Gesture highlighting the importance of mental health care for children from Queen Mathilde of Belgium

Queen Mathilde of Belgium with doctors and nurses of the National Children's Hospital.

Accompanying Queen Mathilde to visit the National Children's Hospital were Ms. Elisabeth Degryse, Minister and President of the French-speaking Belgian community of Wallonia-Bruxelles; Ms. Pascale Delcomminette, Director General of the Wallonia-Bruxelles Foreign Affairs Agency and Director General of the Walloon Investment and Foreign Trade Promotion Agency.

Welcoming Queen Mathilde were Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan and Director of the National Children's Hospital Tran Minh Dien.

Over the past 30 years, Belgium and Vietnam have had many effective cooperation programs in this field. Currently, the National Children's Hospital is participating in a cooperation project with Leonard de Vinci College.

This project is within the framework of the 2022-2024 cooperation program between the French-speaking Belgian Community of Wallonie-Bruxelles and Vietnam on human resource training, research cooperation on developmental disorders and application of Belgian therapeutic models in Vietnam as well as support for improving facilities, supporting medical equipment, and upgrading treatment spaces at the National Children's Hospital.

Queen Mathilde is a psychologist and speech therapist, and is also the Honorary President of UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund). The Queen has a deep interest in health issues, especially child health. This visit is an important opportunity to highlight the long-standing cooperation between Vietnam and Belgium in this field, and to promote awareness of the importance of mental health care for children in Vietnam.

Queen Mathilde of Belgium talks with a patient being treated at the National Children's Hospital.

At the National Children's Hospital, the Queen met with doctors, psychologists and patients. The Queen and Minister Dao Hong Lan participated in an art-painting therapy session with teenagers and observed a psycho-motor therapy session at the Department of Psychiatry. The Queen expressed her concern and spent time talking and visiting with the children being treated at the National Children's Hospital.

Health cooperation between Vietnam and the Kingdom of Belgium has been carried out since the 1990s. One of the first project activities between the two sides in the health sector was the project "Malaria Prevention and Control in Hoa Binh Province" in the period 1996-2001.

This project has achieved very good results. After 6 years of implementation, the malaria situation in Hoa Binh province has improved significantly. The malaria prevention and control network in the whole province has been strengthened in terms of facilities, equipment and staff capacity.

Both sides highly appreciated the results achieved through cooperation projects between Vietnamese universities, institutes and hospitals with their respective Belgian partners in the health sector.

The projects play a very positive role for Vietnam in the cause of caring for and protecting people's health, thereby promoting the process of economic and social development and deep international integration, contributing to creating the premise for consolidating and developing the cooperative partnership between Vietnam and the Wallonie-Bruxelles region in particular and the Kingdom of Belgium in general.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/cu-chi-nhan-manh-tam-quan-trong-cua-viec-cham-soc-suc-khoe-tam-than-cho-tre-em-tu-hoang-hau-bi-mathilde-309640.html