15 - Quảng Hưng Group

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to 15 - Quảng Hưng Group, consisting of Huế Hà Thị, Đằm Nguyễn Thị, Hà Văn Thị, Bình Lâm Thị by Fund for Thanh Hoa Poor Women (TCVM), a partner of Save the Children in Viet Nam. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the 11 months of this loan, Fund for Thanh Hoa Poor Women (TCVM), a partner of Save the Children will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Dear Lender,

Thank you for supporting the Fund for Thanh Hoa Poor Women!

The Fund for Thanh Hoa Poor Women (FPW) is a relatively new partner to the Kiva platform, having posted its first loan in November 2008. Since then, FPW staff have worked diligently to integrate Kiva into their operations and we are happy to announce that FPW has recently been approved for active field partner status on Kiva! Expect to see an increase in FPW activity on Kiva.org over the next few months.

Since February 2009, I have been serving in Thanh Hoa as a Kiva Fellow, assisting FPW through this process. Now that I’m at the end of my fellowship, I would like to share a simple revelation. What I have discovered through meeting and speaking with the borrowers here is that although the current financial crisis may suggest otherwise, finance, and in this case microfinance, in Thanh Hoa, is not always that dramatic. I am not leaving here as expected, with hallmark stories of adversities conquered, but I have met real women and seen how these simple, elegant loans return to them a small but significant power.

The need and impact of micro loans is known to differ from borrower to borrower. FPW’s clients represent women with differing circumstances and vary in the degree to which their loans have impacted their life. This microfinance mosaic of users, uses and value is well represented by the women from Group 41 Quang Hung, one of the first groups that I visited in Thanh Hoa.

Ms. Vũ Thị Kim Chung is the leader of Group 41 Quang Hung Commune and represents one end of the spectrum. Ms. Chung, like most Vietnamese women, engages in multiple income producing activities. She is primarily a worker in Le Mon Industrial Zone, working 18-20 days a month, transporting fertilizer on and off train cars and earning a relatively high income of ~1.800.000 VND ($103 USD) per month. The work is hard and she sounds like someone who understands the weight of world finances when she states plainly that “it’s a job” and she’s grateful for it. Although her family could survive without any additional income, Ms. Chung still chose to take out a loan and increase her workload voluntarily to, on a good day, earn an additional ~60.000 VND ($3.50 USD) by selling fruit and raising animals.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have Ms. Hương Nguyễn Thị. Ms. Hương lives in the same commune as Ms. Chung but her economic position is quite different. Ordinarily, she works in her family’s woodworking shop and raises animals for resale. Together, the family is able to generate sufficient income. This past year, however, her family has faced extraordinary circumstances, with her eldest son (aged 4) falling ill with an ocular condition in April 2008. The family traveled to Hanoi for treatment, only to find that their son was too young to have the surgery. Although her son’s base medical expenses were covered by the government, the costs of transportation, accommodation and food were left to the family. Her previous loans from FPW and this most recent loan from Kiva have helped her and her family manage these sudden expenses.

Reflecting on the two loans above, Ms. Hương’s story is more akin to those you read in Muhammad Yunus’s books, but Ms. Chung’s story is the norm here at FPW. The loan has not saved her from starvation, homelessness or illness, but has simply given her the option to earn a little more. Though a seemingly small return on her investment, it represents her hard work and most importantly, access to the resources and right to earn it.

Thank you again for providing the capital to lend to women in Thanh Hoa! Please consider lending to one of the currently fundraising loans from FPW.

Chị Hà Thị Huế sinh sống tại thôn 1 xã Quảng Hưng, mang mã số thành viên 0051, chị là nhóm trưởng nhóm 15, chị năm nay 37 tuổi, làm nghề buôn bán rau và làm ruộng. Chồng chị là Lê Văn Lựu 41 tuổi làm nghề thợ xây nhưng công việc không ổn định, ngày nắng thì anh mới đi làm, ngày mưa anh phải nghỉ ở nhà. Gia đình chị sinh được hai người con gái. Vì gia đình quá khó khăn nên con gái đầu phải nghỉ học sớm để đi bán quần áo thuê giúp bố mẹ đỡ vất vả hơn, con gái thứ hai đang học lớp 5. Nhóm của chị gồm 4 thành viên, mỗi người đều có mục đích sử dụng vốn khác nhau nhưng họ đều làm nghề buôn bán nhỏ. Chu kỳ trước chị vay mức 2.442 600 VNĐ ~137,22 USD để chăn nuôi lợn và buôn bán rau. Hàng ngày chị lên thành phố mua rau để đi bán rong trong thành phố. Số tiền lời chị thu được một tháng khoảng 1.200.000 VNĐ ~67,4 USD, chị dùng số tiền lời này để trang trải chi phí cho gia đình, tiền công chồng chị đi làm một tháng cũng được khoảng 1.500.000 VNĐ ~ 84,27 USD để đóng tiền học cho con và trang trải chi phí khác. Chu kỳ này chị vay mức 3.079.800 VNĐ ~173,02 USD để đầu tư thêm vốn đi bán rau và hoa quả. Mùa nào rau bán chậm thì chị lại chuyển sang bán hoa quả. Một ngày chị thu được khoảng 50.000 – 60.000 VNĐ~2,81 USĐ, tiền vốn tăng cho nên thu nhập cũng được tăng lên giúp cuộc sống gia đình chị ổn định hơn.

Chị Văn Thị Hà mang mã số thành viên 0066, năm nay chị 34 tuổi, chị vay vốn để đầu tư vào xưởng mộc.

Chị Nguyễn Thị Đằm mang mã số thành viên 0065, năm nay chị 47 tuổi, chị vay vốn để buôn bán rau.

Chị Lâm Thị Bình mang mã số thành viên 0068, năm nay chị 47 tuổi, chị vay vốn để bán hàng phở ăn sáng.