O.N.E - December 2008

December 2008

Co

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When I met Van Thi Minh Chau,

I was struck by her athletic physique,

gentle smile, and the decisive look in

her eyes. Community development is

hard work, and even harder in some of

the country’s poorest areas: the remote

mountainous communities, which she

visits at least once a month, for up

to two weeks at a time. It seems that

Chau’s sensibility and personality

suits the job: she has been managing

l ivelihoods projec t s with ethnic

minority people for 15 years now in

several provinces, including Nghe An,

her home province. She is Oxfam Hong

Kong’s very first project officer in

Hanoi and the longest-serving staff

member there.

Chau remembers the first time she

went to Xop Nhi, a Thai minority village

in Nghe An. It was 2002, and the living

conditions were extremely basic. Even

getting there was difficult: she had to

walk up and down the slopes, a walking

stick in one hand, a knife in the other in

order to clear the paths. Most villagers

kept animals under their wooden

homes built on stilts, and they drank

unfiltered water from distant springs

in the mountains, the same water that

animals used. Disease was rampant.

There was a sub-standard school,

with inadequately trained teachers and

very basic facilities, so many parents

did not think it was worth it to spend

the little money they had to send their

children there. Instead, many boys and

girls helped out in the fields. Either

way, the young generation was losing

out on a good education.

“It was the first time people in Xop

Nhi had the chance to work with a

development organisation,” Chau said.

“We talked a lot with the residents,

collecting their opinions, and making a

project plan together to ensure that it

was effective and efficient. Oxfam had

to be very flexible. No single model of

good practice can work everywhere,

especially in different ethnic minority

communities, and the most important

thing in any community-based project

is for the residents to come to decisions

suitable for themselves.” To Chau,

working with minority communities

requires good listening, patience, an

open mind, and an understanding of

traditions.

The Xop Nhi community built a

fresh water system with a filter, plus a

new primary school. Oxfam gave small

Van Thi Minh Chauloans for women to raise pigs, provided

seeds and technical assistance for

fruit orchards, and organised teacher

training. As coordinator, Chau involved

people all along the way: it is Oxfam’s

practice that people participate in the

entire process of planning, construction,

implementation, maintaining and

monitoring.

“At first, people asked why they did

not receive payment for the work they

did in Oxfam’s project, because they are

normally paid in similar government-

funded projects. I reminded them that

they are the ones who benefit from

and own the construction, and are also

responsible for the maintenance and

sustainability.”

When Chau went to Khe Nap,

another village in the same district and

also with a new school and water system,

it was clear how much she is cherished

and respected. The villagers, this time

of the Khmu minority, extended a warm

welcome, giving her warm hugs. “Chau

is very considerate in her job,” a Khmu

woman said. “She inspired us to get

involved from the beginning.”

Van Thi Minh Chau is a Coordinator of Oxfam Hong Kong’s livelihood projects across Vietnam. She is based in Hanoi.

Phuong Chi is a reporter with the Vietnam News Agency.

By Phuong Chi

Chau (left) and villager in nghe an

Chau (first row, second from left), phuong Chi (third from left), oxfam Hong Kong colleagues and media personnel on a field trip in nghe an.

Oxfam + Vietnam – 20 Year Anniversary Van Thi Minh Chau – Oxfam’s longest-serving staff member People’s Committee: “Let People Understand” Ethnic Minority Women Doing Business Preparing for Disasters: Village Radio & Mezzanine Floors Together for Change

Stop Poverty, Stop Climate Change Gansu, Hong Kong, Poland: Collecting Colours Global petition: www.oxfam.org/en/campaigns/climatechange

Tuong Duong

is a district where

t h e m a j o r i t y

of the population is poor and of

ethnic minority. Oxfam Hong Kong

has been supporting development

projects here since 1993. They have

been working with impoverished

communities to improve the trans-

portation infrastructure, irrigation

systems, water supply, health care, school

construction, sustainable agriculture

and more. On average, the financial

support Oxfam contributes every

year to this district amounts to about

1.8 billion VND (about US$100,000). This

is not a substantial sum of money, yet

the benefits are invaluable. To me, the

most important benefit is that people

in Tuong Duong are now practicing

environmentally-friendly methods in

their agriculture that are increasing

people’s income and helping ensure a

more sustainable way of life. Another

positive result is that, in general,

people are really involved in their

communities now. They speak up and

help make all the decisions needed in

the implementation, maintenance and

long-term monitoring of the community

development projects.

