800 female workers in Vinh Phuc province have accessed to quality mobile reproductive health care services

The project “For mother and baby - For Vietnamese stature” has come to workers in Vinh Phuc province after two previous years implemented in Hanoi and Bac Ninh province.

Lack of knowledge and skills, lack of time to take care of themselves and high medical examination costs are the reasons why workers, especially female workers, are reluctant to examine and seek counseling on reproductive health. Understanding that, besides equipping employees with knowledge and skills on reproductive health, the project "For mother and baby - For Vietnamese stature" implemented free mobile health examination and counseling right in the industrial zone to creating favorable conditions for employees to access quality mobile reproductive health care services.

Mrs. Tran Thi Nhu Trang - Director of For Vietnamese Stature Foundation said: “For Vietnamese Stature Foundation pays special attention to the reproductive health care of women in reproductive age and addresses their unmet needs. When the project conducted reproductive health examination and counseling for employees in 2018 in Hanoi, up to 70% of the women workers detected genital infection. This result helped female workers become more aware of their reproductive health care and treatment. We wish to bring similar effects to female workers in Vinh Phuc province this year.”

Nearly 200 female workers attended the exam on the morning of June 1st. The examination will continue until the end of June 2nd.

At the examination on the morning of June 1st, Mrs. Nguyen Thi H. (born in 1998), a worker of KCI VINA company shared: “I am 4-month pregnant but I only went for antenatal care, never had any gynecological examination. Today, being facilitated by the company to participate in the reproductive health examination in this project, I registered to see if I have any illnesses. Fortunately, my reproductive health is normal.”

During two days of medical examination, 800 female workers in three industrial zones, namely Khai Quang, Binh Xuyen and Ba Thien, are expected to receive counseling and reproductive health and hepatitis B examination for free. The purpose of the activity is to help workers understand more about their reproductive health and be more proactive in their own reproductive health care, safe and healthy pregnancy and childbirth, and contribute to their businesses and socio-economic development.

The project aims to increase access to quality reproductive health care services for workers.

In the first examination, preliminary results showed that about 20% of the female workers come to have sexually transmitted diseases such as vaginitis, cervicitis, nabothian cyst, cervical polyp, etc. The Center for Disease Control in Vinh Phuc and Medlatec Vinh Phuc are responsible for professional counseling, blood testing and reproductive health examination with sponsorship from Da Huong brand of Hoa Linh Pharma.

From May to December 2019, together with mobile health examination and counseling for employees in industrial zones, projects "For mother and baby - For Vietnamese stature” phase 3 will continue to deploy 20 communication sessions about nutrition care, reproductive health care - safe sex and mental health care for women in reproductive age. It is expected that in the phase 3, at least 3,000 employees will be able to improve their knowledge, skills and practices on nutrition care, reproductive health care - safe and appropriate contraceptive methods for Vietnamese people and mental health care/depression prevention, to enhance the health and productivity of employees, contributing to building high quality human resources for the factories in particular and for the country in general.

Specially, social marketing activities of contraceptives and condoms were also carried out for the first time. At the end of the project, a competition to help workers understand relevant knowledge will also be held along with the project closing ceremony, expected to take place in late December 2019.