Inspiring a savings culture
Story by Nguyen Xuan An – Tua Chua ADP
Written by Tran My Hang - Communications Officer
“I want to raise more goats and pigs to earn money for my kids to go to school,” says Ninh, a father of seven children.
Ninh was born to a poor family in a remote, mountainous village in Dien Bien province. He went to school, but had to drop out when he was in grade seven because his parents needed him to help with their farm work.
After marrying in 2000, Ninh and his wife eventually had seven children. He worked very hard to feed his large family. However, limited land and adverse weather restricted his harvests, while his attempts to raise goats and pigs failed due to a lack of appropriate knowledge, with his family often not having enough food as a result.
In 2012, World Vision opened a savings and credit association in Dien Bien, which Ninh joined after the local authorities promoted the model in his region.
Ninh and nine of his neighbours created a savings group, with each member contributing 50,000 dong (2.35 US dollars) a month. The group’s entire fund is lent to either one or two members in turn to buy livestock and pay school fees and medical expenses for their children.
After seeing the model’s positive results after its first round of contributions, two new members joined the group and the monthly deposit was doubled.
To date, Ninh has taken out two loans from the fund, using the money to buy a pair of goats. After the livestock bred, he sold the two new animals for 7 million dong (330 US dollars), which he spent on two pigs to breed and new clothes for his children.
The village’s head, Sung, says: “Ninh’s family’s living conditions have improved. They no longer lack food and his income is higher.”
Other households in the village have also benefited from the savings and credit group, using the fund to buy livestock for breeding to develop their livelihoods.
“Many more families want to join the savings group, so we’ll consider creating a new one if we have enough potential members,” says Sung.