1 € reaching the programs = how many more € for the beneficiaries???
Viêt Nam Plus works on long terme development
programs, not only for charity. Therefore the results are sometimes slow
to show up, but they are huge. For instance:
- Training of the para-vets: 1 € = 20 €
- savings-credit: 1 € = 31 €
- health education: at any cost!
- sometimes we fail
- conclusion: a hundred fold impact
Training of para-veterinary doctors: 1 € = 20 €
Viêt Nam Plus often operates in villages far from the main road: in those remote places, up to 1/3 animals die of dseases or epidemics. The farmers incur heavy losses and sell their sick animals hastily on the market.
Viêt Nam Plus has already trained 63 para-vets, and 2/3 practice their noew job. They have acquired the basic knowledge to treat most cases, to vaccinate for prevention, to provide advice to the farmers on hygiene, nutrition etc.
The are many advantages:
- The farmers do not need to travel far to find a veterinary, sometimes not even qualified or dishonnest: the transport costs are reduced, the diagnostic is made on the spot and not from far without seeing the animal, the right and cheap medicines are provided.
- The para-vets are poor farmers themselves. They charge a reasonable price as they are from the same village. And they accept to be paid later if necessary, maybe only when the pig will be sold!
- The mortality rate has lowered, the farmers are encouraged to raise more animals, pigs, rabbits, chicken. Their income grows.
To train a para-vet, all included, Viêt Nam Plus needs only 178 €. We consider the average para-vet (deducting those who do not practice) save animals for the equivalent of 200 € every month. Mister Bich has been trained 5 years ago, he is a full time practitioner, and now a reference in the commune! A conservative estimate is that 1 € invested in the training of para-vets leads to a twentyfold impact in the community.
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Micro-credit : 1 € = 31 €
The people are often indebted with the moneylenders. For some the banks are out of reach. For a farmer, what is the real value of seeds just when they are needed, or for a fishing family, a good fishing net. Quite often no moneylender will provide them a 7 € loan, even at a high interest rate!!!
The rate charged by the moneylenders vary: if he trusts you, maybe he will agree for 60%/year. Otherwise he may charge as much as 240-480%! On the average one can say the "market rate" is around 120%.
Thanks to the savings-credit program, the poor have an easy access, guaranteed, to loans at a reasonable interest rate [1]. The big advantage of the program is to provide a safe haven for the people's savings. Training is provided to improve their ability to increase their income, to improve their living conditions etc.
The evaluation of the Dinh Quán program, has shown that after 3 years, the income of the members had increased by 54% [2] above the income of non-participants: their income had increased from 7 €/month/person to 11 €.
How much does the program cost? At the start they are substantial: surveys, training, capital for the loans... and for at least 5-7 years one must support the gap between the interests and the higher running costs. We estimate approximately 100 € are needed for one member over the period, till sustainability is reached. In the case of Dinh Quán, their incomes have increased by 3.140 € (nothing at the beginning, then more and more every month). This is 31 times the "investment" by Viêt Nam Plus.
But everything changes quickly in Vietnam, and some provinces change more quickly than others. A recent evaluation in Dúc Linh has shown no impact at all on incomes! This is most probably due to the increased performances of the local bank which lends vast amounts of money at easy terms and within a few days. It even lends again and again to the clients who cannot refund their loan without borrowing from the moneylenders, thus leading to huge indebtness; the people surrender their land title as collateral.
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Health and education: at any cost!
Not every can be quantified in € or in dôngs. For instance several surveys have shown that often when the people fall into poverty it is because of a disease or an accident. They must then pay huge amounts of money and must sell their land at a small price, or they resort to the moneylender and suffer a 120% interest rate.
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Sometimes we fail
Certain programs have been stopped as they did not deliver the expected results. For instance for 3 years Viêt Nam Plus tried to run literacy classes. About 200 people have benefited and succeeded at the exam, but it was felt this number was too low compared to the enormous time spent by the team. For many years we also tried to develop some handicrafts: they have been abandoned one after the other... till... the production of quilts proved to be a fantastic success!
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Conclusion : a hundred times more?
A donation is multiplied 100 times on the average, all effects combined:
1. co-funding and matching grants: usually x 4-5
2. tax deduction in many cases
3. snowballing effect in the programs themselves: x 20 , x 31 or sometimes...
no multiplication at all.
[1] The interest rate charged by the program is much higher than the rate of the banks, because all costs must be covered.
[2] Above inflation and other economic development factors (roads, electricity etc.). For more details, see the evaluation report 2000.
