A team from Chia Se Poverty Alleviation Program, Yen Bai Province, Vietnam visited the intervention areas of Swabhiman programme in Delhi as part of their study tour on November 15, 2007.

Swabhiman, a programme on health and empowerment of the girl child, is an initiative from Smile Foundation with support from Population Foundation of India (PFI).

The delegation’s main focus was to learn about poverty alleviation and empowerment of women in India and to exchange experience in management of projects in community development, implementation of grassroot democracy and gender equity.

The Vietnam team interacted with the women and adolescent girls in the community and came to know about their plight and the victimization they face as a result of domestic violence and gender discrimination. Women from the communities also shared their experience with the visiting team about the improvement in their quality of life after attending regular informative sessions of Swabhiman programme on gender, abuse, violence, Right to health etc.

The team from Vietnam also visited the Mobile Health Van under Swabhiman programme which serves as health service and referral intervention to encourage health seeking behaviour of the community girls and women.

The team was appreciative of the efforts of Swabhiman and PFI. Observing the successful intervention model of Swabhiman, the delegation was keen to replicate the same in Vietnam.