About DRPI Vietnam

Welcome to DRPI Vietnam. This pilot project uses research as tool for advocacy, combining two forms of participatory research methodologies to monitor and promote the educational rights of girls with disabilities in the Tu Liem district of Hanoi, Vietnam. We aim to use interdisciplinary and participatory approaches as new ways to construct knowledge and foster social action.

Methodology

First, we use localized, interview-based, participatory monitoring methodologies developed by Disability Rights Promotion International (DRPI).

With this methodology we train disabled women in the local context to conduct in-depth interviews with twenty disabled girls about their access to education. Second, using the participatory visual methodologies of photovoice and drawings developed by the Participatory Cultures Lab at McGill University, we work with 21 disabled girls as they construct knowledge of, and reflect upon, their participation in education. While women and girls with disabilities have had very limited access to public education in Vietnam, we aim to use these monitoring methodologies as a transformative tool to empower their knowledge production and increase their participation in education.

Current Status of the Project

Training and research with participants are underway.

Update:

A second field work to Vietnam is scheduled for February, 2015. This will include workshops with women and girls with disabilities and a policy dialogue, entitled Policy on girls and women with disabilities. The activity is co-organized by Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), members of the MRGD project, UNICEF, Action to Community Development Center (ACDC), disabled persons’ organizations in North and South of Tu Liem district, together with schools and local community to discuss how to improve policies in the local community.

This activity will be accompanied by a photo exhibition, which will display the photos taken by the girls as part of the photo voice project that took place during the first field visit.

DRPI Vietnam – People

Research Team

Dr. Xuan Thuy Nguyen, Principal Investigator, Mount Saint Vincent and York University, Canada; Dr. Claudia Mitchell, Co-investigator, McGill University, Canada, Dr. Naydene de Lange, Co-investigator, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa, Dr. Marcia Rioux, Collaborator, York University, Canada, Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan Anh, Collaborator, Action to Community Development Center, Viet Nam

Partners

This study is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), York Institute for Health Research (YIHR) at York University (phase 1), and Center for the Education of Girls and Women at Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU) (phase 2 and 3). It is conducted by a multinational research team at York University, Mount Saint Vincent University, and McGill University in Canada, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa, in partnership with UNICEF, and the grassroots Action to Community Development Center (ACDC) in Vietnam.