Support local resident improve livelihood after environment disaster

(VBSP News) More than a year after the marine environment incident, people in the coastal fishing villages of Quang Binh have started to receive compensation for the second time, but the long life and livelihood is always the concern people who are familiar with the profession of "fishing". Besides, in the narrow and sandy land of the Central, lack of agriculture land is also a challenge in livelihood conversion. In addition the timely support of VBSP in Quang Binh became a motivation to help people stabilize their lives and stick to their homeland.

People in Bo Trach invests in offshore fishing

In Thuong Duc village, Duc Trach commune, Bo Trach district, the village road are full of houses and houses, lack of trees and gardens as a proof for limited land areas here. Shortage of agriculture land makes people here to have only one way of life, i.e to reach the sea. Previous generations used basket boats, nowadays all households have wooden boats but can only serve fishing near the shore which they call "fishing". However, after the incident of the coastal environment (Formosa) and floods, local authorities have mobilized fishermen who catch fish near the shore to temporarily stop fishing for some time, to overcome the consequences. And to be able to make a living, people have to convert their livelihoods by reaching out to the safe waters.

In order to support people to overcome the sea environment incident, VBSP actively cooperated with local authorities and mass organisations to promote job creation loans to help people purchase fishing gear for offshore fishing. To date, 57 households in the village have borrowed money from VBSP with outstanding loans of VND1.9 billion.

We visited Mr. Ho Sy Luu's family in Thuong Duc village when he was checking the net to prepare for a sea trip in the evening. Living with the sea for a life time, although the sea is no longer bring a full life as before, the couple can not leave. Ms. Tran Thi Tam, his wife said, as well as many couples in this fishing village, every morning she still waits for her husband coming back from fishing trip to bring fish and shrimp to the market. Previously, when the incident had not happened, monthly income of the family was VND 20-30 million but now reduced to only VND 7 - 8 million. Less income but the family still have to do because they have no land to cultivate, changing livelihood is not easy as they are lack of capital. Therefore, with the compensation amount of VND 110 million and VND 30 millin borrowing from VBSP’s job creation program, the family invests in more fishing gear and improves their boat to reach further sea, stabilizes life.

With the flow of policy credit to right borrowers and persistent efforts of the staff of VBSP, local authorities and mass organisations have awakened economic development many rural areas in Quang Binh . Hai Trach Commune People's Committee Chairman Nguyen Duy Huy proudly said that Hai Trach Commune is one of the two communes reaching the district's new rural criteria by 2014. The average income per capita of the commune is VND 40-45 million and among 2045 households  in the commune there are only 52 poor households and 28 near poor ones.

But few people know that, Hai Trach used to be a poor commune of Bo Trach district, where agriculture land is limited and people mainly live on fishing. The commune face only changed since VBSP funded for people to switch livelihoods,

Commune People's Committee Chairman Nguyen Duy Huy humorously shared "Four years ago the credit quality of the commune topped the bottom. But now with loan outstanding of 14 billion VND and 23 Savings and Credit groups, the whole commune does not have any overdue debt”. Improved credit quality is also a motivation for policy credit to leverage its effecitiveness in life. People's living improved gradually became the basis for material accumulation for a new stage of development towards integrated trade services and labor export. The whole commune has 35 offshore fishing boats, 160 nearshore fishing boats and nearly 1,000 labors exported to work abroad. It is the strength of the commune to become one of the leading localities in Bo Trach district's new rural construction movement.

In order to further promote the effectiveness of policy credit, the director of VBSP Quang Binh branch said that the branch would continue to mobilize funding from local State budget to supplement loans for local people. He also expected that the province would have more long-term livelihood projects in order to mainstream policy credit, thus helping people to shorten working hours and achieve higher added value.

Minh Ngoc