& social therapy

Eurasia’s engagement in Vietnam was initially focused on assisting caregivers of individuals with disabilities by meeting their basic needs.

However, Eurasia founders soon recognized the importance of providing education, training and employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

Over the years, Eurasia has built schools, established vocational training centers, and in 2009, created a living and working community for people living with disabilities called Tinh Truc Gia – The Peaceful Bamboo Family. It hosts an inclusive kindergarten as well as a class for adolescents living with disabilities. It is also the home of Vietnam’s first biodynamic garden.
Since then, Eurasia has become a prominent organization for training special educators in Vietnam.

Additionally, Eurasia’s representative in Vietnam, Mr. Minh Khanh Tran, runs an office for early detection and prevention of disabilities in Ho Chi Minh City.

The first learning and development activity of Eurasia in Vietnam was the organisation of a training on Autism for 80 people in Ho Chi Minh City in 1999.

Ever since, training special educators, teachers and social therapists has been one of the core activities of Eurasia. This led to the creation of Eurasia Learning Institute for Happiness and Wellbeing (ELI), as our Learning and Development Department. This was done within the Eurasia network, and in collaboration with external partners such as Hue University.

The Community of the Peaceful Bamboo Family is at the heart of Eurasia’s work in Vietnam, and it is the place where Eurasia’s vision and values are embodied, as well as all the educational frameworks and concepts are implemented in a practical way, where theories are tested and adapted to meet the reality of everyday practice.

Our fundamental approach can be described as Active and Participatory Inclusion, this means that the people living with disabilities and/or special needs are not simply the recipient of our various endeavors but are co-creators and co-actors of all the projects.

To be able to facilitate such projects, we need well trained professionals who are engaged in a process of lifelong-learning.

This process can be seen as a reflective learning loop that integrates:

• In-depth understanding of the field of special education and social therapy: Right Knowledge
• Expressed as compassionate and caring attitude in everyday interactions: Right Relationships
• Leading to appropriate and curative decisions and activities in all fields of life: Right Action

Practically, this means that all the members of the community have ongoing learning and development opportunities in the form of training programs (both with external experts and internal senior educators), hands-on practical activities, artistic practices, reflective sharing, peer-learning, regular Mindfulness Days, and monthly days of practice.

The Peaceful Bamboo family is a Learning Centre where both theoretical knowledge and practical learning can be trained both for our own staff and residents, as well as for external student.

It is also the host of many of the ELI workshops for educators, businesspeople, and other audiences, who thus have the opportunity not only to receive theoretical knowledge but also experience first-hand a community that embodies the various values, frameworks and practices taught in the courses.

Finally, the physical setting itself: buildings, esthetic environment, biodynamic garden, landscaping, represent a significant part of the learning experience.