From 6–7 April, 2015, Ms Patricia Garrido, a regional officer for South East Asia of Manos Unidas (Spain) and SRD staff visited beneficiaries in Hai Ninh and Ninh Hai communes, Tinh Gia district, Thanh Hoa province of the project VM052 “Towards a sustainable livelihood of poor single women headed households by applying a climate smart agriculture approach in Tinh Gia District, Thanh Hoa Province”. This is the newest SRD project funded by Manos Unidas. The beneficiaries of the project are poor single women farmers in the two communes. It is expected that the project will run over three years from 2015 to 2017.
Hai Ninh and Ninh Hai are the poorest communes in Tinh Gia district, which is under the 257/2003 program of the Prime Minister for extremely poor communes in coastal areas and islands. In Hai Ninh and Ninh Hai, there are 1035 poor households in which 576 are single woman-headed households. These women’s sources of income are mainly from rice production, small livestock and seafood purchasing.
(Picture: The donor and SRD staff working with local authorites in Tinh Gia district)
Understanding the women’s difficulties, SRD developed the VM052 project to bring justice and empowerment to poor women farmers and enhance their role in the family and society through livelihood improvement in the context of climate change. The project is funded by Manos Unidas, a Spanish non-governmental organization specializing in humanitarian development. Manos Unidas received a warm and friendly welcome from local government agencies and residents.
SRD staff and donors visited the Thanh Hoa Foreign Affairs Department and the leaders of the department enthusiastically welcomed Manos Unidas and SRD’s support for residents in Thanh Hoa. They also promised to create the best state management conditions for project implementation in the province.
In Ninh Hai and Hai Ninh communes, Ms Patricia Garrido and SRD staff visited extremely poor households of women in difficult circumstances, such as Ms Mai Thi Men living in Thong Nhat hamlet with her son Mai Tien Dat who has osteogenesis imperfecta, but she does not have money for a cure and has to farm to feed the family. Other beneficiaries visited included Ms Le Thi Yen in Hong Ky hamlet, whose husband suffered a cerebrovascular accident leading to poliomyelitis 14 years ago and Ms Le Thị Hoa, who is a widow with five children in Nam Tien hamlet.
(Picture: Beneficiaries' happniess when meeting the donor)
The group also had a small meeting with poor single woman-headed households in Hai Ninh commune. At that meeting, Ms Patricia said she understood the difficulties of women in the commune and highly appreciated SRD for the selecting the beneficiaries of the project. Ms Patricia asserts that the community development support of SRD will help women in Tinh Gia to improve empowerment, justice and living standards through sustainable livelihood development in the context of climate change.
After Tinh Gia, Ms Patricia Garrido visited Thai Nguyen province on 8–9 April to visit the project “Participatory land use and management in Thai Nguyen and Phu Tho provinces” funded by Manos Unidas, then participated in a donor meeting at SRD in Hanoi on 10 April. Manos Unidas has cooperated with SRD for a long time.
-SRD-
Centre for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD)
No.31, Alley 19 Kim Dong Street, Hoang Mai District, Ha Noi
Phone: +84 24 3943 6676/78 | Fax: +84 24 3943 6449
