- Access to credit

- Education

- ƒnEnvironmental health

The FESR has been pursuing the goal of building vibrant communities in which members and particularly women are empowered to be contributing citizens. Over a period of 8 years, between 2000 and 2007, FESR has received assistance and encouragement but no interference from Hue City government. Achievements have included:

• Assisted over 12,000 poor people, of which 10,000 woman-headed families in 35 communities with non-collateral and preferential micro-loans of between 2 and 10 million VND each (150 to 750 USD) that are paid back as monthly mortgage payments over periods from 12 to 24 months. With this micro-loan the woman could use it for her purpose of improving her family¡¦s economic condition. And, by using this loan for improvement of living condition, the woman escaped from the unemployment and prevent herself from depending strongly on the man - the husband - in the family for their livelihood;
• Succeeded in training groups of 10-20 women every time there is a face-to-face loan disbursement, in how to use the loan effectively, how to improve standard living by vendoring, gardening, doing animal husbandry, etc., and money budgeting;
• Organized successfully dozens of training courses for both men and women in the community on child rearing, good habits of hygiene, sanitation, maintenance of happiness in the families, etc.;
• Organized discussions on socially updated issues and encouraged the women stating their ideas, especially encouraged the women speaking in public;
• Conducted frequent house-to-house visits of FESR¡¦s workers to borrowers¡¦ families to check and evaluate act as well
• Developed simple booklets on basic women issues such as economic survivability, health maintenance, sex education, skill improvements, and awareness of rights and risks of women in the family and in society.

1 Jan 2000: Established
31 Dec 2002: Total loans exceeded 2,500
31 Dec 2004: Total loans exceeded 5,000
16 Dec 2005: Received Appreciation of Province¡¦s Chairman
07 Mar 2008: Received UN-HABITAT Award

SITUATION BEFORE THE INITIATIVE BEGAN
Central Vietnam, especially Thua Thien-Hue province, was ravaged in 1999 by what is now known as the 100-year flood of 1999.One Vietnamese-American family sent $40,000 to give emergency help to victims.The volunteers and the Vietnamese American donor got together afterwards to launch Fund for the Encouragement of Self-Reliance.

ESTABLISHMENT OF PRIORITIES
One or two well known citizens collaborate with FESR to form mutual support groups of borrowers and to train them in the basics of family economy, health maintenance, children care... FESR got a number of more than 1,000 beneficiaries who were graduated* from FESR, in which there are nearly 600 so-called self-reliance families. And other fruitful results:

1. Visible benefits have included happiness and confidence of the borrowers;
2. Stronger authority of women within the family;
3. Signs of children being well fed and going to school;
4. Stronger voice of women in the communit;,
5. Job generation of dozens of jobs for women.

FORMULATION OF OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES

Established in early 2000, after the damage of historic flood in late 1999, FESR sponsored by the Vietnamese oversea family is a grassroots project operating in Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam. Day-to-day operations are executed by a group of Vietnamese college graduates 90% of them including the leaders are women, directed by a Board of Directors that does not receive any compensation.

Up to date, FESR has assisted over 12,000 poor people, of which 10,000 woman-headed families in 35 communities in and around Hue City with micro-loan amounts to conduct a multitude of diverse small businesses to feed their families and to send their children to schools. The total capital investment has exceeded 1,200,000 USD; the total overhead costs have been less than 6%; and the capital recovery rates have been over 98.2%.

MOBILISATION OF RESOURCES

As a NGO acting in humanity activities, FESR has got the assistance and support from the Vietnamese American family from the beginning and the upcoming time. Presently, the fund has been up to more than 1,200,000 million dollars and FESR keeps maintaining and developing its activities. The amount from interest of credit activities has been divided into these following parts:

• 10% for MSG leaders if the MSG have good implementation of payment;
• 10% for collaborators who are the good linkage between FESR and local governments and loanees;
• 30% for administrative management expenses
• 30% for other supporting activities such as providing relief for the poor or the disadvantaged affected by the disaster; scholarship granting to the poor students; building kindergartens; organizing training courses on rising awareness for women, training courses on child rearing, good habits of hygiene, sanitation, maintenance of happiness in the families...
• The remain of 20% is used for assisting the fund.

