Nguyet is a teenager living with a disability in a small town in Vietnam. She lived the first 14 years of her life isolated at home. Her disability restricted her movements and any chance of going to school..

Around 7% of people in Vietnam are living with a disability. They often have poorer health, fewer education and employment opportunities and higher poverty rates.

The future appeared bleak for Nguyet, until a Caritas Australia program, implemented by our partner Catholic Relief Services (CRS) changed her life forever. Around 4,000 people have now benefitted from this inspiring Caritas program.

The program is helping people like Nguyet, by focusing on inclusive education, health services and building strong community networks to help to break down stigma and discrimination for those with disabilities and their families.

Two years after she featured in Project Compassion 2017, Nguyet has built a successful online business selling T-shirts, accessories and home-cooked snacks made by her sister.

She is also more confident in communicating with people – and is riding a motorbike she bought from her profits.

“I can go out independently now. I would like to have my own shop in the village one day. And I hope that other people with disabilities in Vietnam will receive help like I did.”

Nguyet has great hope and a real commitment to succeed in her future. She hopes her story will inspire others to see what is possible for a person once isolated and unheard.

Salma lives with her husband, Masud, in the rural community of Gazipur, two hours from Bangladesh’s bustling capital.

She was just 18 years old, pregnant and fearful for her life and that of her unborn child, when she featured in Project Compassion 2013.

In Bangladesh, maternal and infant mortality rates are still tragically high. During her first pregnancy, Salma was very sick, she experienced abdominal pain and couldn’t eat. She sought the help of a midwife called Pronoti, trained by Caritas Australia’s Safe Motherhood Program.

Pronoti helped Salma safely through two pregnancies, thanks to her comprehensive training in midwifery, antenatal and postnatal care.

The program has reduced maternal and infant mortality in the area by almost 70 percent. Over 400 women have been trained in midwifery since 2008 – and they have given over 28,000 women antenatal checkups and delivered more than 15,000 babies.

Now 24, Salma smiles as she watches her one-year-old boy and six-year-old daughter play together. She is pleased that they are growing up strong and can focus on their hopes for the future.

“If the Safe Motherhood Program had not trained midwives like Pronoti, many of us would have to go to the private clinics 11 kilometres away.Some of us women and our babies might die because of that.”
“We are poor and so it is easy to get discouraged about the future. However, if we have hope, we have the courage to try and do things that seem difficult or impossible at the time.”

Twenty-one year-old Michaela is helping to build a social enterprise for people with chronic illnesses at The Purple House in Alice Springs. Featured in Project Compassion 2014, the First Australian-run Wellbeing Program, uses its profits to connect and care for dialysis patients who are far from home.

As a Purple House trainee, Michaela completed a Certificate IV in business management. She was also recently promoted from administration trainee to permanent employee, working on The Wellbeing Program. The young Alywarr woman cares for patients as they receive dialysis and helps them to feel at home and remain hopeful during treatment. Patients in turn pass on traditional knowledge to Michaela.

The program is run by the Western Desert Nganampa Walytja Palyantjaku Tjutaku Aboriginal Corporation, with support from Caritas Australia. First Australians are twice as likely to experience chronic kidney disease, and four times more likely to die from it than other Australians.

With the help of staff like Michaela, the Aboriginal-controlled service gives patients the opportunity to stay connected with their culture. They do this through traditional healing practices and income-generating activities, such as making bush balms and soaps. Profits are invested back into supporting patients receiving remote care and help to get people on dialysis back on country.

In addition to completing her studies, Michaela has obtained a driver’s licence, is building her leadership skills running workshops solo.

“Hope means having something to look forward to. I enjoy building relationships with the patients and learning from them. If we keep our culture alive we can feel strong.”

Sixteen-year-old Peter goes to a boarding school in the Solomon Islands which has experienced water shortages for 60 years. Previously students would have to walk kilometres each day in search of clean water. This was particularly challenging for Peter who is living with a disability. Peter’s mother left the family when he was little and has since passed away. His father decided to move from northern Malaita to Honiara, to better provide for his family. He arranged for Peter to stay with his aunt, then attend Aligegeo Secondary School.

Groundwater sources at the school have dried up and rainfall is unpredictable. Water in surrounding wells often made students sick or gave them rashes. Caritas Australia, and partners Caritas Solomon Islands (CASI) and the Solomon Islands Government Rural Water Sanitation and Hygiene division (RWASH), have teamed up with the school to tackle the problem. CASI provided a 90 kilo-litre water tank, electric pump and technical advice, while the Malaita Provincial Government contributed labour. Staff and students took part in training, dug trenches and are helping with a water management plan. The school now has a safe, reliable water system, servicing around 1,000 people.

Peter hopes to focus on his education and to help others in future by working for an aid and development agency himself. However much more needs to be done to improve access to reliable water and sanitation in the Solomon Islands.

“Now we can stay at school to wash and not interrupt our official class time,” Peter says.

Tati is a Dayak woman, living in a remote forest of West Kalimantan, Indonesia, with her husband and two of her three children. Her two youngest children go to school nearby while her 19 year old son lives in a rented room close his school 60 kilometres away. The family pays for his living-away-from-home expenses, in addition to providing for school expenses.

Tati’s Dayak culture is deeply linked to the rainforest and her family has relied on it for sustenance for generations. Over the last few years, communities which depend on the native forests have seen them shrink, along with vital habitats for endangered orangutans, rhinos and tigers. Caritas Australia, with its partners Caritas Indonesia – KARINA and the Diocesan Caritas are working with local communities to develop alternative sustainable livelihoods, by training them in ecotourism activities.

Before Tati joined the Caritas program, she and her husband mainly earned their income from rubber tapping and raising chickens. Now, Tati has increased her family income ten times over by cooking for tourists and making souvenirs. Her community is also developing a strong financial base so that it can manage its own land. Around 600 people have directly benefitted from the program so far – with hopes it can be expanded to other districts

“I hope to continue living with fresh air, clear water,protected forest,and to be able to pay for my children’s education and that my grandchildren can still enjoy the forest.”

Life in her village in north-western Zimbabwe wasn’t easy for twelve-year-old Thandolwayo. Her father left several years ago and her mother lives in a town 90 kilometres away where she works as a casual labourer. Thandolwayo lives with her grandparents and attends the local school which has just 35 students.

Every morning she’d walk seven kilometres and risk being attacked by crocodiles as she collected clean water for her family. She’d then go to school feeling exhausted. Thandolwayo’s grandparents sell pearl millet bran to fishermen and farmers for animal feed. They also sell chickens – but the income it brings isn’t enough to support the family.

Thandolwayo’s hope to be a nurse seemed almost impossible to realise, until Caritas Hwange helped the village to install two solar-powered pumps to draw the water up from the river, as well as two 10,000 litre storage tanks. Thanks to Caritas’ support, water is now on tap in the village, benefitting its 500 residents – and Thandolwayo can concentrate on her education.

“Now I can bathe every day, the distance to collect water for the family has been drastically reduced,” Thandolwayo says. “We now drink clean, safe water and diseases are no longer affecting us.”

The plentiful water supply has also triggered new ventures. Water is being used to mould bricks for building houses and to pound maize to sell. Plans are underway to establish a community garden and a fish pond, to generate a better income.