This morning, we visited two families.
The first one lives on borrowed land, a small wooden house and a tiny separate kitchen standing a few meters away. The couple lives there with their two children, who study 7 kilometers from home, in grades 1 and 6. The husband works as a daily laborer in the rubber trees nearby, while the wife takes care of the rice field and the animals.
They own 2 000 m² of rice and 4 000 m² of rubber trees, but since the land where they built their house belongs to the woman’s brother, they cannot apply for government help to build a better home. Thien Chi supports them with a loan to take care of their chickens, rice, and rubber trees, as well as with the earthworm model that helps recycle cow waste into feed and fertilizer. The family also received a cow from the government last year, which now has three calves.
They joined Thien Chi in 2023 and are currently in their fifth loan cycle of 5 million dongs each. Their daughter receives a yearly scholarship of 700,000 dongs, and the whole family is covered by the national health insurance.
The second family we met was lively and full of energy. They live with the grandmother, who has heart problems and needs daily medication, and their two children in grades 4 and 6. Besides cultivating 2,000 m² of rice, they make banh bao, small, steamed buns filled with meat, vegetables, and eggs and others with sometimes cheesy.
Every morning starts at 6 a.m. to prepare the ingredients and shape the buns. Around 11, they rest before heading out to sell them in the afternoon. Together, husband and wife, they produce about 500 buns a day, earning around 300,000 dongs daily. Each bun sells for 10,000 dongs, about 30 cents.
They have been working with Thien Chi for two years, supported by a 5-million-dong microcredit to help grow their activity.
I was invited to join the process, making my own bun filled with meat, vegetables, and eggs, and peeling what felt like hundreds of boiled eggs with my colleague, the mother, and other local women. I was impressed by the patience and rhythm behind something that seems so simple to eat, yet so full of effort and care to create.
Leticia