Alongside with the cooperation of Hue City government to carry out FESR¡¦s activities in Hue city and neighboring areas, FESR has also got the cooperation of CoVN (Creating opportunities for Vietnam) in credit activities, of FHF (Friends of Hue Foundation) in relief activities and disadvantaged children supporting, of EMW (Eastmeetswest) in kindergarten building...

In addition, FESR actively cooperate with other NGOs to carry out short-term humanity projects.

RESULTS ACHIEVED

Success Story 1: From two-pigs owner to a breed piglet supplier

Le Thi Diep in the Hue district of Phu Hau was a housewife, tending two pigs and a few chicken to supplement the family income. After learning of the avian flu risk and the potential to be better off by providing piglets to other backyard entrepreneurs, she discontinued the chicken line, got a loan from FESR, expanded her pig shed, and started to multiply her school of breed piglets. Today, after three years, she has a TV and a motorbike, and her children dress well going to school. She also participates actively in the discussion groups of the local Women¡¦s Union.

Success Story 2: Shy Housewife Becomes Confident General Store Owner

Ms. Tran Thi Thanh Van of Long Tho village, Hue City, was a shy individual as she was very self-conscious of her poverty status. Her main avocation was being a housewife, leaning on the labor and leadership of her husband. After being introduced to FESR in 2000, and she took the scary step of borrowing 2 million VND (about 150 USD at that time) to open a petty shop at her house. This shop prospered, and through three rounds of loans with increasingly larger amounts, she is now the proud owner of an impressive general store in the village. She has cast away her shyness to become head of a mutual support group in the village, encouraging others to take out the ¡§truly helpful¡¨ money from FESR to develop an income generating trade. She is now also a source of information for village women regarding family planning, personal hygiene, public sanitation, and children education.

LESSONS LEARNED

We understand that Hue City people in particular and Vietnamese people in general keep staying in low physical and spiritual living conditions due to sufferings in the last three centuries. And, the poverty is the root cause of multitude of ills that afflict people, especially vulnerable people such as women, children, the disabled, the elder.... In poverty, Vietnamese people suffer the lack of food and clothing, education and opportunity to be master of their own destiny. The majority suffers disadvantages due to their gender, and many are impacted by violence in the home and society, including modern day slavery through human trafficking. As a result, FESR has been in the attempts to contribute partly into empowering women to be aware of the risks they face and to have the capacity to avoid them or mitigate the impacts in order to survive and prosper. Over a period of six years and after much hard work, FESR has achieved feats that fit very well into a citizen¡¦s concept of lending a hand to help the weak stand and walk.

FESR¡¦s credit activities was under the model of Grameen but we has flexibly adjusted it into Vietnam¡¦s situation and this helps to create the success of FESR. We has got the close cooperation of Hue City government, local governments, women unions, farmers¡¦ unions and other relating agencies. Nowadays, FESR is gaining much confidence and cooperation of people in Thua Thien Hue.

As a full member of CityNet, Hue City has carried out all its responsibilities to activities of CITNYET. Besides, as a partner of FESR, Hue City has provided opportunities to support FESR¡¦s activities especially in hunger eradication and poverty alleviation, in environment protection in awareness rising to women to encourage their participation in social activities and decision making. As a result, Hue City advocates FESR to involve in the submission for Civil Society Organization (CSO) Award.

TRANSFERS

FESR started out with a clear definition of mission, goal, objectives, modes of operation, and by-laws. Ethical conduct of its officers and transparency of all activities are highest on the list of musts. Other pillar values include compliance with the laws, high efficiency, cost effectiveness, and responsiveness. The staff has grown from 3 in 2000 to 16 in 2008, with two additional positions in the process of being filled. Two of the 4 members of the Board of Directors reside in Hue and are available any time there is a need for face-to-face decision-making. FESR has a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Hue City, in the shared effort to eliminate hunger and eradicate poverty.

