~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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Good morning Vietnam – with love from France

No one knows by whom it was conceived but a program has been carried out for five years under which students from a French school visit Vietnam to fund the economic activities of several poor individuals. The students on the “Good morning Vietnam” program are mostly Vietnamese-French and are from the Grande Ecole HEC (Paris), a school of Commerce in France. They come in four groups each year and, besides the micro credit program, also run a French teaching program in HCMC, Hue, Hanoi and Danang. This is how it works: they contact a local partner and once the latter identifies poor families to be assisted, the students appraise the cases; they then lend small amounts of money at interest as low as 5% per year.

Community lending

Sandra Luong, leader of the group which visited Vietnam recently, said: “We study the progress [made by the beneficiaries] and the interest they pay will be donated to the program fund for the next year”. “If one family fails to repay the loan, the others have to pay it together” she said. “It is the solidarity of a community in doing business that decides their success.”

“We raise money by writing to the City Hall, companies, organizations, individuals and from selling cakes on the street. This year, we already have €23,000!” “When we first visited poor families in Hung Long Commune in Binh Chanh Province, we were moved to see the huge gap between urban and rural Vietnam, unlike in France,” Patricia Le Van Tinh, another member, said. “With the loan, 14 families in Hung Long have a chance to raise pigs and improve their life. Great!” We are, in some way, Vietnamese Most of Sandra Luong’s group are “Vietnamese-connected”. Both Patricia’s parents are Vietnamese; Sandra has a French father and Vietnamese mother. Only Emmanuel de Robien is pure French. The stocky youth loves to spend his free time playing football with his new Vietnamese friends. He said glumly: “It is hard for us to leave after living here for a year and sharing everything with people whom we now consider family”. But with other enthusiastic youths to follow in the steps of Sandra, Patricia and Emmauel, at least the poor in Vietnam will continue to have friends like these.

By Mai Phuong - Thanh Nien - August 11, 2005.