BAT Vietnam - Supporting underprivileged women in remote areas to do business and improve their living quality

After BAT Vietnam’s disbursement of interest-free loans to 40 households in the program “Women’s Empowerment”, the Women’s Union of Duc Hue has developed an implementation plan for the Women’s Unions of the two communes of My Quy Dong and My Thanh Tay to deploy for localities to understand the content, goals, requirements. At the same time, the Unions also proactively conduct meetings and reviews for lending, targeting poor women, near-poor women, and disadvantaged women who do not have capitals or lack capitals for production, animal husbandry, etc., contributing to facilitating women to develop their family’s economy and improve their lives.

After 6 months of implementation, the two communes of My Quy Dong and My Thanh Tay have 10 households doing small business; 28 households raising cows, pigs, and chickens; 2 households affording to buy lawn mowers for raising cows. Besides, these households also participate in savings every month.

In the recent mid-term review session between the Duc Hue District Women’s Union and BAT Vietnam, in addition to reporting and updating the capital use situation, the districtual Women’s Union also organize a visit to households joining the program to listen to local women’s sharing, thereby helping the program continue to be implemented appropriately and effectively in the remaining 6 months of the program.

In addition, the Women’s Union of the two communes have also coordinated with Agricultural Extension Officers to organize the transfer of science and technology on crops and livestock to households and cooperative groups. This results in 22 transfer sessions with 439 participants.

At the same time, the Women’s Union of the two communes have collaborated with the Police, Border Guard Station of My Thanh Tay Commune and Border Guard Station of My Quy Dong Commune to organize the propaganda for officials, members, and women about preventing and defeating the purchase of smuggled cigarettes across borders, communicating the harmful effects of social vices, the need of traffic safety, etc. As a result, the Unions organized 39 propaganda sessions with 876 attendees.

Duc Hue is a poor, remote, border district of Long An province – the administrative unit with 10 communes and 01 town, five of which are border communes, especially My Quy Dong and My Thanh Tay communes, bordering Cambodia, is still dealing with many difficulties in terms of facilities and transportation. Most people here live mainly on agricultural production with only two rice crops annually. Therefore, local people are facing low income, unstable jobs, idle time, and no side jobs.

Additionally, due to the impact of the prolonged COVID-19 epidemic, people’s agricultural products have no outputs, and prices of essential goods are unstable. Besides, unusual weather conditions also cause many difficulties for livestock husbandry and crop farming. This greatly affects the lives of people in the commune in general and women in particular.

Therefore, the program “Women’s Empowerment” by BAT Vietnam – in collaboration with Duc Hue District Women’s Union is a meaningful activity, supporting poor and underprivileged women in remote areas to do business, thereby improving the quality of life and contributing to the United Nations’ SDG5 – the sustainable development goal on gender equality.