Medical Committee Netherlands - Vietnam
Short Name
MCNV
Address Line 1
No 26/9, Alley 55
Address Line 2
Street - Number and Name
Huynh Thuc Khang Street
District
City
Hanoi
Province – Vietnam
Phone
+84-4-3835 9005
Fax
+84-4-3776 0655
Email Address
Contact Person – Vietnam
Ton van der Velden, Country Director
Vietnam Website
International Website
International Headquarters
Mission Statement
MCNV was founded in 1968 as a solidarity movement to give medical aid to the people of Vietnam during wartime. It is now a development organization aimed at sustainable improvement of the health condition of the most vulnerable people in Viet Nam. MCNV adopts the broad Alma Ata definition of health as more than the absence of disease. It especially supports "community - managed health development" to strengthen the sustainable development of communities through the existing provincial, district and commune administrative and health systems. This participatory approach is also stimulated in MCNV's other projects and programmes. All the programmes supported by MCNV are initiated and managed by local counterparts, usually the health and education services or mass organizations. Although we focus on long term, structural improvements, emergency relief is provided incidentally. MCNV also has the mandate to inform the Dutch public about Viet Nam and to foster solidarity between the people of Viet Nam and the Netherlands.
History of operations in Vietnam
Three Dutch doctors founded MCNV to show their solidarity with the people of Viet Nam in the time of war. The activities then were mainly to collect and ship medicines and medical materials and other kinds of goods to Viet Nam. An early major investment was to install a prefabricated hospital in Quang Tri in 1974, which served as provincial hospital for nearly 20 years and started the continuing collaboration with that province. Over the years MCNV has become a health development development organisation with a range of projects including a large capacity building component for staff in health and other services at all levels. Since 1996, MCNV has had a representative office in Hanoi and since 1999 a project office in Quang Tri for its projects in central Viet Nam. In 2004 MCNV added a project office in Khanh Hoa to support a new community development project there.