In your opinion, what are the

identifying characteristics of Oxfam’s

projects?

The People’s Committee really values

Oxfam’s work methods. Community

participation is at the core, and the

projects are always carried out in a clear,

concrete way. A survey always comes

first, to carefully assess people’s needs

and concerns. Then, in the planning

process, people have the chance to

discuss how best to implement the

projects, to rank the priorities, to

allocate work assignments, and in the

end, every household is aware of their

rights and obligations. Thanks to this

method, people understand the here

and now, and they trust that there

will be many benefits in the long run.

This firm foundation is important for

sustainability.

The Women’s Union in the district

set up a weaving group, and the

leader Luong Thi Lai recalls that at the

beginning, the Union had to personally

visit each family so that the women

could be persuaded to join. The group

started with 20 members who were

each given VND 60,000 (equivalent

to about US$6 at that time) to buy

thread. Looms and sewing machines

were also provided, because in the past,

the women used to only sew by hand,

which took weeks to finish a single item.

Participants attended advanced training

in designing, sewing and dyeing led

by American and Thai experts in the

textile industry, and soon had options

to indigo blue, which had been the only

natural dye available before. Another

component was training in business

management and basic marketing.

The two-year project has long since

finished. Through the experience of

interacting with tourists who visited

Yen Thanh to learn more about ethnic

minority cultures and to purchase

handicrafts directly in the village, the

Thai women built up a business network

with the travel companies which

arranged the tours. Over the years,

the women have developed a client

list; they now run a small handicrafts

business by themselves. The women’s

products are now for sale at shops in Ho

Chi Minh City, Hanoi and other urban

areas, as well as through stores via Craft

Link, a non-profit organisation in Hanoi

that works with about 40 such crafts

groups and participates in international

trade fairs.

About half of the families in the

village now have at least one woman

in the weaving group. The woven

products bring in an annual income of

around VND2-3 million (about US$120-

180) for about 150 households. Families

feel that the future is brighter, and

one indication is that the village is

now sending 15 students to university,

something they only ever dreamed

about in the past.

To Oxfam, another success i s

that a traditional custom has been

preserved, with the assistance of

modern technology such as sewing

machines, and with current business

and marketing strategies, too.

Thanh Ha is a social affairs and development journalist with Vietnam Post, a Vietnamese-language newspaper.

Photos by Oxfam Hong Kong

Let peopLe understand

Ethnic minority women

doing business

Does Oxfam’s way of working

conform to the state’s current policy of

promoting grassroots participation, and

does it help promote gender equality,

too?

Oxfam’s participatory process fully

accords with state policy – it is a process

through which people have the right to

understand, consider and discuss all the

issues affecting them. It helps people

know what they want, what they should

do, how to do it effectively, and that

the whole community benefits, as well

as the individual.

With gender equality, yes, there is

progress: many Tuong Duong women

are more confident and empowered

now, thanks to Oxfam’s way of working.

Typically, it had been the men who

made the final decisions in the family

and community, but nowadays, women

have more say. The new women’s

groups have proven particularly useful:

the solidarity makes the women’s

strength even stronger.

Can Oxfam’s participatory method

serve as a model for development

projects in Tuong Duong and elsewhere,

and in general, what issues should get

more focus in the future?

Oxfam’s integrated, participatory

and community-based model should

certainly be promoted to improve

people’s living standards, yet it is

impossible to apply the entire Oxfam

model to all projects in Tuong Duong

or in Nghe An Province as a whole,

due to differences in nature, target

and scale.

