Educating Mothers to Educate Children

Written by Nguyen Thi Thao – Capacity Building Project Assistant, Trieu Phong ADP; Tran Thi Thuy – Agriculture Project Assistant, Trieu Phong ADP

“My siblings and I don’t have to worry about school fees anymore and our meals are better too,” said Tran Thi Hai Yen, who lives with her parents, two younger sisters and one younger brother in a newly built house in Trieu Phong district, Quang Tri province.

Yen and the older of her sisters are university students, her youngest sister is at a local high school and her brother goes to primary school. Several years ago, covering family expenses, especially costs of the children’s education, was a significant challenge for Yen’s mother, Mrs Hoang Thi Loc.

The family was one of the poorest in their village with their income was mainly from growing rice. However, the household only had a small piece of land for cultivation and the price they could get for their rice was unstable. Between crop harvests, the whole family didn’t have enough rice to eat, so they often ate what rice they had with cassava and sweet potatoes for their daily meals.
 
These days, the family’s situation has improved due to the World Vision animal husbandry training courses that Mrs Loc, 45, attended. At the training, she learnt how to raise chickens and pigs healthily and the importance of keeping her surroundings clean.

After the training, Mrs Loc gained hands-on experience of employing the techniques she had learnt by visiting other families already using similar methods. World Vision also trained Mrs Loc in how to produce a bio-fertiliser, which helps her to reduce spending on chemical fertilisers and to grow high quality and safe crops.

Mrs Loc’s family now raises four litters of pigs and three broods of chickens every year. Each pig litter earns the family a profit of around VND 6 million (US$300) when sold.

“Since the World Vision training, my family has been able to produce and earn more, which means my children have been able to get more education,” said Mrs Loc, who was recently selected as a World Vision volunteer and will lead the Solidarity and Development Group in her village to assist poor families.

“I’m really happy that my mum’s helping other locals,” added Yen. “She can teach them what she’s learnt about farming so they can earn more money for their children to get healthcare and education.”
 
Loc’s family is just one of many that World Vision has supported in Trieu Phong district. Over the last year, the Trieu Phong Area Development Programme has directly assisted 40 of the area’s poorest families with training and start-up resources in new methods of raising chickens and making bio-fertiliser. The 40 households have, in turn, taught these techniques to a total of 135 other families.

The ADP has also promoted community-based networks and groups, such as the Solidarity and Development Group, an agriculture extension network and the Village Development Board model. Such groups have encouraged and assisted local farmers to access economic development, child healthcare and education services.  In addition, World Vision’s Microfinance Unit has continued to offer loans to poor families to start or expand small-scale farms and other businesses. 

As a result of these efforts, statistics reveal that 716 out of a total of 1,378 families are no longer classified as living in poverty in World Vision’s Trieu Phong working areas.