Vietnam Women's Union

World Bank in Vietnam highly appreciates TYM’s livelihood support for women

23/07/2015

On the afternoon of June 13th 2015, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa – President of the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU) and Ms. Victoria Kwakwa – Country Director of the World Bank (WB) in Vietnam visited activities of the “Tinh Thuong one-member limited liability Microfinance Institution” under the VWU (called ‘TYM’ for short). The two female leaders attended a meeting of TYM’s Center 35 in Lam town, Y Yen district, Nam Dinh province and visited two members’ households in the Centers 35 and 24.

For 18 years of its operation (since Sept. 1998), TYM branch in Lam town, Y Yen, Nam Dinh has assisted poor women in overcoming poverty, participating in community activities, and achieving a better social status.

Ms. Vu Thi Hue from the Center 35, zone B is the head of a poor household. She has joined TYM since 2005. Her husband died of HIV/AIDS and she herself was infected with HIV from her husband. Currently she is borrowing 15 million VND from TYM to do chisel craft and farming with a monthly income of about 2 million VND. Her son was granted a scholarship of 2 million VND by TYM in 2013 for successfully passing high school entrance exam.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa and Ms.Victoria Kwakwa visit Ms.Vu Thi Hue’s house

With the TYM’s support, the Center 35 has more than 30 households having escaped from poverty, 20families witha monthly income ranging from 3 to 4 million VND per person, 30 children from member families passing university or college entrance exams... As TYM members, they have chances to gather and exchange experiences in production and business, family life management and children rearing... In addition, they always get timely loans from TYM to invest in household economic activities such as carpentry, wood carving, bronze casting, petty trading, livestock raising... Particularly, many women have started up their household business, providing vocational training and creating jobs for local workers with a monthly income ranging from 3 to 4 million VND/person. The repayment rate is always 100%. The members not only fully repay the loans, but also do some savings for their difficult time or children’s school fees... 100% of the Center members deposit their voluntary savings with an amount ranging from 10,000 - 300,000VND per week.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa and Ms. Victoria Kwakwa visit the bronze casting business of Ms. Duong Thi Tuyet from the Center 24

At the discussion session on “building the family of 5 Without-s and 3 Clean-s” of the Center 35 on the same day, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa said "I am very excited when seeing all of you more and more confident and tapping your full potential in building prosperous and happy families, developing sustainable business and contributing to local socio-economic development. I hope the local authorities will pay more attention to the goal of gender equality and women’s advancement, especially to increasing the proportion of female leaders in the upcoming local Party Congress, thus enabling women to contribute more to social activities."

Sharing her feedback on TYM at the meeting with leaders of Y Yen town and Nam Dinh province, Ms. Kwakwaappreciated the activities of TYM in particular and of the VWU in general in helping women develop their livelihood and build their confidence. She called upon the local government to further support the women’s unions at different levels and TYM, thus enhancing the effectiveness of their operation. She also reaffirmed the WB’s commitment to support Vietnam in poverty alleviation, gender equality promotion and women empowerment.