Two issues deserve more support

in the future. First , some of the

infrastructure that was supported in

the past could use maintaining and

even upgrading; investment and capital

is needed. Secondly, although many

people have worked their way out of

poverty through projects supported by

international agencies such as Oxfam,

58.2 per cent of families in Tuong Duong

remain impoverished, especially in

the mountainous areas of the district.

More resources need to be extended

to these remote regions, and the local

government there needs support, too.

Human resources are very limited, with

district employees in charge of many

different projects at once.

Luong Thanh Hai, of the Thai ethnic minority, is President of the People’s Committee in Tuong Duong District in Nghe An. Cao Cuong, Editor of Investment Review Magazine, conducted the interview on behalf of Oxfam Hong Kong. Photos by Pham Tung Lam and courtesy of Luong Thanh Hai.

In the 1990s, four out of five people

in the village of Yen Thanh went

hungry for much of the year. Nestled

in the mountains of Nghe An Province,

Yen Thanh is home to about 630 Thai

minority people who had been totally

dependent on agriculture for their

living. Yet, because the area is prone

to floods and drought, harvests would

fluctuate, income too, and people’s

food supply. The poorest families would

not have any rice for several months

of the year, eating only yams and

tubers. Women led especially difficult

lives: they had little say in the family

and in the community, yet had a huge

workload of farming, collecting water,

running the household, and taking care

of the children, who typically could

not attend school because they were

needed to work in the fields.

Yen Thanh women are skilled

weavers, and in 1996, a two-year

project was launched in the village

to rejuvenate the Tho Cam tradition

that had gone dormant. Tho Cam is a

particular kind of weaving that uses

colourful threads on a small loom, and

the project focus would be primarily

with the poorest women, who needed

the income the most.

By Thanh Ha

an interview with Luong Thanh HaiAs President of the People’s Committee, how do you

evaluate the impact of Oxfam’s projects on the socio-

economic development of Tuong Duong district?

Village Radio and the Mezzanine FloorBy Viet Thuong

Truong Dang Chuong may be seen as

a small-town, or in this case, small-village

journalist. He lives in the mountains of

Quang Tri, a province in the central

highlands, where he manages the local

radio station.

His small village of Ha Loc, with

about 500 residents, frequently floods.

People there have experienced many

devastating ones, like in 1989, when

two people died and in 1999, when the

entire harvest was lost and everyone

went hungry.

In the past, news bulletins warning

people about floods and other disasters

were delivered by the provincial

authorities during the rainy season, and

then in turn to districts and communes,

but not to the small villages like Ha Loc.

The bulletins were lengthy and rather

general, and often irrelevant to life in

remote areas. For instance, alerts about

coastal waters being too rough during

storms have no meaning for a rice

farmer in the mountains. People in Ha

Loc had no disaster prevention plan.

Chuong was one of 40 people who

completed communication workshops

supported by Oxfam Hong Kong.

In particular, they learned skills in

editing: how to take the district and

provincial news bulletins and extract

the information relevant and useful

TOGETHER FOR CHANGEOvercoming colonialism, surviving a

long, debilitating war with the United

States, and coping with frequent natural

disasters, the people and government

of Vietnam have nonetheless created

better conditions for the development

of their country over the past twenty

years.

Significant socio-economic advances

occurred after 1986, when Vietnam

began to introduce doi moi , or

liberalisation, in many sectors. This

included the NGO sector. Two years

later, in 1988, Oxfam Hong Kong began

working in the country, primarily with

farmers and their families, and primarily

in remote areas where poverty is the

most severe.

Although the national poverty

rate fell from over 70 per cent in the

mid-1980s to about 16 per cent in

2007, poverty remains an everyday

reality among many of ethnic minority

people who tend to live in the inland,

mountainous regions of the country. As

Vietnam develops, the gaps between

rich and poor people, between urban

and rural populations, and between

the Kinh and ethnic minorities are all

widening.

