VZCZCXRO8753
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHNH RUEHPB
DE RUEHHM #0564/01 1460838
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 260838Z MAY 06
FM AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0904
INFO RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI PRIORITY 0658
RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY 0944

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 000564 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREL KIRF SOCI PGOV VM
SUBJECT: HCMC ARCHDIOCESE EXPANDS HIV/AIDS ACTIVITIES 
 
REF: 05 HCMC 1311; B) 05 HCMC 1152 
 
HO CHI MIN 00000564  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary:  Over the past 18 months, the HCMC 
archdiocese has steadily expanded its efforts to provide 
community-based assistance to HIV/AIDS victims.  The church 
continues to operate a government-approved HIV/AIDS clinic 
within the Trong Diem drug rehabilitation center.  With the 
apparent tacit support of the HCMC government, the archdiocese 
also has developed a multi-tiered community outreach and 
treatment program for people living with HIV/AIDS, including 
health clinics and counseling services.  The church funds these 
initiatives through a mix of domestic and international support, 
including from CARE International.  The increasing acceptance of 
HCMC officials of the archdiocese's HIV/AIDS initiatives is 
noteworthy and should be encouraged.  End Summary.   End Summary. 
 
Background 
---------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) In December 2004, HCMC Department of Labor, Invalids, 
and Social Affairs (DOLISA) opened an HIV/AIDS clinic at HCMC's 
Trong Diem Rehabilitation Center - the first clinic of its kind 
within a rehabilitation center in Vietnam. (Note: The 
Rehabilitation Centers, known as 05/06 Centers, are 
administrative detention centers for drug addicts and sex 
workers.  Trong Diem is one of HCMC's 21 centers.  It is likely 
that 50 percent of the centers' 30,000 residents are HIV 
positive.  End note.) Previously, DOLISA had been unable to find 
qualified medical professionals to work with terminal AIDS 
patients.  In response, provincial authorities invited the HCMC 
Archdiocese to provide doctors and nurses for the clinic.  The 
staff of 30 caregivers, consisting of both lay and religious 
workers with health care credentials, provide opportunistic 
infection treatment, physical therapy, HIV/AIDS and spiritual 
counseling.  The center averages 50-60 terminal AIDS patients a 
month with 3 to 5 deaths unofficially reported per week.  In 
2005, Trong Diem's Catholic caregiver staff protested 
malfeasance and lack of cooperation of the center's 
administrators (ref B) and threatened to withdraw from the 
center.  However, senior city officials reaffirmed their 
commitment to ensure continued religious worker involvement in 
the center and in other HIV/AIDS activities.  In April 2006, we 
visited the Archdiocese's point man for HIV/AIDS, Pastoral Care 
Project Manager Father John Dinh Toai to review the status of 
the Church's activities in this area. 
 
Trong Diem Rehabilitation Center In Transition 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Father Toai told us that conditions for church workers 
have improved at the Trong Diem center following the city's 
intervention with the center's management.  However, the HCMC 
government now plans to transform the Trong Diem rehabilitation 
center into a hospice for terminal AIDS patients for the city's 
21 rehabilitation centers.  The city has not told the 
archdiocese what role it might play in the hospice, but the 
church is prepared to continue or expand its activities there, 
Father Toai said.  Father Toai noted the expected change has 
lowered the morale of the Trong Diem staff, which expects to be 
transferred elsewhere or laid off.  Current residents also fear 
that a transfer to another facility may result in longer periods 
of confinement.  Consequently, there have been a number of 
attempted escapes including eight residents who successfully 
scaled the center's walls in May 2006. 
 
Pastoral Care's Multi-Layer Support Network 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Father Toai told us that the Pastoral Care's 
home-based "continuum of care program" for People Living With 
HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in HCMC begins with three volunteer groups of 
physicians, nurses, and social workers.  These groups conduct 
home visits, provide basic nursing care, supplemental 
nutritional and hospital fee support, and bereavement care. 
They also  act as a referral service for the diocese's two 
unofficial clinics.  The three volunteer groups also can 
mobilize volunteers to assist ailing HIV/AIDS patients at Pham 
Ngoc Thach hospital, Tropical Infectious Disease Hospital, and 
the Trong Diem Center. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) At the community level, Pastoral Care manages the Mai 
Khoi and Xom Moi HIV/AIDS clinics.  Although the city has not 
formally recognized or approved these clinics, the authorities 
have turned a blind eye to their operation.   Mai Khoi and Xom 
Moi are staffed by a volunteer group of Catholic medical 
professionals who are government hospital employees during their 
normal working hours.  The two clinics counsel and treat 
approximately 30 clients per day.  The clinics also function as 
day care centers and shelters for HIV/AIDS infected homeless 
mothers and children.  The centers currently provide shelter for 
four or five persons a month. 
 
 
HO CHI MIN 00000564  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶6.  (SBU) The archdiocese also operates a community 
reintegration and care center for released rehabilitation center 
and other city residents. The center has been open since June 
2005, and is staffed by four church volunteers.  It has an 
annual budget of USD 5,000, which it receives from the NGO CARE. 
 The clinic assists approximately 50 people per month with 
anti-retroviral treatment, medications, baby formula, vocational 
training, and HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention counseling.  The 
center's patients are referred by word of mouth in the Catholic 
community or through the Mai Khoi and Xom Moi clinics.  The 
center also shelters on average 15 homeless residents, including 
nine orphaned children ranging six months to eight years of age 
infected  with HIV/AIDS.  Father Toai noted that the 
overwhelming majority of women seen at Mai Tam are not 
commercial sex workers, (they have documented only two cases of 
HIV-infected prostitutes in 2005), but women who contracted 
HIV/AIDS through their regular partners.  According to Father 
Toai, 50 percent of these women are the wives or girlfriends of 
current 05/06 center residents. 
 
¶7. (SBU) According to Father Toai, ward officials recently 
threatened to shut down the Mai Tam center unless it received 
formal government approval.  Within days of the ultimatum, the 
city Department of Health notified ward officials of its support 
for the Mai Tam clinic and asked that Father Toai submit formal 
requests for certification as an HIV/AIDS center to DOLISA and 
the HCMC Committee on Population, Family, and Children.  Father 
Toai noted that there has since been no more harassment; formal 
certification for Mai Tam was currently pending. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Since October 2005, Pastoral Care has been pushing to 
establish an "integrated holistic center" for PLWHA in HCMC, 
which it intends to open within two years.  The proposal that 
the archdiocese submitted to HCMC government calls for the 
center to provide medical services for 250 orphans, pregnant 
women, and rehabilitation center graduates with HIV/AIDS. 
According to Father Toai, the city government has indicated its 
support "in principal" for this initiative.  The city asked the 
church to submit a more detailed proposal for further 
consideration.  The archdiocese is conducting site surveys for 
the center  in HCMC's District Two. 
 
Pastoral Care's Funding 
----------------------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Father Toai said that Pastoral Care operates on a mix 
of funding from domestic and international sources.  In addition 
to the USD 5,000 per year for the Mai Tam clinic, the 
organization also receives USD 500 per month from local private 
donations and nearly USD 90,000 annually from Catholic Relief 
Services. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Comment:  Although formal recognition of the Church's 
HIV/AIDS efforts is lagging, HCMC has quietly allowed the 
archdiocese to expand significantly its HIV/AIDS effort over the 
past 18 months.  Father Toai is optimistic that city officials 
at all levels are increasingly accepting about the church's 
efforts to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic.  End Comment. 
Winnick