We endeavor to reach the poorest of the poor. Development programs sometimes fail to do so; for instance the women are not always accepted in the savings-credit groups or do not dare to join, in case they fail to reimburse their loan. Other members may reject them because they could have to pay in their place.
Scholarships are given to the poorest children (less than 3%) who may drop out from primary school.
We are now looking for ways to improve the economic situation of these approximately 1500 households, in a more sustainable manner. Other activities aim at create employment, like handicrafts, plantation of trees along public roads etc.
Community libraries are set up to encourage the people to read more, and keep their reading skills.
- scholarships : maintain the children at school
- community libraries : maintain what has been gained through education
- computer centres : to improve the chances of the rural pupils
Scholarships
We have launched a scholarship program for the poorest. They are short listed first by the school: they must have reasonably good results. Then they screened by the commune authorities, who select the poorest. Later the village workers and the program staff visit all households to check. Only less than 3% pupils are accepted.
Are automatically excluded:
- the children of government staff and eachers
- the children of women, who as member of a savings-credit group, did not refund their loan as scheduled -thi is only a small number
- the communes where the local authorities fail to collaborate well enough (at present 2 communes out of 21).
 The "marathon" organised by the project in solidarity with the poorest pupils of the district has been a real success. |
A scholarship amounts to 300.000 VND (16 €) paid in 2 installments: in October and in February. The parents commit their child will not drop out from school.
- Too
poor for microcredit... (March 17th, 2003,
110 Kb)
Microcredit is not always panacea. Some are particularly poor, Viêt Nam Plus helps them a.o. with scholarships for children. - September
2nd: 19.145 participants to the running organised in Dúc Linh!
(September 4th, 2003,
123 Kb)
- "Ngân:
education is their priority": (21st December 2003,
34 Kb) how a scholarship and a chicken farm changed her life.
Community libraries
 |
About a third of the poor women cannot read properly. We have tried literacy classes, in the evening, after work. This was a failure: the people are too tired and the temptation to watch TV instead is too great...
 |
If the people cannot read, it is mainly due to a lack of practice, as almost everyone in the region has gone to school up to grade 3 or higher. Thus community libraries are proposed. The people contribute for 50% of the costs. There are over 25 such libraries today, with a total membership of 615.
Computer centres
It is very difficult to access university after graduating from a rural school, the level is lower than in the cities. Also, the pupils do not have access to computers for instance. At some stage the children with a basic "A" certificate would get an extra 3 points for the final exam of the second cycle.
We have thus supplied second hand computers (100$/unit) to 10 secondary schools, thus allowing 500-1000 children every year to obtain the certificate. In each school 2 teachers have been trained for maintenance and basic repairs. Competitions are also organized between schools!
See story: "Computers
in the villages" (16/3/2005,
104 Kb).
