ChildFund People
Deborah Leaver
ChildFund Vietnam Country Director
New Zealand-born Deborah Leaver now heads ChildFund Vietnam, where a new New Zealand dedicated sponsorship programme is underway.
Deborah’s family hails from the Waikato region, and she has also lived in Whangarei, Auckland and Wellington.
“Growing up in New Zealand I was taught to appreciate the many different cultures I was surrounded with which helped me better understand, navigate and appreciate cultural differences which is a really important part of what I do now,” says Deborah.
Deborah’s goals for ChildFund in Vietnam include building on its successes.
“I want ChildFund to keep working to make sure children are at the centre of our work, to increase skills and capacity of our local partners, so that the work is truly sustainable and to increase our accountability – to our partner communities as well as to the donors and sponsors.”
ChildFund New Zealand’s Vietnam project in the northernmost province of Cao Bang got underway in February this year. Currently, the Vietnam project is fully-funded by New Zealanders sponsoring children in Vietnam – but numbers need to grow from the current 200 to at least 1400 to effect significant change.
“Far from the tourist trails in Vietnam, there are children and families living in abject poverty, having to cope with malnutrition, lack of clean water and ill health,” says Deborah.
“The challenges in particular for the New Zealand dedicated project in Cao Bang are that the communities are remote and difficult to access, there are many ethnic minority groups meaning there are also language difficulties and poor access to social services such as education and water. It’s basically a start up programme so we’re doing everything!”
Deborah has worked extensively in South East Asia, primarily in the education sector in Cambodia and as ActionAid's country director for Indonesia. She has significant experience working in conflict and emergencies, including responding to the South Asia tsunami in 2004, Pakistan earthquake of 2005 and Cyclone Nargis in 2008.
Deborah has managed a range of programmes in indigenous Australia, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and was most recently the international programmes director at ActionAid Australia. Deborah holds a Bachelor of Commerce, a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters Degree in International Development.
Deborah visited New Zealand in September 2010 and was interviewed on TV ONE's Breakfast show where she talked about the challenges of working in disaster relief and on Radio Rhema where she talked extensively about ChildFund and our work in Vietnam. Click on the show's name to view and listen to the interviews.
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