FESR is now well known in the Hue region as an organization that works selflessly mostly through women for the poor and the community. It is known to be transparent and responsive. The City of Hue government considers FESR an essential element of its plan for the developing Hue in the 21st century. The mayor of Hue has showcased some achievements of FESR in the national conference of city mayors in Hanoi, 2005.

FESR approachas to achieving our goal and objectives by astutely managing our technical and administrative work with focus, planning, monitoring, documenting, and reporting. The project is well organized and directed, performed by a staff of highly dedicated college graduates, and evaluated by independent people who are known to be skilled and highly ethical.

The model of our organization has been paid much attention to and research by the leading Vietnamese scholars of Institute of Development Study (IDS). Hopefully our mode will be applied and disseminated based on the following characters:

• Our program has imitated the model of Grameen Bank but we provide credit loan with low interest to help the poor needy communities;
• Closely collaborating with Women Union, Gardening Association, Farmer Union...to select the local collaborators to work with us;
• Our programs have been supported by local governments; therefore we are able to cut complicated administrative procedures to serve the poor at our fullest capacity;
• Our administration fees of 6% are lower than those of other organizations or agencies with 20 ¡V 25% on average;
• Firm regulations and transparent paperwork are always available for those who wish to know.

Mr. Nguyen Dang Thanh -  Vice Chairman of Hue CPC

23-25 Le Loi Str., Hue City, Vietnam

Tel: +84-54-848299; Fax: +84-54-822681

Email: thanhpho@thuathienhue.gov.vn

Mr. Nguyen Nhien  - Director of Hue City Bureau of Foreign Affairs

01 Le Hong Phong Str., Hue City, Vietnam

Tel: +84-54-220444; Fax: +84-54-220445

Email: info@doingoai.org

Mr. Doan Phung, Ph.D., PE - Trustee

Fund for the Encouragement

8021 Golfers Oasis

Las Vegas, NV 89149

A US 501(c)3 Organization

Tel. 702-395-6680

Fax: 702-395-6682

Email: doanphung@gmail.com

Partner	Year 2003	Year 2004	Year 2005	Year 2006	Year 2007	TOTAL
Hue City People's Committee	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Friends of Hue Foundation	0	0	0	15,000	0	15,000
Create Opportunities for Vietnamese	0	0	15,000	0	0	15,000
Room to Read	0	18,000	0	0	0	18,000
East Meets West	0	18,000	0	0	0	18,000
Total Budget (US $)	0	36,000	15,000	15,000	0	66,000

We expect will help bring our project to distant poor communities and realize other equally imaginative projects that together will make Thua Thien-Hue province the model of grassroots civil development of Vietnam in the 21st century within the following concrete objectives:

1. Make micro-loans to all women in the province in order for them to raise pigs or fish, grow fruit trees or vegetable, provide income producing services, manufacture marketable products, produce specialty foodstuff, or run small shops to assure the family with a certain measure of economic security;
2. Conduct routine training for women beneficiaries every time FESR workers come to the community to disburse loans. These loans are given at low interest and are based on the words of honor of the borrowers to use the money wisely, to pay back monthly amounts as agreed upon, and to help one another within the MSG;
3. Encourage/ require each MSG to sponsor an extremely poor person/ family to conduct a trade to be self-reliant. FESR will provide smaller loans with very low interest (e.g. 0.2%/ month) for these bottom-of-society cases;
4. Establish 2 model kindergartens each year in the service communities. Train graduate women teachers to plan, teach, and maintain the schools as an enterprise and to aim for self-sufficiency within three years. Kindergartens are not currently funded by the government and therefore are encouraged to be ¡§private¡¨.