Soc Son is a small village on the outskirts of Hanoi. A lot of the villages there work on farm plots near their homes, while others commute to Hanoi.
When
Bloom Microventures began working with this village about three years ago, many villagers were earning an income from spending hours sifting through rubbish in the giant dump nearby to find anything sellable. Some were sending their children there to work too, instead of sending them to school. There wee a lot of problems with diseases, particularly respiratory diseases. Bloom initiated a number of education programs and showed that there are other opportunities for income. Very few villagers now work in the dump.
One of the families we met have begun diversifying their crops and livestock. This has been very successful for them, as it reduces the impact of crashing market prices. Bloom has been encouraging this kind of diversification. One of their recent additions has been a flock of turkeys.
This farm also had a fantastic array of vegetables - which we picked for our dinner the following night.
On this tour we met people from a couple of families that have benefitted from Microfinance loans. They told us how they earn income, why the loans have been helpful and explained how they were able to expand their businesses with the extra income.
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