DIDN’T TAKE THINGS SITTING DOWN Vietnam’s Vo Thi Hoang Yen is recognized for her sustained campaign to break down the barriers that limited opportunities for persons with disabilities like herself. —RICHARD A. REYES
Vo Thi Hoang Yen still remembers how she had once applied as a chief accountant in a private company and, after meeting all the requirements, was called in for an interview with the director.
“At that time I didn’t use a wheelchair or crutches because my disability was getting worse (with them). I didn’t use any assistive device either,” Yen recalled.
It so happened that she had come early for the interview and the director had arrived late. She was already seated when he came in so he did not recognize that she was a person with disability (PWD), although she had never tried to hide it, she said.
“He did the interview and said, ‘That’s good. You can come back to work on Monday.’
Yen was ecstatic but noticed that the secretary had looked at her strangely when she left the office following the interview.
“On Monday, I came back and didn’t see the director, only the secretary. And he told me that there had been a change. ‘Can you wait for another call?’ he asked me. And I understood that something had happened, that they had turned me down because of my disability,” Yen recounted.
Like most PWDs in Vietnam in the 1990s, she felt despair. Was she also fated to depend on other people for help and financial support, she asked herself. “I [thought I] would live life as a helpless person and I didn’t want that,” she said.
The general belief that disabilities were a divine punishment for sins committed in a previous life has made life for PWDs more challenging in Vietnam. The perception that they are a burden and can’t do anything by themselves has only added to the difficulty, Yen said.
Full potential
“Before the 1990s, Vietnam was a closed country and did not have any private companies or organizations. All university graduates had to work for the government which, at the time, did not expect a PWD to have gone to the university,” she said, adding that while a PWD may have passed the entrance exams in college, “most of them were turned (away) because of their impairment.”
After stewing for three months over her rejection for a job, Yen made “the big decision to do something. I didn’t know exactly what, but I was determined to help change the situation for myself and others,” she said.
To empower herself and help other PWDs achieve their full potential, and with more understanding about disabilities from her studies abroad, Yen put up the Disability Research and Capacity Development Center (previously known as the Disability Resource and Development), or DRD.
She declined a job offer and a scholarship for a doctorate degree in the United States so she could return to Vietnam in 2005 and set up the DRD, but promised to return to the US in three years after the center had been well established.
But the center’s activities and programs kept expanding, so for the next 10 years, Yen had to stay. “I could not leave my work until 2014,” she said, adding that she eventually earned her Ph.D. in Australia.
Personal experience firmed up her resolve to put up the DRD, Yen said. “I am a person with disability (who) was born and grew up in a remote area. I faced a lot of barriers and challenges in school and at work, so I understood the difficulties faced by PWDs. I (wanted) to make the change for myself and for others,” she said.
But PWDs themselves harbored wrong ideas about themselves, Yen found out when she opened the DRD and invited them to join the center’s programs and activities.
“Many people came expecting to receive some money or materials,” she recalled, explaining that most PWDs in Vietnam had gotten used to doleouts.
“Our organization was different at the time because we did not give them any money. But we told them about RISE (Research to Improve Vietnam’s Education System) and how to develop their capacity, how to become confident to integrate into society.”
Finding partners
Despite the initial misconception, the DRD persisted and continued its activities. This eventually drew more PWDs who were taught “to regain their value” through training programs and other capacity-building projects.
The DRD teamed up with other advocates to push for reforms in Vietnam, particularly the passage of the National Law on Persons with Disabilities, the inclusion of PWD employment in labor laws of regulations, and the eventual ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of PWD.
The center’s work in spreading awareness about the contributions of PWDs to society and the challenges they face also helped improve the attitude and mindset of the Vietnamese toward disability.
15,000 jobs
Yen’s nonprofit group has so far helped 15,000 PWDs get jobs. It also earned Yen a Ramon Magsaysay Award this year, one among six outstanding individuals celebrated for their selfless service. The prestigious award, Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize, recognized Yen for her personal advocacy and commitment to PWDs, and for her showcase project that involved a motorcycle taxi service designed for them.
The other 2018 RM Awardees are: Youk Chhang from Cambodia, Howard Dee from the Philippines, Maria de Lourdes Martins Cruz from East Timor, and Bharat Vatwani and Sonam Wangchuk, both from India.
In encouraging her students at Ho Chi Minh Open University and other colleagues to continue being a cog in the wheel of humanity, Yen said she always reminded them that, “We need only one person, each person to know their responsibility, and what they can contribute to the development of the community. Knowing their responsibility and doing it, that’s good enough for society.”