Vietnam December Update

‘Animal Bank’ Project Update

The ‘Animal Bank’ project, funded by doTerra, with support from Hagar Australia, aims to promote healing and change in the lives of women affected by trafficking, exploitation, or abuse and reduce the number of human trafficking cases in the community.

In the first phase of the project, the Women’s Union of Yen Bai province cooperated with Hagar Vietnam to identify 63 vulnerable women and their families, which would benefit at least 252 children and other household members.

After the assessment, the women were provided with a pair of female and male animals, such as pigs and goats according to their need and capacity. Intensive animal husbandry and business skills development training was then conducted to support survivors in breeding and selling meat.

In December, 75 households in the Xa Ho, Ban Cong and Ban Mu 3 communes in Tram Tau district of the Yen Bai province received 118 goats and 72 pigs.

During the first year, the Yen Bai Women’s Union, Hagar staff and technical experts will mentor survivors. After the first year, each family will give one male and one female animal to a communal “bank”, to be distributed to additional beneficiaries in the second year.

Vietnam project for beneficiaries to receive training and livelihood loans

55 beneficiaries received training on sustainable livelihood and financial management skills in the “Microloans for vulnerable women in Northern Vietnam” project. The project is funded by Home Credit Vietnam, supported by Hagar Hong Kong and ran by Hagar Vietnam and the Women’s Union of Nghia Lo.

With assistance from the trainer, participants developed detailed action plans, based on business ideas from previous training. They also learned about money management and planning a family budget, which gave them the skills needed to accomplish their action plans.

Hagar Vietnam and the Women’s Union provided a capital investment worth 10 million Vietnam Dong for all 55 participants. These loans help survivors establish a small livelihood business plan and run their smallscale livelihood activities. Savings and loans groups established roles and responsibilities, regulations for being selected and repaying loans, and opportunities to learn household financial planning.

This event also gave participants the opportunity to exchange their experience and establish their own self-help group for the future.

Domestic Violence project’s closing workshop in Vietnam

In December, the “Beyond Surviving to Thriving: Empowering Survivors of Domestic Violence” project’s closing workshop was held in the Quynh Luu district of the Nghe An province. This project was run by Hagar Vietnam in partnership with the Women’s Union of Nghe An and funded by ACCOR. Nearly 60 participants, including representatives of the Women’s Union, local authorities and beneficiaries, attended the workshop.

This project’s overarching goal is to develop and implement an innovative model of care, supporting individualized career growth to ensure women do not just survive, but thrive and, with support, develop to their full potential.

The project’s highlights included:

• 3 corporate awareness sessions where 60 ACCOR hotel staff learned about Hagar’s vision, core values and ethics in supporting survivors of domestic violence
• A training session about project monitoring, evaluation and reporting attended by 60 Union members and government partners.
• The establishment of two peer groups including one with 39 women living in violent households and the other involving 39 male abusers from the same households. These groups would be involved in activities like awareness raising about domestic violence, human trafficking, human rights, labor rights, gender equality and relevant national legislation (including consequences for perpetrators), non-violent communication skills, self-defense, relevant national legislation and safety planning.Despite being implemented in a short period, the project had a good impact on people and contributed to preventing and reducing the risk of gender-based violence in the locality.