Vittana partner Binh Minh is a small microfinance institution based in Hanoi, Vietnam, primarily serving rural clients in the provinces surrounding the city. Binh Minh began working with Vittana to develop a student loan product in the fall of last year, and by December, Vittana’s first Vietnamese student, Linh Thi Nguyen was online. Since then, Vittana lenders have funded 23 students working towards degrees in fields such as teaching, agricultural engineering, and accounting.
Each student comes from a family who has already received, and successfully repaid, one of Binh Minh’s microenterprise loans. These families, mostly farmers and vendors, are poor. While access to traditional microfinance has given them economic stability, access to education has remained out of reach; with loans from Vittana, students have a chance to step beyond the limitations of their local agricultural economy and build careers as professionals.
Ngoan Thi Nguyen is one such student. Accompanied by a bright young staff member from Binh Minh who served as my translator, I went to visit Ngoan at her home in Bac Ninh province. After weaving our way out of the swarm of motorbikes that constantly buzz through Hanoi, only to inch along the two lane road that shuttles traffic out of the city, we made it to Ngoan’s family home just before lunch. When I arrived, I expected a brief interview with Ngoan and her mother; instead, I got 30 minutes of frenetic, buoyant socializing, tea drinking, hand shaking, and plenty of family, friends, and neighbors popping in and out of the room, all eager to introduce themselves.
After introductions and a glass of tea, I learned that, like many Bac Ninh families, Ngoan’s is a family of farmers: her parents, older brother, and older sister all earn their income by growing rice and other products. If Ngoan weren’t working towards a degree in chemical technology, she’d be doing the same. When her siblings finished high school, they wanted to continue studying at college, but the family didn’t have the money. It was clear that Ngoan recognized and appreciated how fortunate she is to be pursuing her degree at the Hanoi University of Industry.
Ngoan’s mother made a point of this too. It saddened her, she said, to not be able to save for all of her children’s education. The loan she received from Binh Minh and Vittana was helping her manage the costs of keeping Ngoan in school, and she beamed as she told me how pleased she was that her daughter would some day enter the workforce and become a professional. (In a wonderful, unexpected moment, as I tried to arrange my video camera to capture my chat with her mother, Ngoan, who had a much better angle, noticed I was having trouble and offered to film her mother while we chatted. Vittana student filming a Vittana parent. Perfect.)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYPJyjbXjOs[/youtube]
Ngoan’s story wasn’t unique. I also met with Tri Van Nguyen, Hien Thi Nguyen, and Bao Dinh Le. All came from families where resources for school were limited, and each was intent on making the most of the opportunity to study. Whether it was Hien’s plans to work in food production, Tri’s interest in business, or Bao’s very solemn determination to bring his skills in machinery repair back to his family in Bac Ninh, the students were linked by a common purpose: to maximize the opportunity they’d been given by their families and by Vittana lenders.
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