by Nguyen Van Hanh
Winter 2011 InGear

Mr. Tran Van Oanh, 56 years old, was born to a poor family in Vung Liem district, in the Mekong province of Vinh Long, 180 km west of Ho Chi Minh City. In addition to his economic hardship, he was born with a hearing impairment. By the late 1980s, he was married and became the father of two children. During the 1990s, he took on many different kinds of work, including masonry and cutting rice for land owners. Even with this effort and hard labor, he could hardly earn enough to feed his family. By 2000, he became ill and weak and could no longer do hard work, so he took on a job as a lottery ticket seller, a popular job in the poor region of Mekong Delta. Most of the family’s income is still generated from his occupation.

Although unable to hear, he can speak and is very friendly and does relatively well, but it still remains hard for him to afford food and other expenses for the family. Many people do buy lottery tickets from him, sometimes not because of their interest in the game but because of his circumstances. He has to walk from dawn to dusk around 25-30 km in the district to sell the tickets. He can sell around 100 tickets every day and earns around 5 U.S. dollars.

At the end of July 2011, he was granted a bicycle, donated by Pedals for Progress through The Dariu Foundation (TDF) and Vinh Long Friendship Organization, and has used the bicycle for his job since then. The Dariu Foundation is a Swiss non-government organization, operating in Vietnam since 2003 with a focus on poverty reduction and education development through programs of microfinance, scholarships for poor students, building kindergartens, and offering training in computer skills to rural students. Mr. Tran is one among more than 500 poor families in Vinh Long province who are lucky enough to get the donated bicycles from P4P through The Dariu Foundation. This was the first shipment by P4P to Vietnam, and the next one is expected to be shipped this November.

Today, there are more than 15,000 households benefiting from TDF’s microfinance services, served by a portfolio of 2.1 million U.S. dollars. “I am very happy because firstly it is a very nice and good bike. Secondly, it is my dream to have a bike to help my job be much more convenient. And lastly it helps double my sales and income. Previously, I just earned $4.00-$5.00 per day, but now I can gain $10.00 a day,” said Mr. Tran. “I hope I can soon earn and save enough money to pay for my wife’s surgery. Now I can go home early to help my wife with housework and take care of the family,” he added.

Most recently, P4P’s readers have been kept abreast of our endeavors in locations such as Albania, Moldova, Uganda, and Ghana. We are now extremely pleased to announce that a new partner has joined P4P. Located in southwestern Vietnam, the Vinh Long Union of Friendship Organizations (VLUFO) collaborates with us to provide bicycles to the children in the Mekong Delta River region. An active participant funder of VLUFO, the Dariu Foundation (TDF) of Switzerland, has supplied the grant that is funding these initial shipments.

At the moment, there are three branches of the VLUFO. The first two, Vung Liem and Tra On, belong to the Vinh Long province. The third site, Tan Phu, belongs to the Dong Nai province. The bikes are to be distributed to school children in these regions on a scholarship basis and will be based, in part, on the distance from their homes to the school. Fifty percent of the bikes granted are earmarked for female and secondary school students.

While elementary school tuition in the region is free and the small amount charged for attending junior high is small, it is the cost of textbooks, notebooks, pens, and uniforms that is usually high. If the students cannot acquire these basic requirements, they can’t attend school. A majority of families are affected by financial inconsistency during the school season because they earn their meager living from farming. The threat of flooding, exacerbated by climate change, and a high rate of emigration from the region affect families’ ability to earn a living and maintain strong communities. The children in this region are at the greatest risk of dropping out of school. The VLUFO hopes to reduce the financial burdens associated with educating the children of these families and offer the parents greater ease of access to economic opportunities in towns and cities. Before partnering with P4P, the VLUFO purchased the bicycles that they distribute. This has proven to be an expensive and, hence, short-lived option. The bicycles provided by P4P are the key to preventing a financial crisis for the Organizations while ensuring that they provide reliable transportation to families in need. The desired result is that the children stay in school and the parents spend more time on job and income generation.

The first shipment of 570 bikes is scheduled for the May 21st 2011 loading that will be bound for Vientnam. The Vinh Long Union of Friendship Organizations (VLUFO) plans to start distribution of P4P bikes in July. Though this will be the farthest location we ship to, Vietnam by far will be the cheapest place P4P has ever shipped bicycles.

Pedals for Progress and the Dariu Foundation (based in Switzerland) are please to announce that we have received importation permits from the Government of Vietnam.  P4P is now planning on sending our first shipment of bicycles to Ho Chi Minh City by late April, 2011.
The Dariu Foundation will start distribution first in southwestern Vietnam in the Vinh Long Province and Dong Nai Province with an emphasis on getting bikes to poor rural children so that they have the ability to attend school.