Elisa Fernandez Saenz, UN Women Representative in Vietnam (Photo: VNA)

HCM City – Instead of having to go to many places to seek support, women and children who are victims of violence just need to go to a one-stop model for women and children located at Hung Vuong Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City for medical care, and psychological and legal counselling.

The model, the first of its kind, made its debut on March 24, and will be piloted from now to 2026.

It will perform its functions of receiving, screening, treating, consulting, and providing on-site services to patients who are women and children subject to violence and sexual abuse.

If an emergency shelter is needed, social workers of Hung Vuong Hospital will refer victims to the City Centre for Social Work - Education and Vocational Training for Youth, located at 14 Nguyen Van Bao street, Ward 4, Go Vap district, for care and nurture, therapeutic intervention and access to other essential services on demand.

Le Van Thinh, Director of the municipal Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said that the pilot implementation of the one-stop model at a health facility is an unprecedented solution in Vietnam.

Experience in responding to gender-based violence shows that health facilities are often the first places to which patients of different age groups, professions and backgrounds go to.

The one-stop shop model is a safe destination, a place to intervene, help, and provide essential closed and suitable service packages for each victim in the area, added Thinh.

The National Survey on Violence against Women in Vietnam in 2019 shows that nearly two out of three women (nearly 63%) experience one or more forms of physical, sexual, emotional, and economic violence as well as controlling behaviours caused by their husbands or intimate partners in their lifetime.

However, 90 percent of the women who experience sexual and/or physical violence perpetrated by their husbands do not seek any assistance from the authorities.

Elisa Fernandez Saenz, UN Women Representative in Vietnam, said that the launch of the model is a result of the tireless efforts of stakeholders in Ho Chi Minh City during the past few years, aiming to provide a coordinated multi-sectoral essential service for women and children subject to violence by meeting their aspirations and needs.

UN Women is committed to continuing to join hands with the city in the coming time to make the model pilot a success, she said, expecting this model to serve as a basis for its duplication nationwide.