Doing time with Bloom Microfinance

My two-and-a-bit weeks in and around Hanoi have been incredible. Bloom Microfinance are doing great work giving rural communities access to investment capital and training programs. They’re also giving tourists a glimpse of the everyday life of Vietnamese villagers.

Here are a few things I’ve learnt on this program with Bloom:

Good land is in short supply in Vietnam. With a population density of nearly 300 people per square kilometre (in comparison Australia has around 3) that’s not surprising. This puts huge pressure on farming families, who need to grow enough rice to feed themselves, plus some extra crops to sell for cash.

For a communist country, Vietnam seems to love capitalism. I’d read lots before I came about the business boom that’s been happening in this country over the past decade – and it’s obvious in nearly every part of Vietnam. Everywhere you go there are ads for goods (foreign and local) and lots of new development. The good news is that the standard of living seems to be increasing for most Vietnamese people. The bad news is that the gap between the rich and poor is getting wider all the time.

Harvesting cassava is really hard work! In fact, all farming in Vietnam still uses a lot of manual labour. Workers here are just as likely to be women as men. And people work well into their 60s and 70s. I really admire the strength and stamina of the farmers we’ve met.

The only thing stopping NGOs from helping more is revenue. Raising funds is tough and time consuming. Most NGOs rely on foreign donors, who can influence how funds are spent. This can limit the options open to NGOs.

Traffic in Vietnam is crazy. From the incessant beeping to the motorcycles taking shortcuts through parks to the cars driving down the wrong side of the road, the streets of Vietnam are no place for the fainthearted. One of our Vietnamese guides told us that we were the bravest group they’d come across. We definitely embraced the gung-ho ‘just walk slowly into the on-coming traffic’ attitude very early 

on!

Young people in Vietnam are working hard to learn English. I was stopped on the street by three different sets of strangers wanting to practice their English on me. From tourism students in their mid-twenties to girls in their early years of high school, each of them wanted to improve their skills as they knew it was the best way to improve their career opportunities.

NGO fieldwork requires patience and empathy. Working with a community requires trust and that only comes with time and consultation. While that might make change frustratingly slow, it’s the only way to make it long-lasting. Communities need to be responsible for their own decisions, even if they’re making the “wrong” ones. All outsiders can do is offer their knowledge (when asked) and assist with resourcing programs that are truly desired by the community.

Day #16 & 17 - Evaluation and ... goodbye!

The last couple of days in Hanoi were spent in sessions, evaluating our program and collating our information from the field.

We talked about the interviews we'd done with the local farmers and debated the effectiveness of the farmer training program. It gave us the chance to reflect on our own data collections skills, as well as on the work of Bloom. It really highlighted how difficult it can be to find solutions to long-standing localised problems.

One story that really stood out to me in the sessions was a story about a farmer who has asked for a loan from Bloom to start farming dogs for meat. While most westerners find the idea of dog meat quite appalling, it's fairly common in Northern Vietnam. Only particular dogs are farmed and used for their meat, not the same breeds as those used for pets.

Bloom made the decision not to loan the money for dogs to be farmed. Instead, they encouraged the farmer to apply for a loan to raise ducks. Bloom knew that many of their western donors wouldn't be happy if they found out that their donations had been used to fund dog farming.

The farmer took the loan for ducks, which are much harder to raise as they're more susceptible to illness and more affected by climate. All the ducks died and the farmer lost their investment, but still had to repay the loan.

I'm a vegetarian and would prefer that no animals were farmed - but I was quite surprised to hear that western values played a role in deciding what farmers could and couldn't do with their loan money. It was another example of the difficulties faced by NGOs. They need to keep their donors in mind and make sure that they can secure an income from them, while they carry out their field work.

The team from Bloom gave us a great farewell on our final night in Hanoi. It was very sad to say goodbye to them and to wrap up the program. We're all hoping we can make it back to Hanoi at some point in the future to catch up with them again!

Day #14-15 - Leisure trip to Ninh Binh and Cuc Phuong National Park

Following our final field trip, we were treated to a leisure weekend to see more of the sights around Hanoi. We started in the Ninh Binh provence, where our first stop was Hoa Lu, to see the temples constructed in the Dinh and Le dynasties. There were some really spectacular buildings and landscapes.

Everywhere we went we saw the traditional Vietnamese festival flags flying. The colours of the flag symbolise the Five Elements, the basis of the universe according to ancient Chinese philosophy.

Next we took a river tour through the caves of the Trang An Grottoes. We piled into rowing boats and cruised through the caves, which are mostly natural. Although some sections have been dug out to fit boats through. One of the local guides had a special talent - he rowed with his feet for most of the trip.

After a group lunch we headed to the Bai Dinh Pagoda, a huge complex full of temples, statues and the largest bronze Buddha in Southeast Asia. There are also hundreds of stone Buddhas lining the corridors all the way through the complex. We had some fun picking our favourites.

Our final stop for the weekend was Cuc Phuong National Park, which was Vietnam's first National Park and one of the country's most important sites for biodiversity. We saw the site of the 'pre-historic man', where human remains that were thousands of years old were found. We visited a one-thousand year old tree. And we took a tour through the Endangered Primate Rescue Centre, which houses langurs, loris and gibbons until they can be released back into their natural habitats. We couldn't get close enough for good photos, but all the animals there were truly amazing.

Day #12-13 - Second field trip in Hoa Binh

This field trip gave us the opportunity to evaluate a recent training program that had been run by Bloom. Villagers were given theory and practical lessons in growing tomatoes, giving them skills that could be transferred to growing other vegetables. This would allow them to start growing crops with a higher return on investment than their traditional cassava and rice crops.

