26 January 2015 - Ha Noi, Vietnam - In Vietnam, while key affected populations actively and strongly participate in HIV prevention, community's movement in TB control is rather quiet.
With efforts of a number of concerned organizations such as the Center for Supporting Community Development Initiatives (SCDI) and the World Health Organization (WHO), the community has paid attention to TB activities starting with the self-nomination of community delegates as TB patient representatives in the Global Fund's Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM). In May 2014, two TB patients were selected as main and secondary representatives in the CCM Vietnam (Chu Thai Son and Vu Ngoc Thuy Phuong). In September 2014, Chu Thai Son and another former TB patient participated in a training on advocacy for TB control organized by the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease in Kuala Lumpur. The training was the first opportunity for community members to build their capacity to participate in TB control.In November 2014, at the Annual Meeting of the Vietnam Civil Society Partnership Platform on AIDS (VCSPA) , a symposium on TB was conducted. Dr. Le Van Hoi, Deputy Director of the National Lung Hospital presented basic knowledge on TB, the TB situation in Vietnam and also introduced the National Strategy for TB Control until 2020 with vision to 2030. The strategy aims to eliminate the TB disease in Vietnam by 2030 and identifies community mobilization as one of its key activities. During the Annual Meeting, representatives of non-governmental and faith-based organizations, community organizations working with the urban poor, and 40 community organizations of PLHIV, people who use drugs, their primary sexual partners, sex workers, men who have sex with men from 21 provinces over the country decided to establish the Vietnam Community Network for TB Control (VCTB) in order to contribute to achieve the goals of the National Strategy for TB Control. VCTB's mission is to mobilize communities to ensure their effective and meaningful involvement in the National TB Programs. VCTB identifies the overall goal as mobilizing the community towards eliminating TB disease in Vietnam by 2030.
VCTB structure
Founding members of VCTB have elected the Steering Committee of 11 people, among those three are selected as network representatives. Currently, SCDI is the fiscal entity for VCTB.
VCTB operates as a cross-cutting network, utilizing the structure of existing community networks participating in VCSPA. This allows VCTB to reach key affected populations in many provinces, build their capacity as well as mobilize their participation in TB programs. This is one advantage of VCTB over other community networks, which often need to start with developing their members.
VCTB's Steering Committee assumes the roles of coordinating, working closely with VCSPA and other networks, providing contents for and organizing TB-related activities.
Priorities of VCTB for 2015
VCTB has identified three priorities for its first year, including:
The establishment of VCTB marks an important step, proving the interests and concerns of the community in TB control in Vietnam in order to contribute to the National Strategy for TB Control in Viet Nam to 2020 with vision to 2030 as approved by the Prime Minister in March 2014.
Source: Stop TB Partnership