Oxfam Hong Kong’s work with

Vietnamese people actually began in

the mid 1970s in Hong Kong, where

the agency is based. In the 1970s and

80s, over 100,000 Vietnamese arrived

in Hong Kong by boat, and Oxfam not

only helped secure better conditions

for them while they lived here, but also

realised that an integrated response

for their local communities. Nowadays,

when Chuong is in front of his amplifier

in Ha Loc, he might be delivering news

on a storm ahead and how best to

prepare for it, or maybe the current

prices for crops. He makes sure that he

uses words that are easy to understand

and applicable to the local context.

People listen to Chuong. On top of the

radio work, he is also the village chief.

When the O Giang River flooded

recently, for example, families living at

the water’s edge received very specific

information from the broadcasts. They

knew the exact water level, and not

just by a number, as Chuong made

sure that the most at-risk families were

made aware of the changing situation.

“The Phuong family need to prepare,”

he would say, and “the Xuy’s need to

be ready if the rains continue” and

so forth.

The warning system reaches every

home in Ha Loc, the army is on standby

to help people evacuate if necessary,

and new regulations require each

family to keep a seven-day reserve of

food, water, fuel and a back-up light

source. The community of Ha Loc has

also adopted the slogan ‘a little bit

of prevention is better than a lot of

relief aid’, and it seems to be working.

People’s awareness of how to protect

their homes and livelihoods in the face

of floods has improved drastically.

For instance, during the flood season,

more people are choosing fish farming

over land cultivation, as the risks are

considerably lower.

In addition to the better com-

munications system and farming

alternatives, some of the residents in

Ha Loc now have new small mezzanine

floors in their homes. In the past, no one

in the village had these floors, or even

heard of them. Nowadays, the people

see the concrete floors as a huge help.

When floods are forecast, villagers

can easily move their grain and other

goods up away from the rising water,

and if need be, the family can also take

shelter there. People feel so much more

secure. (Oxfam Hong Kong is working

alongside the Vietnam Red Cross in this

phase of the project.)

Four communes are currently

benefiting from these projects, but the

authorities plan to extend the model for

the entire district, and perhaps even the

whole province of Quang Tri.

Viet Thuong is a journalist working for Tuoi Tre, a daily newspaper for youth published in Vietnamese. He is based in Quang Tri. Photo by Quoc Tuan.

of over US$21 million in 30 countries.

Vietnam and China share many

common characteristics , socially,

economically and politically, and Oxfam

Hong Kong supports exchange visits

every year between its programmes in

these countries, as well as among other

countries across Asia. Oxfam Hong

Kong is one of the thirteen members

of Oxfam International, with anti-

poverty programmes in more than 100

countries.

This small book of 20 stories is just

a glimpse of Oxfam’s work. By bringing

together these stories, we hope to

enable readers to learn more about

the lives of people facing poverty, as

we ourselves have been learning as we

reflect on our experiences during the

process of creating this book.

Please listen to the voices of poor

people living in remote regions of

Vietnam; sense how they have enabled

themselves to build a better, fairer life.

Please listen to the voices of members

of community groups, people who

have been essential and important

driving forces in effecting change. The

voices may be of an ethnic minority

farmer, a woman who has had access

to a loan for the first time, a women’s

union leader, a government official, a

village journalist, a community worker,

an Oxfam colleague…. They all have

something in common: strength and

passion for change.

I myself have been moved by the

significant improvement in the lives

of poor people through my several

to the flow of refugees and economic

migrants must include supporting socio-

economic development within Vietnam

itself. Initial projects in the country

from 1988 focused on agriculture and

income, such as irrigation, forestry,

landmine awareness, and drinking

water systems in several provinces, such

as Ha Bac, Hai Hung, Nghe An, Quang

Binh, Quang Tri and Thanh Hoa. In

1993, permission was granted for the

agency to open an office in Hanoi, and

projects extended to Lang Son, where

women were supported to develop

their handicrafts. Since 1997, Oxfam’s

approach has been to concentrate and

integrate work in Ha Tinh, Nghe An and

Quang Tri, with a priority to assist ethnic

minorities and women. This sustainable

community development work includes

preparing people to cope with natural

disasters, while humanitarian response

work continues nationwide when

disaster strikes.

