For Anh Chi Em’s to be able to fulfil its social mission the courses offered to the partners of the programme in Vietnam are most important. Thu, a trainer and social worker likes interacting with people and every day she puts a lot of effort into her job, passing on simple messages that improve the living conditions of the poorest families. She is twenty three years old, and has spent most of her life in Bung Lao a small village surrounded by limestone peaks similar to those of HalongBay. Thu belongs to the Thai ethnic minority and lives in the area where the programme operates; she is therefore very aware of the difficulties faced by the local population. The main courses she runs are directed at women and cover social issues as well as providing loan disbursements, repayment sessions or at the partners request training courses on the basic rules of hygiene, nutrition, maternal and infant health or even gender equality.
Some days she is up and on the road by 7 a.m. to reach far-off villages. In the Dien Bien mountains, come rain or shine Thu spends between one and three hours on her motor-bike riding through rice fields and villages in the company of other trainers or loan officers. In this way she gets together with all the people who take part in her interactive training sessions through team games where everybody laughs nearly all the time. She often needs to address certain taboos with ingenuity and humour, for instance this is often the case when she has to bring up the subject of condom use. It’s true that her youth gives her a certain amount of courage but at the same time it can be difficult when she is in front of an audience of women with experience of family matters. She groups together all the people who should be following these courses, she assesses the training needs of the beneficiaries and helps improve the communication and training aids (pictures, illustrations, plastic fruit).uns are directed at women and cover social issues as well as providing loan disbursements, repayment sessions or at the partners request training courses on the basic rules of hygiene, nutrition, maternal and infant health or even gender equality.
On top of these training courses, Thu implements innovative social projects such as organising sessions of sorting and selling waste with the hope of building a savings fund with the money collected. It is also an opportunity to promote a more environmentally friendly management of household waste and basic hygiene rules.
The various responsibilities provide Thu with ever changing working days. Some days can be very trying but her colleagues can testify to her energy and her character during evenings that sometimes turn into a lively karaoke sessions.
