An endless search

Thuong Thuong – Mai Chau Gift Catalogue Project

Once one of the poorest residents of a poverty-stricken village in Hung Yen province, Doan Thi Ngau has escaped extreme hardship by rearing cows and is now a role model for her neighbours of how to transform their lives.

Like many other villagers, Ngau would start her day at dawn and return home at sunset after wandering around in an endless search for work. She accepted any farming jobs on offer, such as planting and harvesting rice and spraying insecticides, but the pittance she earned was never enough for the single mother to feed her two children.

During those dark days, Ngau never dared dream of owning a new home, never mind achieving success to which others would aspire, yet both have happened.

In 2009, World Vision helped Ngau and 17 other poor households buy cows to breed. Watching her animal graze today, the mother says: “World Vision gave me 5 million dong [235 US dollars], so I only had to pay 3.3 million dong [155 US dollars] to buy the cow.”

“She looked beautiful then and has had three calves since, which I sold to build a new house and pay my children’s school fees,” she continues. “I’m really grateful to World Vision, and also the local authorities and my neighbours, who helped me when things were difficult.”

Running over to the cow after school, Ngau’s sixth-grade daughter, Bui Thi Phuong, says of the animal: “Now she’s expecting her fourth calf, but my mum’s been trained in how to take care of her, so she’s very healthy.”

Smiling, her mother adds: “I won’t sell the new calf because I want to breed it, so I can keep Phuong in school.”

Cow subsidies are part of World Vision’s development programmes in Hung Yen to help residents increase their incomes and improve their children’s well-being. Since 2009, around a hundred breeding cows have been handed to disadvantaged households in four remote districts of the province.

Head of one district’s Women’s Association, Vu Thi Thua, says, “Cows have really developed our local economy. Many families have escaped poverty by raising the cows they received from World Vision. And our children’s education and nutrition have improved as a result."