We talked about the interviews we'd done with the local farmers and debated the effectiveness of the farmer training program. It gave us the chance to reflect on our own data collections skills, as well as on the work of Bloom. It really highlighted how difficult it can be to find solutions to long-standing localised problems.
One story that really stood out to me in the sessions was a story about a farmer who has asked for a loan from Bloom to start farming dogs for meat. While most westerners find the idea of dog meat quite appalling, it's fairly common in Northern Vietnam. Only particular dogs are farmed and used for their meat, not the same breeds as those used for pets.
Bloom made the decision not to loan the money for dogs to be farmed. Instead, they encouraged the farmer to apply for a loan to raise ducks. Bloom knew that many of their western donors wouldn't be happy if they found out that their donations had been used to fund dog farming.
The farmer took the loan for ducks, which are much harder to raise as they're more susceptible to illness and more affected by climate. All the ducks died and the farmer lost their investment, but still had to repay the loan.
I'm a vegetarian and would prefer that no animals were farmed - but I was quite surprised to hear that western values played a role in deciding what farmers could and couldn't do with their loan money. It was another example of the difficulties faced by NGOs. They need to keep their donors in mind and make sure that they can secure an income from them, while they carry out their field work.
The team from Bloom gave us a great farewell on our final night in Hanoi. It was very sad to say goodbye to them and to wrap up the program. We're all hoping we can make it back to Hanoi at some point in the future to catch up with them again!
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