Thanh Hoa: women active in new-style rural area building

There are now 14,334 union members’ households that have escaped from poverty, helping boost poverty reduction and rural development programmes in the province. 

Many movements have been launched to help local women develop their families.

Thanks to programmes supported by t he Vietnam Bank for Social Policy (VBSP) , the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank), the Fund for assisting women with disadvantaged backgrounds, and the TYM Fund, around 372,791 households of local women have gained access to loans worth over VND5.6 trillion (US$252 million) for economic development. 

Women union members in the province shared experience and assisted each other in agricultural development and other affairs. 

From 2010-2015, the chapter financed VND151 billion (US$6.79 million) to build 787 houses for poor women. Thanh Hoa’s Centre for Vocational Training organised 167 vocational training courses for 5,350 rural women, contributing to increasing the rate of skilled labourers in rural areas. 

Collective economic models owned by women initiated in Thanh Hoa have proven effective, driving connection in production and business. 

According to Chairwoman of the chapter Le Thi Nuong, communication campaigns will be enhanced in the coming time to raise local women’s awareness of the importance of the new-style rural area building programme. 

Her agency will also work to give advice to the local authorities on outlining more policies to support women, thus promoting the locality’s new-style rural area building movements. 

In 2015, the agency successfully held a fair for farm and handicraft products made by women across the province, which helped foster trade links and generate jobs for thousands of local labourers.