Project News

On 5 and 6 July, 2011, a second workshop on the revising the 3rd draft of Maternal and Child Health handbook (MCH handbook) was held in Hanoi.

The workshop invited some national experts on maternal and child health, senior officer of Ministry of Health (MOH), national institutes, professional association and related international organizations with the main purposes, 1) to present the process of developing MCH handbook, guidelines and next steps, 2) to introduce the 3rd draft of MCH handbook, guidelines, training manual and Information - Education -Communication (IEC) materials and 3) to discuss and comment for 3rd draft of MCH handbook, guideline, and training manual.

In the workshop, there were 30 participants including 1) the working group who has participated from the 1st revised such as representatives of Maternal and Child Health Department (MCH Dept.) and of Medical Service Administration from MOH, MCH Handbook Project office, four National Institutes including National Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB/Gyn), National Hospital of Pediatric, National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, National Institute of Nutrition, 2) participants from the 2nd revised such as United Nation Organizations (World Health Organization and United Nations Children's Fund) and five Non-Government-Organizations, and moreover 3) participants for the first time such as General Office of Population and Family Planning, Department of Scientific and Training of MOH, Pediatrics Association, Gynecologic/Obstetric Association, Hospital of OB/Gyn Hospital and Reproductive Health Care Centre in Hanoi. The project expected to develop a high quality MCH handbook based on different professional viewpoints.

In the workshop, after the opening speech from Dr. Nguyen Duy Khe (Director of MCH Dept., MOH), Mr.Akira Shimizu( Senior Representative, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Vietnam Office) had given a greeting speech. Dr. Tran Hoang Nam (Officer of MCH Dept., MOH) presented on the process of developing materials and next steps as well as introduced the training manual. Dr.Dinh Thi Phuong Hoa (Project advisor) introduced on the content of 3rd draft of MCH handbook and guideline.

After those presentations, participants were divided into 3 groups and each group discussed and comments on the 3rd draft of MCH handbook, guidelines, training manual and the first draft of posters that are developing for IEC activities. The main points of discussion are :1 ) the MCH handbook should be easy to use for the pregnant women/mothers and medicall staff, and 2) the content should be in accordance with the National Guidelines on Reproductive Health Care Services in Vietnam.

MCH Dept. of MOH and MCH Hanbook project team are now jointly reviewing the meeting results and carefully preparing a plan before finalizing the materials that would start using from coming autumn.

Dr. Khe, Director of MCH Dept, gave an opening speech

Mr.Shimizu, Senior Representative in JICA, gave a greeting speech

Ambience of the workshop

Group discussion 1 (Dr.Vinh, Deputy Director of MCH Dept., 2nd from the left)

Group discussion 2 - International organization Group (Mrs.Bando, Chief Advisor, 2nd from left)

Group discussion 3 (Dr Nguyen Cong Khanh - Pediatric Association of Vietnam, 1st from the left)