By Hanh Nguyen
Spring 2020 Newsletter
Vy Nguyen, 15 years old, was born into a poor family of four children in Vinh Long province, 120 miles west of Ho Chi Minh city. The family had only one dilapidated bicycle, which Vy rode to school, 3 miles from home, with her younger brother every morning. The couple came back home at about 11 a.m. Then Vy took her two sisters to school in the afternoon, and rode them back after school. Vy took care of the four of them while her parents were working.
Vy’s mother, Nga, worked as a lottery ticket seller. Every day she walked to sell the tickets from dawn to dusk, hardly making ends meet. The family’s income depended largely on her daily sale of tickets because they had no land for agriculture. The family faced a financial crunch due to her father’s unstable employment. The pressure of household and educational expenses of four children was continuously increasing. Sometimes they had to borrow money from relatives or friends to meet their daily household needs.
In 2015, when she was selling lottery tickets at a coffee shop, Vy’s mother met the local loan officer of The Dariu Foundation, P4P’s partner in Vietnam. The loan officer suggested that she join our microfinance program for loans and savings. In 2015, Nga took her first loan of 250 Swiss francs (about $250 U.S.) to invest in raising chickens and pigs. She continued her job selling tickets until 2016, which enabled her to repay the loan in weekly installments. In 2016, as part of a Dariu Foundation program, Vy’s mother got a P4P/SP sewing machine. She started a part-time job with the sewing machine instead of selling lottery tickets full time, and her income improved slightly.
In 2018, Vy was granted a bicycle donated by P4P via The Dariu Foundation. She used the bike in the morning and her sisters used it in the afternoon. In the afternoon, she also helped her mother with sewing jobs. This September, she will move to high school, which is 5 miles from home. The bike will be a great help to her and her family.
Over the past five years, the used bikes and sewing machines donated by P4P via The Dariu Foundation have enabled hundreds of families to overcome their difficulties, improve their mobility, incomes, and quality of life. This year, the foundation continues its partnership with P4P to extend its services to our friends and partner in Thailand. “I am sincerely grateful to P4P for your generous support,” said Hanh Nguyen, General Manager of The Dariu Foundation in Vietnam.