Dong, a 37-year-old man from Hanoi, has been living with HIV for a number of years. He is in good health thanks to the antiretroviral treatment that is provided free of charge in Viet Nam.

But Dong is worried. He knows that the donors who pay for nearly all of Viet Nam’s HIV treatment programme will soon leave. Who will pay for his healthcare in the future?

Wishes for the future

Ngoc Bao was born male, but she lives her life as a woman. Her family rejected her decision to live openly as a transgender. She left her home and struggled to find steady work, so she sometimes sold sex to make ends meet, and to save money to realize her dream of sex reassignment surgery.

Ngoc Bao is among 80 community members—including people living with HIV (PLHIV), drug users, sex workers, and men who have sex with men—who came together in December 2012 in Ho Chi Minh City to develop a common vision of a future world that accepts them and ensures they have equal access to health, education and employment. The consultation was one of many organized in Viet Nam as part of the global discussion on the post-2015 development agenda, supported by the UN.

The life of a female sex worker in Viet Nam is filled with fear—fear of HIV, fear of violence, fear of stigma, and most of all, fear of the law enforcement services. A study conducted by the government of Viet Nam in 2012 on sex work and migration found that 50% of female sex workers report being afraid of the police. Up until a few months ago, arrest could lead to years of confinement in an administrative detention centre known as the '05'.

However, the National Assembly of Viet Nam recently passed a new Law on the Handling of Administrative Sanctions which effectively ends the practice of detaining sex workers in '05' centres. The Law also allows drug users who are subject to compulsory treatment in drug detoxification centres to have court hearings on their cases and legal representation at the court.