Over the last 15 years, Vietnam has experienced significant economic growth and also achieved respectable reduction of poverty. In 2007, Vietnam became a member of the World Trade Organization. Nevertheless, almost 20% of the population still lives below the poverty line of 1.25 USD/day. Of the ethnic minorities, almost 50% live below this level and a total of almost 75% face the risk of poverty (UN statistics).

Vietnam has a population of more than 90 million people of which more than 30 million are under the age of 18 and more than 7 million are under 5 years old. While 85% of the population belongs to the Kinh ethnic group, the rest are part of 53 different ethnic minorities.

In a recent estimate conducted by UNICEF it was shown that approximately 1.5 million orphans live in Vietnam (unfortunately there is no exact number of orphans and vulnerable children). That estimated number is still increasing. 20% of the children under the age of 5 years are malnourished. Almost 30% of the children under the age of 16 live in poverty based on education, shelter, social inclusion, health and protection. The majority of them live in the Mekong Delta and North East/West Vietnam.

90% of the children are enrolled in primary schools, but only 60% of the children of ethnic minorities. Of those 60%, 1/3 drop out of school for economic reasons before completing a grade. Preschools (age 3-5 appears to be the best age to improve workforce productivity) have an attendance rate of only 58%. In rural areas, this rate decreases even further to only 5-9%.