Postcard from Bac Kan

Imagine this...or the Australian equivalent...one each of the state’s senior doctors, nurses and health administrators, at the front of a stage, looking very like TV game show hosts, calling out the names of representatives of each of the area health services.

Contestants in the Bac Kan Province Health Competition, Vietnam

Local people dressed in their finest clothes answer a question about weight gain during pregnancy, or nutrition for 12 month olds, or breast feeding techniques, or preventing worms. There's some 400 local people in the audience in a building that resembles a town hall. Each female contestant is from a small town, never having travelled to the "capital" before, and is answering in their second or third language (as most are from ethnic minority communities) and after answering the question, then performs a self composed song or a poem to the panel of judges. Can you imagine? Well ..it's not in Australia.

This is a provincial health department "health competition". It might not sound like a great way to spend a Sunday. But this is Bac Kan province, northern Vietnam. And I'm on a monitoring visit of projects supported by Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA in association with the NSW Nurses, in the poorest province in the country.

This is the culmination of health promotion activities in all the villages and communes in Ba Be district. Ba Be is better known for its gorgeous green "lake of trees", one of the Wonders of the (natural) World" rather than its dreadfully low family income levels, low rates of nutrition, high rates of anaemia and high numbers of months with no food production.

In addition to the technical aspects of the project I monitored, I had the pleasure of sitting through the all day (7am-5.30pm) "health competition", come talent and beauty contest. In the deciding activity in the competition, the finalists cooked a meal for a designated 3 or 6 or 8 month old baby, a la, Jamie Oliver style, over a gas burner on the stage in front of everybody. None of the contestants would ever have had the luxury of cooking on gas in their dirt floor kitchens. The excitement of performing in this event was a highlight for the women and no doubt long talked about in the villages of Ba Be.

It is hard to imagine coming up with this project design in my Sydney office and it's success in spreading the health message is further proof of the value of working with partner organisations who live in the community and know the local culture. Through this exciting and colourful event, women have learnt basic health messages of value to their family and have gained the confidence to be able to communicate them in their community.

If an Australian health department ever needs a guest judge, I now have that experience too.

Alison Tate.
Project Officer - Mekong Region
Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA.

© Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA 2003.

Last Modified: Monday, 19-Mar-2007 18:05:27 EST
This page: http://apheda.org.au/projects/vietnam/news/1071110341_7710.html