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Empowerment through Education and Micro-Credit in Vietnam
By Bhavia Wagner
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First, I want to thank the readers of The Veteran for providing enough funds to ensure that 31 Vietnamese girls living in poverty can now stay in school through high school graduation. This is a great gift in an impoverished area where students typically drop out of school to work on the family farm, in road construction, or to get married at a young age.
The children receiving your support live in the remote mountainous Ha Giang Province. This province is located in the far north of Vietnam, on the border with China. It is hard to make a living in this rural area with its rugged terrain. Most families are farmers who grow corn or rice.
The students receiving your support come from five indigenous ethnic groups, including Dao and Hmong. Most of the children are in 6th, 7th, or 8th grade. Their families come from the lowest rungs of poverty in Vietnam, and some of their parents are illiterate. Local teachers and the school principals selected the students. Girls were chosen because they are more disadvantaged than boys.
Our funds are distributed to the children each year by our partner organizations: Platypus (a non-profit from Australia providing aid to Vietnam) and the Vietnam Women's Union (an extremely reputable Vietnamese organization). Volunteers run Platypus in Australia, and there is one part-time Vietnamese staff member in Vietnam.
Each child receives $100 covering school supplies, a school uniform, and some food for their families. Statistics show that education for girls is one of the most effective ways of ending poverty. When women are educated, they can earn more and improve life for their children by providing better nutrition, health care, and education.
Double benefit from your gifts
Thanks to our generous donors, we have raised nearly $20,000 to support our poor rural students through high school. Most children have four to six years of school ahead of them. Instead of letting the money reserved for future school years sit idle, we are temporarily using about $8,000 for two-year micro-credit loans for poor women in Vietnam. Entrepreneurial rural women are using the funds to start income-generation projects, which help improve their family's living conditions. The average loan is about $400.
The poor in Vietnam have limited access to credit, and usually, their only option is to borrow from unscrupulous private lenders who charge very high interest rates. Sometimes, villagers are told they must pay back double what they borrowed. Poor people hesitate to borrow because they lack confidence in their ability to repay the debt. They know they could lose their farm if they default on their loan.
Women's economic empowerment is one of the best ways to end poverty, along with girls' education.
This year, twenty women were given interest-free loans in Quang Binh District in Ha Giang Province, where our scholarship students are located. Most of these enterprising women are raising pigs. A few are raising chickens or ducks for eggs or meat. One woman started a little grocery store. Another woman is cooking food and selling it. All the women are mothers with children.
Help us end poverty in Vietnam by empowering people to help themselves
Please help us provide loans to more poor families in Vietnam. Four hundred dollars helps one ambitious mother work her way out of poverty. Later, those funds will be used to keep four children from dropping out of school for a year.
Donations of any amount are most welcome and will be a tremendous help. You can send a check to Friendship with Cambodia, PO Box 5231, Eugene, OR 97405, or donate online at friendshipwithcambodia.org. Donations are tax-deductible.
Friendship with Cambodia is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization providing aid to Cambodia since 2003. Friendship with Cambodia's founder, Bhavia Wagner, has been volunteering to help Vietnam since 1992 as an act of friendship and reconciliation.
Visit our projects on a motorcycle tour in Vietnam
Platypus, our partner organization from Australia, offers off-the-beaten-track motorcycle tours of Vietnam each year, and you are invited to participate. The 15-day tour includes Hanoi, Cat Ba Island in beautiful Halong Bay, and the scenic mountains of Ha Giang Province (where our projects are).
Riders experience breathtaking landscapes, unparalleled hospitality from the rural communities, and great camaraderie. You will meet some of the school children receiving support from Platypus. The cost of approximately $2,200 includes hotels, homestays, delicious food, and a donation to support aid programs in Vietnam. You can ride in the support vehicle if you don't want to ride a motorcycle. Visit their website for more details about their tours at platypus-charity.org.
Bhavia Wagner led friendship tours in Vietnam for Global Exchange in 1992 and 1994 and has volunteered to help poor children in Vietnam ever since. She is the founder and director of Friendship with Cambodia and author of Soul Survivors: Stories of Women and Children in Cambodia.
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Micro-credit recipients the program is supporting.
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A scenic motorcycle tour in Vietnam visiting the aid programs.
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Ethnic minority students receive support to stay in school.
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A woman with her micro-enterprise project?raising pigs.
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