With UN Women and FAO’s help, families try to recover from Covid-19 pandemic and drought in Viet Nam
Date:
Author: Hoang Bich Thao
Tran Van Thoi, Viet Nam — More than 3,500 people hurt by both the COVID-19 pandemic and drought in southern Viet Nam are now trying to rebuild their livelihoods with cash assistance from UN Women and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
These vulnerable people from 800 households of Tran Van Thoi district are using the total cash grant of VND 3.15 billion ($136,000) to recover from the simultaneous double disasters. Most of the residents of this district in Ca Mau province are farmers and seasonal workers.
Elisa Fernandez Saenz, UN Women Representative in Viet Nam, presented the aid at a ceremony on 14 September.
Accepting it on behalf of her community was Nguyen Quynh Chi, 34, a jobless mother of two children, 12 and 7 years old. Her family has no land for farming and her husband lost his job as a builder because of coronavirus social distancing regulations. Nguyen used up the family savings and borrowed money to raise 200 ducklings that recently died. She has been paying interest equivalent to about $5 a month on the loan. Nguyen said she will use the UN Women-FAO grant to buy new ducklings and pay her children’s school tuition.
“My family greatly appreciates the grant,” she said. “It comes very [much] in time and helps them a lot,”
According to a report released on 2 September by UN Women and United Nations Development Programme, the pandemic and containment policies will push 96 million people worldwide into extreme poverty by 2021, 47 million of them women and girls. That would increase the number of extremely poor women and girls to 435 million -- and it is projected that this number will not revert to pre-pandemic levels until 2030.
In Viet Nam, the suffering has been worsened since October 2019 by the most severe drought in more than 60 years in the Mekong Delta, including Ca Mau province.
The families that received the cash grants had lost their jobs or had their incomes significantly reduced due to the double disasters. Priority was given to the most vulnerable families, such as those with women as the main breadwinner; pregnant women or women with children under 12 months of age; people with disabilities or chronic diseases; and people over 65.
The grants were given as part of the project on Forecast-based Financing and Early Warning – Early Action for drought that UN Women and FAO have been carrying out in Ca Mau since 2017. Cash delivery is coordinated with the Viet Nam Women’s Union. The 14 September grants were funded by the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO).
For media inquiries:
Hoang Bich Thao
Communications Officer, UN Women Viet Nam
Email: hoang.thao@unwomen.org