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| Le Quan Duong For a long time I believed I was a very special staff member at Pathfinder International—I was the youngest, the only male in the office and I had a brand new baby girl who everyone always asked about. Well, they say all good things come to an end and nowadays, I am not the youngest, nor the only male, but |
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| I do still have the youngest child and everyone still wants to see her picture and ask about her development! Children are very important to all of us in the office and to people in Viet Nam. So I do still feel special. | |
| My name is Le Quan
Duong—pronounced Zung--and I am 27 years old. I am a Program Officer at Pathfinder
International, working half time, and I also work for the Maternal and Child Health/Family
Planning (MCH/FP) Department in the Ministry of Health (MOH). I graduated from the Hanoi Medical College in 1995 and my first job was at the MOH where I was introduced to Pathfinder. It’s a unique arrangement that benefits both Pathfinder and the MOH to have me working in both institutions. I can share information between the two offices and help make activities run smoothly. I really enjoy my work at Pathfinder. On a typical day I review our ongoing activities at the MCH/FP Center in the Province of Quang Ninh—either by telephone, reading reports, or discussions with other Program Officers. This month we are working on a training needs assessment and preparing training plans. Frequently I will visit Quang Ninh to conduct a monitoring visit and coordinate technical assistance. On a typical visit we usually arrive at the center in the morning—when it is busiest with clients. We meet briefly with the management board and then divide into groups to observe clinical skills, interview clients, inspect the facility and the storeroom, and review the record keeping. We try to find out how well the sites are doing with the program; are they applying the new skills that they've learned in our trainings? What do they think can be improved more? We talk to clients to get their feedback and ideas for improving services. |
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