On many of my home visits to the children’s homes, I myself sometimes question how to change people’s minds about some of the old habits here; especially the drinking habit of Vietnamese men which has become a serious problem with many consequences.
My story below is one about an experience on a home visit and I feel it is hard to do anything to promote more awareness of this issue as it is the same situation for almost all male workers.
Just last week, I visited the family of a girl in Thang Binh who has been recently sponsored. Both of her parents have quite bad health problems. The mother had traffic accidents twice which damaged her legs and it has cost a lot of money for operations, while her father has suffered from spinal degeneration. The medical treatment and the education costs of their three children has put them into a very difficult financial situation with a big debt from the medical treatment for the girl’s mother.
Having known their challenging circumstances which already has stopped their first child from completing college, and having to work, CEF decided to help the girl who is in grade 10.
He seems addicted to alcohol because whenever we see him, he smells very strongly of alcohol. It is funny when you know what his answer will be as it is what most men here would say. I asked why he drank so often, as it seems he drinks every day and this is not good for his health and has an impact on his family financially. Guess what he replied? He said drinking some wine could help release his tiredness after a hard working day. I wonder is this true!? And well, I can say I never believe this. It does not make any sense that is creates any balance or even refreshes the body physically, and after wine people lose energy. However, this is happening in Vietnam throughout the country and leads to many social issues such as alcohol addiction, domestic violence, traffic accidents and other health problems such as cirrhosis. Also drinking is not an expensive past-time here, but still the family’s economy definitely gets impacted. In this particular case, it is totally not good to have the father drinking and putting his family under even more financial pressure.
Although we have explained to him about how bad this habit is and encouraged him to stop it, it’s unlikely he will stop unless he is really serious about stopping.
As drinking alcohol is a serious social issue, there should be education on a wide scale for all communities and this would gradually bring about more awareness on this subject. The Vietnamese government has introduced some policies to stop drinking, but it will actually require much more education still.
Just last week, I visited the family of a girl in Thang Binh who has been recently sponsored. Both of her parents have quite bad health problems. The mother had traffic accidents twice which damaged her legs and it has cost a lot of money for operations, while her father has suffered from spinal degeneration. The medical treatment and the education costs of their three children has put them into a very difficult financial situation with a big debt from the medical treatment for the girl’s mother.
Having known their challenging circumstances which already has stopped their first child from completing college, and having to work, CEF decided to help the girl who is in grade 10.
He seems addicted to alcohol because whenever we see him, he smells very strongly of alcohol. It is funny when you know what his answer will be as it is what most men here would say. I asked why he drank so often, as it seems he drinks every day and this is not good for his health and has an impact on his family financially. Guess what he replied? He said drinking some wine could help release his tiredness after a hard working day. I wonder is this true!? And well, I can say I never believe this. It does not make any sense that is creates any balance or even refreshes the body physically, and after wine people lose energy. However, this is happening in Vietnam throughout the country and leads to many social issues such as alcohol addiction, domestic violence, traffic accidents and other health problems such as cirrhosis. Also drinking is not an expensive past-time here, but still the family’s economy definitely gets impacted. In this particular case, it is totally not good to have the father drinking and putting his family under even more financial pressure.
Although we have explained to him about how bad this habit is and encouraged him to stop it, it’s unlikely he will stop unless he is really serious about stopping.
As drinking alcohol is a serious social issue, there should be education on a wide scale for all communities and this would gradually bring about more awareness on this subject. The Vietnamese government has introduced some policies to stop drinking, but it will actually require much more education still.
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