In 2018, HealthBridge and partners won a challenge to make the city of Da Nang more livable for its most disadvantaged populations. Responding to the Da Nang Social Cohesion Challenge, the consortium of HealthBridge, Think Playground (Vietnam) and Playground Ideas (Australia), proposed to revitalize a public space in Da Nang city by transforming a dumpsite into a neighbourhood park. The challenge was one of many created by the global organization CityMart in partnership with 100 Resilient Cities and the Government of Da Nang city and was chosen over three other finalists.

A community playground was built with approximately 20 local and youth volunteers. They build 12 sets of playing and exercise equipment. In addition and a community garden was developed with the help of 12 adult and 4 students volunteers and 6 local women were trained on garden maintenance. The district government spent over one billion dongs($50,000 USD) for site clearance and infrastructure and committed to spend over 2 billion dongs to improve and expand the playground in the future.

Approximately 100 local children use the playground daily and 50-70 women and elderly people use the exercise equipment every day. The park continues to be well maintainted and the local community installed several additional pieces of exercise equipment.

Read more about our Livable Cities Program in Vietnam.