In the past 20 years, Oxfam Hong

Kong has supported over 450 projects

in 936 communities, directly benefiting

more than 800,000 poor people. Another

arm of Oxfam’s work includes policy

research, campaigning and advocacy

seeking high level, international policy

change on such issues as landmines

and fair trade rules. Today, Vietnam

remains one of Oxfam Hong Kong’s

largest country programmes (second

only to China) in terms of financial

commitments and human resources: in

2007/08, the agency contributed over

US$3.3 million in Vietnam, out of a total

visits to Vietnam since the 1990s,

and I look forward to the day when

absolute poverty can be eradicated in

the country.

On behalf of Oxfam Hong Kong, I

can emphatically say that we are proud

to be in partnership with the people

featured in this book and thousands of

others in the country. We thank them

for having confidence in us, as we

believe in them, and we hope readers

of this book can sense this trust that

underlies this partnership.

John Sayer is the Director General of Oxfam Hong Kong

together for Change (in Vietnamese) marks oxfam Hong Kong's 20th year of working in Vietnam. preface by John sayer.

In the 1980s, oxfam Hong Kong released three reports on the injustices facing people from Vietnam in Hong Kong. the first report was published in full by the South China Morning Post on 7 May 1986.

nguyen Cao Cuong

By John Sayer

Co

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Hong Kong

OXFAM ACTION A global petition against climate change:

http://www.oxfam.org/en/campaigns/climatechange

OXFAM BOOKSFrom Poverty to Power

With up-to-date research, human stories, statistics, and

compelling arguments, this 540-page book from Oxfam

International presents the causes and effects of poverty and

inequality, the massive human and economic costs, and many

realistic solutions.

• Written by Duncan Green, head of research at Oxfam Great Britain

• Foreword by Amartya Sen, economist, and Honorary Advisor,

Oxfam International

• In English, with summaries available

in French, Portuguese and Spanish

• Published by Oxfam International

• June, 2008

• ISBN 978-0-85598-593-6

Download the whole book at:

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/

resources/fp2p/about.html

OXFAM in the NEWS Harmonious teen sky

Four teenagers of South

Asian descent talk about their

experiences of living in Hong

Kong on Metro Radio, FM

99.7, every Saturday until 13

December.

UNISON, an organisation that

works for ethnic minority rights

in Hong Kong, has facilitated this

radio show called Harmonious

TEEN Sky.

Radio DJ Meggie will be

inter viewing Keran Hayat ,

Hardeep Singh, Samira Bibi and Sungsanga Jutharat, as well as

other guests in issues facing ethnic minorities in Hong Kong.

UNISON has been supported by Oxfam Hong Kong.

UNISON (852) 2789 3236, www.unison.org.hk

MOKUNGOxfam Hong Kong publishes this

bi-monthly magazine in Traditional

Chinese. Mokung, which means both

“no poverty” and “infinity”, highlights

a different aspect of development in

each issue. The Editor is Tung Tsz-kwan.

The current edition looks at food and

inflation in Hong Kong. The next edition

will focus on Climate Change.

To subscribe: www.oxfam.org.hk/public/bookstore/?lang=big5

Mokung is online at www.oxfam.org.hk/public/

contents/category?cid=1017&lang=big5

ONEO.N.E – Oxfam News E-

magazine – is uploaded monthly

at www.oxfam.org.hk/one.

To receive a copy in your

inbox, please subscribe – it is

free.

To subscribe: www.oxfam.org.hk/one/subscribe.html

17th Floor, 28 Marble road, northpoint, Hong Kong

o.n.e is also on-line: www.oxfam.org.hk/one

editor: Madeleine Marie slavick ([email protected])

NewPartnerOrganisations

Every day, Oxfam Hong Kong works

alongside hundreds of groups around the

world, from small NGOs to international

bodies, from government departments of

developing countries to community groups

based in Hong Kong. Here are 10 ‘partner

organisations’ that we are supporting for

the first time.

www.oxfam.org.hk

BEIJING •16-Day Anti-Violence against Women Campaign Coordination Group •Department of Sociology, College of Humanity and Development, China Agriculture University •Villages and Towns Construction Forum

