IPWSO President visits the Morning Star Center in Hanoi, Vietnam

While in Hanoi for the Sydney University Học Mãi Australia-Vietnam Foundation educational partnership aiming to improve health outcomes through education and research in Vietnam, Nick Finer, president of IPWSO and his colleague Professor Ian Caterson (Boden Professor (emeritus) of Human Nutrition at the University of Sydney had the pleasure to visit the Morning Star Center directed by Dr. Do Thuy Lan and her colleague Ms. Dinh Thi Thanh Van. The Center works with around 400 children a year in its clinic and treats 200 children a year in its specialised education programme. It promotes early intervention for children with autism or other learning disabilities and currently provides care, support and education for two children with PWS. The Morning Star Center is located in Thanh Xuan district in South West Hanoi. Apart from the staff there are teachers, psychologists, nurses, doctors and physiotherapists whose mission is to promote charitable activities that help to provide opportunities for children with intellectual disabilities to receive an education, and to feel included with their local community. In addition, the Center also offers some vocational and pre-vocational training for teenagers before sending them to outside vocational schools. The range of activities ranging included sensory training, mathematical classes, dance, cooking, physiotherapy delivered in separate classrooms by about 60 staff. We also met with two families and a rare diseases geneticist to hear about their need for improved support and access to treatments such as growth hormone. While Vietnam does not yet have a formal PWS organisation, we heard how there are moves for the current organisation to receive status as a social enterprise group.

(Pictured above) L to R: Ms. Dinh Thi Thanh Van, Prof Ian Caterson, Dr. Do Thuy Lan, Prof Nick Finer at the Morning Star Center, Hanoi, Vietnam