Dien Bien Phu: Black Thai villages

Photo: Nathalie (second one in on the far left) and Katharine (in the middle)

On Tuesday, Nathalie arrived in Dien Bien and we visited several villages in Noong Het Commune. This commune was chosen by the provincial officials as a good starting point for a microfinance pilot because it has never had an NGO operate there before and it is relatively accessible (10 kilometers from Dien Bien Phu City). The three villages, within the commune, Noong Bua, Hưng Yên, and Hưỡi Lẽ were chosen by the commune leaders because they are below the standard of living of the rest of the commune. There are 24 villages (1,829 households and 7,809 people) in the Noong Het commune, which spans 1,295 meters squared. There are 5 ethnic minorities in the commune, but the greatest two ethnicities are Black Thai (unrelated to Thailand) and Kinh (the ethnic majority of Vietnam). The three villages that we visited were Black Thai communities. With the help of the Women’s Union at the District level, we were able to organize group meetings with the 50 households in each village. We introduced our project to the women and tried to understand how this project could help to improve their daily lives.