GUANGXI •Ethnic Minority Affairs Bureau of Ningming County •Ethnic Minority Affairs Bureau of Shangzi County •Ethnic Affairs Commission of Nanning City

GUIZHOU •Guizhou Association for Community Construction and Rural Governance

YUNNAN •Civil Affairs Department of Xundian County •Dongchuan County Poverty Alleviation Office •Kunming International Non-Government Organization Society

Zhang Zhi-rong and his artwork

She describes herself as a ‘painting

writer’ and uses the penname ‘Gukzik’,

which translates as ‘collecting colours’.

When the artist and educator from Hong

Kong traveled to Gansu, one of the poorest

parts in all of China, she inspired dozens of

children there to reflect on their drought-

stricken lives hard hit by climate change,

and to colour the future. She asked primary

school students to put a chocolate ball in

their mouths, to imagine it as Earth, and

that their body temperature was melting

the world away. She then led them to

Gukzik says, “I was very moved by the

drawing of 12-year-old Zhang Zhi-rong, a

quiet student in Jingyuan, Gansu. Cracked

soil is framed in the Chinese character for

‘field’ or ‘farmland’, and around it are bare

trees and stones: a dry Earth floating in

a blue cosmos. When I returned to Hong

Kong, I felt the urge to echo. I duplicated

his original drawing, and paired it with my

melting landscape of skyscrapers along

Victoria Harbour that is framed in a similar

structure as Zhi-rong’s. The time of day is

8p.m., when every night in Hong Kong,

Bangladesh), and higher sea-levels (all

around the world). Who is responsible for

these emissions? It is primarily the people

living in wealthier, industrialised societies

of the world, including in Hong Kong.

“I feel a big responsibility in participating

in Oxfam International’s Canvas for Change

project: Hot City, Dry Field will go to the

UN Climate Change Conference in Poland

this month. Will the canvases (1.2m x 1.8m)

really speak to some of the world’s key

decision-makers in this climate crisis? Will

they really speak adequately for the people

I met in Gansu who struggle every day?

Zhang Zhi-rong (middle row, far left) and his classmates and teacher in Gansu - Lau Gukzik at far

Hot City, dry Field by Lau Gukzik and Zhang Zhi-rong

COLLECTiNG COLOuRs, FOR CHANGE draw what Gansu, and the globe, was

experiencing in climate change: 35 of the

52 children expressed a wish for rain.

Water is scarce in Gansu. Lakes are

drying up. Rainfall has decreased. People

need to dig as far down as 100 meters

to find water. Maize is shorter, plums

are smaller, sunflowers hang their heads.

Farmers in Gansu, as anywhere, are hugely

dependent on rainfall for their living, and

they need to be able to ‘read’ the weather,

but with the unpredictable, changing

climate, they cannot. Instead, sandstorms

are the norm and deserts are encroaching

their farmland.

there is a huge and wasteful display: lights

blink, colours flash, and beams extend

from high-rises all the way across the sea.

Through the pair of canvases which I title

Hot City, Dry Field, I want to remind people

that the wealth we enjoy today has come at

a price, a price that the people in Gansu and

other poor communities are paying.

“Is it too hot, or too rich? Increasing

emissions of greenhouse gases has raised

the earth’s average temperature to such

an extent that we now experience extreme

weather conditions: more drought (like

in Gansu), warmer winters (like in Hong

Kong), more storms (like in Myanmar and

“I join Oxfam Hong Kong in their ‘Stop

Poverty! Stop Climate Change!’ campaign:

www.oxfam.org.hk/climatechange. I ask

you to join, too.”

Gukzik Lau has exhibited in the UK, USA, Canada, Switzerland, Japan and Hong Kong, and her art is in numerous private and public collections worldwide. Trained as a printmaker, she currently uses modern print ing machines, such as the offset pr inter, photocopier, fax machine and digital output. She teaches at the Hong Kong Art School and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Oxfam acknowledges the support of Fingerprint Ltd, Wong San Mun and Tin Lai Man.