Dubai: Dubai Cares on Tuesday announced a new humanitarian investment of more than Dh7.3 million in a health and education programme in Vietnam.

Set to benefit 905,000 children across 2,600 schools in the country, the programme aims to reduce the incidence of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) among students in Vietnam over a three-year period and gradually eliminate one of the leading causes of student absenteeism in the country.

NTDs such as intestinal worms have been known to limit physical and mental growth in children, affecting participation and productivity in schools.

In partnership with international development organisation Thrive Networks, Dubai Cares will roll out the school-based deworming programme across four rural provinces in Vietnam.

Dubai Cares CEO Tarek Al Gurg said NTDs and other parasitic diseases “contribute to a high-level of infant, child and maternal malnutrition, which in turn impact children’s learning capabilities. Through this programme, we will be supporting an integrated and holistic initiative that sees all members of the community work together to ensure success against this devastating issue”.

Dubai Cares will work with Thrive Networks on a programme that combines sanitation and hygiene into deworming activities with the goal of delaying reinfection and increasing sustainability.

Along with treating children, the programme will also train teachers and community health workers to administer medicine to students at school, “thereby ensuring a cost-effective and scalable approach”.

Moreover, the programme will see teachers — among 10,000 individuals including health workers and local Vietnam Women’s Union members — receiving training to deliver education in their communities on improving personal hygiene, handling food properly and eliminating unsafe soil fertilisation practices.

Thrive Networks Vietnam Country Director Minh Chau Nguyen said the complementary activities are key to the success of the deworming programme. “The benefit of the deworming medicine cannot be fully realised if the child is quickly re-infected because of unsanitary, unhygienic conditions at home or in the broader community,” Nguyen said.

The programme launch in Vietnam is in line with the 2012 London Declaration on NTDs, which created a global alliance led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to reduce the global burden of NTDs.

Dubai Cares has already reached more than 10 million children in 35 developing countries through its various programmes.