The Kim Long Charity Clinic has the aim of increasing access to health care in the Hue and Thua Thien Province to help the underprivileged to improve their health conditions. It is entirely free and provides consultations, health education, free medications, HIV/AIDS counselling as well as investigations such as ultrasound and x-rays and ECG. Please note that while the clinic is run by The Sisters of the the Congregation of Daughters of Mary Immaculate it provides service without discrimination to impoverished people.
Kim Long Charity Clinic - Hue
Hue City, Vietnam
The community
Hue is the capital of the Thua Thien Province, located in central Vietnam. The Province has a population of approximately one million, the majority of who are farmers. These farmers are among the poorest in country. Their low income means that they have limited access to health care service or simply cannot afford the limited care that is available.
Malnutrition and tropical diseases are rife among these communities, as well as arthritis, respiratory disease, diarrhoea and other common viruses such as flu. The problems facing these communities include unclean water, lack of proper sanitation and lack of access and availability of drugs and other treatments.
History
The Kim Long Charity Clinic was established in 1992 by the Congregation of Daughters of Mary Immaculate (COMI), a Carmelite community established in 1920 by two French bishops and the only congregation indigenous to Vietnam. The congregation started the clinic with the aim of increasing access to health care in the region and help the underprivileged to improve their health conditions.
The clinic has grown from its original size of two doctors who were from the congregation to having fifteen doctors, eight nursing staff and two technicians.