In the lead-up to the field trip we were given a basic framework for the evaluation, to help us plan for our interviews with participants.

The standard framework for project evaluation looks at the project's
1. relevance
2. effectiveness
3. efficiency
4. impact
5. sustainability

The evaluation also check on indicators, that should be defined at the project's inception. In this case, things such as the number of program participants, cash flows for participants, future plans of participants and types of crops now grown in the village are all key indicators.

The first stop on the field trip was a cassava plantation, where we saw first hand how difficult it is to harvest that crop. It's one of the few things that grow on hilly areas, so it's always farmed on steep ground. We had to climb for ten minutes, then pull the massive roots our with our hands. The roots that got stuck had to be dug out of the rocky ground.

It was fun to try but would be back-breaking work for the (mostly female) farmers who work the harvest, which lasts for a few weeks. After we carried our harvest down the hill we were invited to cook it up and sample it in a local house.

Cassava is quite bland, a bit like potato. It's used in food production, as well as being eaten boiled. It's also used to feed livestock. Most of the farmers here grow it to sell it - even though it sells for criminally low prices and barely makes them a profit once costs are covered.

After lunch we started interviewing the program participants. We heard about their lives, their difficulties growing enough rice on their land to feed their families and their hesitance to grow new types of crops. While the Bloom training program was very successful in many areas, a lot of follow up work still needs to happen.

After lunch we met a farmer who had received a microloan from Bloom last year, which was funded by the last UTS student visit. She'd used the money to buy pigs and was doing very well with breeding a selling piglets.

At night we were invited to the house of the Head of the Commune, one of the most important men in the village. His wife if head of the Women's Union in the village and works closely with Bloom. They introduced us to local music, singing for us and playing gong music. They also taught us a dance-game, where we had to dance through sticks that moved in time to the music. Is was great fun - once we found the beat.

We collected more information the next day via interviews. Then we had to say goodbye to the friends we'd made in the village.

Hoa Binh is a beautiful part of Vietnam and it was incredible to be taken there by Bloom, to be given access to village life and to be invited into so many people's homes, to hear their stories. The field trips really have been unforgettable.

Day #11 - Hanoi Ethnology Museum

Today our guides from Bloom Microventures took us to the Hanoi Ethnology Museum, so we could better understand the ethnic diversity of Vietnam. It also helped us understand more about the villages that Bloom works with, as many have high concentrations of ethnic minorities.

54 different ethnic groups are officially recognized in Vietnam. The largest is the Kinh or Viet group, which makes up around 86% of the population. All other groups are much smaller, but each has its distinct language, foods, traditional dress and cultural practices.

The Hoa Binh province, where Bloom works and where we we are spending most of our time in th field, is home to different ethnic groups, including the Muong, Kinh, Thai, Tay, Dao, H'Mong and Hoa. 

The museum gave us a great overview of the huge diversity in the country. 

In the museum grounds there was also a fantastic display of the different traditional buildings that are found in various villages. Amazingly, each of these structures was actually bought from a village somewhere in the country, dismantled and shipped to Hanoi, then put back together with the help of traditional owners of the display. The workmanship was incredible, and many of the structures were rebuilt in just a couple of days.

Day #10 - Bat Trang ceramic village and Hagar Intenational

Today we spent the day at Bat Trang, then had an evening session with a guest speaker from the NGO  Hagar International.

Vietnam has many traditional trade villages, where traditional work practices have been maintained for generations by family groups. Each of these villages specialises in a particular type of practice.

Bat Trang is a  pottery-making village just outside of Hanoi on the bank of the Hong River. Our group travelled there on a local bus and our first stop was one of the local houses where guests are invited to try their hand at the pottery wheel. 

Turns out that it's much harder than it looks! But with some help from the expert potters who ran the shop we all managed to make something decent, which was left to dry while we explored the markets. 

The array of ceramic items on display ther was mind blowing. From small beads to thread onto necklaces, to vases bigger than us, you kind everything you could imagine and more. 

I was particularly drawn to the weird and wonderful mythical figures and historical heroes. 

In the afternoon we returned to the workshop to paint and glaze our creations. I was pretty happy with my first attempt at bowl making!

When we got back to Hanoi we got to meet up with one of the staff from Hagar International, an international NGO that works with women and girls who have been victims of human trafficking and domestic violence. They work in Cambodia, Afghanistan and Vietnam. In Vietnam they work closely with the Women's Union, a state organisation. 

It's believed that over 400,000 Vietnamese women and children have been trafficked. Hagar gives women safe accommodation, helps them recover from the trauma of their experiences, and helps them reintegrate into their communities. They also offer educational assistance and help them achieve economic independence. 

While we heard some very sad stories, it was also very inspiring I hear what they achieve on limited resources. It's obvious that lack of funding is the biggest problem for many NGOs working in Vietnam. 

Day #9 - The Museum of History, Hanoi

Today before our sessions we spent a few hours in Hanoi's Museum of History. It covers centuries of history, looking at religion, politics, sociology and technology.

The displays that dealt with religion were extremely interesting to me, as in Vietnam there's a big variety of religious beliefs, with many people blending different elements of different beliefs. One of my favourite pieces was a wooden statue of Quan Am Nghin Mat Nghin Tay (Quan Am of 1000 Eyes and 1000 Hands). Quan Am is the Vietnamese name for the Buddha of compassion. The arms represent her reaching out to everyone who needs her aid. 

I also made friends with one of the local dog-dragons. 

After the tour we were taken to a cafe where we were treated to egg-coffees, a local delicacy that was delicious!

We also got a glimpse at some of the peach blossom trees that are blooming across Hanoi now, just in time for lunar new year, which is a week away.