Trần Thị Vụ Group

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to the Trần Thị Vụ group, consisting of Trần Thị Vụ, Nguyễn Thị Hoa, Nguyễn Thị Hằng, Vương Thị Tình, Nguyễn Thị Thuỳ by SEDA in Viet Nam. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the 11 months of this loan, SEDA will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Recently I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Tran Thi Vu who is the leader of this group as well as the cluster leader in her community. She was chosen to be both cluster leader and group leader because everyone admires her and respects her, but she said she was unsure why. I have a theory, however to why they admire her so much. Ms. Tran has become a highly successful woman despite her physical handicap, and thus commands more respect than any other borrower I have met thus far. When Ms. Tran was 3 years old she injured her leg and until 1998 couldn’t even use her leg. Because of this, she only finished 10th grade because she was sick and tired of being bullied and made fun of because of her injury. However, the year 1998 was a turning point in her life when she learned how to successfully use her leg again after intensive physical therapy and she became a nurse during this time because she was so inspired by the staff that helped her learn to re-use her leg. Now Ms. Tran has come back to her child-hood village and is the only medical specialist in town, so everyone requires her services for illnesses, vaccines, or help with medicines. Not only is she the nurse for the village she also runs a successful conical hat making business. Because of her ability to run a business and be the town nurse, it is my humble opinion that everyone respects Ms. Tran so much! Despite her adversity and how she was treated in the past, she is completely dedicated to helping everyone in her community.

As mentioned, Ms. Tran makes conical hats as another means of generating income. She used her Kiva loan to buy extra materials for the hats including the reeds required to make them. These hats are the ubiquitous Vietnam hat; the rice paddy conical hats. These hats are extremely useful in all types of weather: they wick rain water, and they protect the head and face from sun! They’re fabulously useful, and can be quite stylish depending on the silk strap used to hold the hat to the head. Ms. Tran began making hats three years ago after he leg was becoming too painful to travel on as a nurse. Before she used to travel to other communities as nurse, but it was too cumbersome for her to ride her motorbike to and from various villages. Now she only is a nurse in her village and makes these hats to supplement the lost income of not being able to travel anymore. It takes Ms. Tran one day to make one hat, and as I was interviewing her I noticed one in the middle of still being made, still attached to a frame to give it the stereotypical shape. While I was also interviewing her, we were interrupted by a villager who came in for Ms. Tran’s nursing services. I’m not sure what was needed, but Ms. Tran left and came back with some type of shot/inoculation. After a quick prick in the arm, the villager left and we got back to our interview.

Because of her Kiva loan, Ms. Tran has seen her income increase. Currently she makes anywhere from 800,000 to 1,000,000 VND per month which is roughly $50. Prior to her loans, however she only made 500,000 to 600,000 per month which is about $30. This is a very significant increase in her income and she realizes it; Ms. Tran mentioned that her loans have done a lot of good in her life! She uses all her extra income to help pay for her family’s expenses and to pay her children’s school fees. When I asked her what her hopes and dreams are for the future, Ms. Tran mentioned that she wanted larger loans to expand her nursing business so that she can sell medicine too. She hopes to get a future loan so that she can buy a medicine cabinet to display and sell medicines from within her house. All I can say is that Ms. Tran is a very hard-working lady and I can understand why she is so admired in her village. I wish her good luck for everything in the future!

Have you ever wondered how the traditional cone shaped hate is made that people where in Vietnam? Well, on my latest visit to the Bac Ninh branch office I was able to learn how to make these traditional hats, and I appreciate the craftsmanship it takes to create each one. In 2006, Ms. Vu had no money to invest in her dream of owning a hat making business. Then she heard about SEDA from a local woman's union and decided to take out a loan. With the money she received Ms. Vu started buying various supplies needed to start the hat weaving business. She also makes mats for people to sit on with the extra materials she has. The hats, are made of dried paper thin bamboo material and then weaved into a frame made of thin round pieces of wood. The wood frame is shaped into a cone frame and the dried tree materials are then weaved through the circle pieces. Once the cover of the hat is set, the weaver then sows the dried bamboo material down to the frame stitch, by stitch all around the hat until she reaches the base. Ms. Vu tells me that this is a very painstaking process and even a skilled weaver can take an hour to complete each hat.

Ms. Vu tells me that since taking the loan her business has grown and she has been able to improve her living conditions. Before the loan she told me that she had very poor health and she wasn't able to afford quality food for her family. I was also very happy to hear that she says she feels empowered now. Before the loan she felt very depressed because she needed money to help her family but she couldn't do much to help out. She knew she could create a great hat making business but she was powerless to create one. Now she feels like she is working hard to improve her family's life and she is proud to be able to provide hats for her community. Ms. Vu doesn't want to stop here though. She has a lot of plans for the future of her business. Soon she would like to stop making the hats out of her home and move to shop where she could increase her capacity. Once she opens her shop she could buy more hat forms, machines, and hire 10 more employees to make a large hat making facility. She hopes that once she opens her shop she not only will be able to supply hats to her whole district, but she will be able to start providing hats to neighboring districts as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c01kw1WlUuU