs are infected with the virus.

Nguyen Thi Nhung at her house in Long An.

Nguyen Thi Nhung, 52, is a farmer in the Mekong Delta province of Long An in southern Vietnam. When her father died in 2014, she wanted to give each of her four older sisters part of the farming land. Since she was the only person with a land use right certificate for her parents’ residential and farming land, it was up to Nhung to figure out how to legally give them land access.

Tran Song The, 19, at work in Danang, Vietnam.

Tran Song The, 19, was born into a poor family in Hoa Vang, a rural district of central Vietnam’s Danang province. At birth, he was diagnosed with a congenital deformity. While the condition was not fatal and did not affect his mental development, it caused the muscles and bones in his neck and shoulder to grow abnormally

A client receives an HIV testing and counseling referral from community-based supporter in Hanoi.

In a quiet alley in the southern part of the capital city of Hanoi, a man and a woman are seated on small plastic stools, conferring in low tones. The man drinks a glass of tea while the woman pulls out a sheaf of perforated papers—referral slips—and begins filling one out. She hands the slip of paper to her companion and explains its purpose as he sips his drink, nodding.

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