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The Vietnam News

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[Year 2002]

Rising divorce rate sees more street kids in Ho Chi Minh City

HANOI - With Ho Chi Minh City's divorce rate increasing in recent years, more kids make a home on streets of the Vietnamese city. Ho Chi Minh City had more than 11,700 divorce cases in 2000, up about 12 percent since 1990, according to a report of the local daily Vietnam News on Tuesday.

Explaining the trend of divorce among young couples, Nguyen Minh Hoa of the Ho Chi Minh City Teacher College, who studied 5, 000 divorce cases, offered that young couples have to face big challenges during the first five years of marriage. The hectic lifestyles they undertake produce many problems. Working and studying to fulfill their ambitions leave almost no time for them to take care of each other and their children, she added. Instead, couples become angry and withdrawn due to fatigue and stress.

As a result, many more couples have separated after having children. However, children are dealt the hardest blow in divorce cases. More than 29 percent of juvenile delinquents come from broken home. According to the city's Committee for Population, Family and Children (CPFC), the city's number of juvenile delinquents was 6, 300 in 2000, a sharp rise from only 1,311 in 1991. To encourage people to pay more attention to children, the Vietnam Committee for Child Care and Protection is organizing programs to prepare for National Family Day on June 28 which will be celebrated every year.

The committee aims to co-ordinate authorities, offices, organizations and individuals throughout the country to work jointly for all children's happiness.

Xinhuanet - June 11, 2002