Changes in Dong Bua Home Village after nearly five months of project implementation

It is not too difficult to establish a women`s club is in areas where people have poor education like Dong Bua Village in particular and the buffer zone of Tam Dao National Park in general. A greater challenge is to ensure that such a club sustains and works effectively. This requires an early set-up of operation regulations of the club. During a meeting of Dong Bua Village Women and Environment Club last November, Center for Development of Community Initiative and Environment (C&E) assisted the Club Executive Board and club members to build and approve the Club rules and regulations with flexible application depending on specific situations when club members work in "bamboo-cluster groups." In the meetings, the club found that local environmental pollution was a pressing issue mainly because agricultural by-products and waste were not handled properly. Realizing that with proper treatment, they will cause no adverse impacts to the environment and bring about economic benefits to farmers. Therefore, the club members proposed to C&E to invite experts to train them on composting fertilizers.

After nearly five months of project implementation and nearly three months after provision of seedlings and young chickens, two types of environmental-friendly economic models of the club members achieved some encouraging results. Regarding Safe Chayote (Chouchou) Growing Model, each family planted Chouchou in one to two Vietnamese acres depending on available ​​family farmland. As Chouchou was growing, women intercropped vegetables such as turnips, cabbage, winter melons and beens … ensuring crop diversity to avoid diseases and generating extra products. Thanks to proper care and favorable weather, now chayote has been harvested and brings about stable income from 1 million to 3 million VND/acre/month, ensuring daily life although product sale relies on a few small traders inside and outside the village so the price is unstable. Chicken Growing Model had more difficulties because women did not have much experience in concentrated animal husbandry though C&E actively provided both young chickens and vaccine. After nearly two months of implementation, over 90% of chickens are alive with an average weight of 1kg each. Other chickens died of inappropriate care, for example people stepped over and killed them or dogs or cats bit them … Still, this is a great success for the project in such a locality like Dong Bua.

During a routine meeting of the club in early December 2011, C&E guided the club members in calculating economic efficiency, including recording revenues and expenditures, of the two models of Chayote Growing and Chicken Growing towards safe and sustainable production. This was new and quite difficult for the members. Also in this meeting, C&E invited experts from the Centre for Sustainable Community Development to provide technical training on organic composting and earth worm farming and probiotics. The club members then composted fertilizers which with positive results. In the time to come, the fertilizers will be used for chayote and other crop fields. Earth worm is a valuable food for livestock. The two products of organic fertilizers and earth worm will enhance the value of outputs and profits in cultivation and animal husbandry. As the village has no cultural house, community activities take place in poor conditions with no sound and light devices. Recognizing that this problem also affects the club performance, C&E provided the club some audio equipment to use in their meetings. Dong Bua village is far from the town center, hindering people’s study of advanced knowledge in animal husbandry, horticulture and health which are necessary to empower people in reducing poverty and becoming independent from project support. So early in December, C&E gave the club a bookshelf with 99 books in agriculture, health and science. C&E also guided the Club Executive Board in efffective management of the bookshelf. The award ceremony took place in open and warm atmosphere in the presence of all the club members and local leaders. After this, many club members referred to and borrowed books that met their needs. This demonstrated that the community bookcase initially brought good results.

Environmental protection is the responsible of individuals and society as a whole so environment protection promotion for all people to know and become involved is essential in Dong Bua village. Communication has been made through the radio programs and via lively and beautiful posters and slogans which have attracted people’ attention. This is also a method to replicate the environmental-friendly economic models to all people in the region who can consult and assist each other in poverty reduction in the project framework.

The above are recent project results achieved with tireless efforts of Dong Bua village women and C&E. In the near future we believe that with a stable source of income from the economic models, Dong Bua village women will help each other, step-by-step, to further economic development and poverty reduction

Some pictures of project

C&E