HCMC ARCHDIOCESE EXPANDS HIV/AIDS ACTIVITIES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 000564 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PREL KIRF SOCI PGOV VM SUBJECT: HCMC ARCHDIOCESE EXPANDS HIV/AIDS ACTIVITIES REF: 05 HCMC 1311; B) 05 HCMC 1152 HO CHI MIN 00000564 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Over the past 18 months, the HCMC archdiocese has steadily expanded its efforts to provide community-based assistance to HIV/AIDS victims. The church continues to operate a government-approved HIV/AIDS clinic within the Trong Diem drug rehabilitation center. With the apparent tacit support of the HCMC government, the archdiocese also has developed a multi-tiered community outreach and treatment program for people living with HIV/AIDS, including health clinics and counseling services. The church funds these initiatives through a mix of domestic and international support, including from CARE International. The increasing acceptance of HCMC officials of the archdiocese's HIV/AIDS initiatives is noteworthy and should be encouraged. End Summary. End Summary. Background -------------- ¶2. (SBU) In December 2004, HCMC Department of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs (DOLISA) opened an HIV/AIDS clinic at HCMC's Trong Diem Rehabilitation Center - the first clinic of its kind within a rehabilitation center in Vietnam. (Note: The Rehabilitation Centers, known as 05/06 Centers, are administrative detention centers for drug addicts and sex workers. Trong Diem is one of HCMC's 21 centers. It is likely that 50 percent of the centers' 30,000 residents are HIV positive. End note.) Previously, DOLISA had been unable to find qualified medical professionals to work with terminal AIDS patients. In response, provincial authorities invited the HCMC Archdiocese to provide doctors and nurses for the clinic. The staff of 30 caregivers, consisting of both lay and religious workers with health care credentials, provide opportunistic infection treatment, physical therapy, HIV/AIDS and spiritual counseling. The center averages 50-60 terminal AIDS patients a month with 3 to 5 deaths unofficially reported per week. In 2005, Trong Diem's Catholic caregiver staff protested malfeasance and lack of cooperation of the center's administrators (ref B) and threatened to withdraw from the center. However, senior city officials reaffirmed their commitment to ensure continued religious worker involvement in the center and in other HIV/AIDS activities. In April 2006, we visited the Archdiocese's point man for HIV/AIDS, Pastoral Care Project Manager Father John Dinh Toai to review the status of the Church's activities in this area. Trong Diem Rehabilitation Center In Transition -------------- - ¶3. (SBU) Father Toai told us that conditions for church workers have improved at the Trong Diem center following the city's intervention with the center's management. However, the HCMC government now plans to transform the Trong Diem rehabilitation center into a hospice for terminal AIDS patients for the city's 21 rehabilitation centers. The city has not told the archdiocese what role it might play in the hospice, but the church is prepared to continue or expand its activities there, Father Toai said. Father Toai noted the expected change has lowered the morale of the Trong Diem staff, which expects to be transferred elsewhere or laid off. Current residents also fear that a transfer to another facility may result in longer periods of confinement. Consequently, there have been a number of attempted escapes including eight residents who successfully scaled the center's walls in May 2006. Pastoral Care's Multi-Layer Support Network -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Father Toai told us that the Pastoral Care's home-based "continuum of care program" for People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in HCMC begins with three volunteer groups of physicians, nurses, and social workers. These groups conduct home visits, provide basic nursing care, supplemental nutritional and hospital fee support, and bereavement care. They also act as a referral service for the diocese's two unofficial clinics. The three volunteer groups also can mobilize volunteers to assist ailing HIV/AIDS patients at Pham Ngoc Thach hospital, Tropical Infectious Disease Hospital, and the Trong Diem Center. ¶5. (SBU) At the community level, Pastoral Care manages the Mai Khoi and Xom Moi HIV/AIDS clinics. Although the city has not formally recognized or approved these clinics, the authorities have turned a blind eye to their operation. Mai Khoi and Xom Moi are staffed by a volunteer group of Catholic medical professionals who are government hospital employees during their normal working hours. The two clinics counsel and treat approximately 30 clients per day. The clinics also function as day care centers and shelters for HIV/AIDS infected homeless mothers and children. The centers currently provide shelter for four or five persons a month. HO CHI MIN 00000564 002.2 OF 002 ¶6. (SBU) The archdiocese also operates a community reintegration and care center for released rehabilitation center and other city residents. The center has been open since June 2005, and is staffed by four church volunteers. It has an annual budget of USD 5,000, which it receives from the NGO CARE. The clinic assists approximately 50 people per month with anti-retroviral treatment, medications, baby formula, vocational training, and HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention counseling. The center's patients are referred by word of mouth in the Catholic community or through the Mai Khoi and Xom Moi clinics. The center also shelters on average 15 homeless residents, including nine orphaned children ranging six months to eight years of age infected with HIV/AIDS. Father Toai noted that the overwhelming majority of women seen at Mai Tam are not commercial sex workers, (they have documented only two cases of HIV-infected prostitutes in 2005),but women who contracted HIV/AIDS through their regular partners. According to Father Toai, 50 percent of these women are the wives or girlfriends of current 05/06 center residents. ¶7. (SBU) According to Father Toai, ward officials recently threatened to shut down the Mai Tam center unless it received formal government approval. Within days of the ultimatum, the city Department of Health notified ward officials of its support for the Mai Tam clinic and asked that Father Toai submit formal requests for certification as an HIV/AIDS center to DOLISA and the HCMC Committee on Population, Family, and Children. Father Toai noted that there has since been no more harassment; formal certification for Mai Tam was currently pending. ¶8. (SBU) Since October 2005, Pastoral Care has been pushing to establish an "integrated holistic center" for PLWHA in HCMC, which it intends to open within two years. The proposal that the archdiocese submitted to HCMC government calls for the center to provide medical services for 250 orphans, pregnant women, and rehabilitation center graduates with HIV/AIDS. According to Father Toai, the city government has indicated its support "in principal" for this initiative. The city asked the church to submit a more detailed proposal for further consideration. The archdiocese is conducting site surveys for the center in HCMC's District Two. Pastoral Care's Funding -------------- ¶9. (SBU) Father Toai said that Pastoral Care operates on a mix of funding from domestic and international sources. In addition to the USD 5,000 per year for the Mai Tam clinic, the organization also receives USD 500 per month from local private donations and nearly USD 90,000 annually from Catholic Relief Services. ¶10. (SBU) Comment: Although formal recognition of the Church's HIV/AIDS efforts is lagging, HCMC has quietly allowed the archdiocese to expand significantly its HIV/AIDS effort over the past 18 months. Father Toai is optimistic that city officials at all levels are increasingly accepting about the church's efforts to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic. End Comment. Winnick