Statistics from the 1999 Census show that Vietnam has 27,423,000 children, or 36% of the country’s total population of 76,328,000. The number of vulnerable children is 2.5 million or 3% of the total population and 9% of the child and adolescent population. These include: 133,000 orphans; around 1,200,000 children with disabilities, among which are 182,501 children with serious disabilities; and 21,000 street children, including 3,000 young drug addicts, 2,500 HIV/AIDS-infected children; and sexually abused children and children of poor families. Many factors have contributed to putting these children at risk, such as adverse economic conditions at home, vulnerable or irresponsible families, limited awareness, the tendency of children to overindulge, and poor awareness of the law and a still limited dissemination of education. These realities have also greatly affected children’s social security and the exercise of their rights, and has had a negative effect on the quality of the future human resources of the nation as a whole.
