“Helping the farmers to keep their children to go to school”
GreenFeed Vietnam Corporation
“Helping the farmers to keep their children to go to school” is a value-sharing program for poor farmers across the country by GreenFeed Vietnam - with the perception of providing solutions and means, instead of material.
INTRODUCTION
The program is co-founded and hosted by GreenFeed and Tuoi Tre Newspaper. It helps farmers change their current life and nurture their interest in escaping poverty, by raising livestock to help their children to study well. After 7 years of operation, the program has funded 32 rounds of capital support in 15 provinces and cities nationwide, supporting 1,920 poor farmers, giving more than 2,946 scholarships to pupils and students of the farmers participating in the program who have good academic records.
FRAMEWORK AND STRATEGY
Apart from providing 20 million VND in cash of interest-free loan within two years, donating animal feed coupons worth VND 3 million per household, GreenFeed also provides livestock technical consultants to instruct and maintain close connections with the farmers in those two years. After that, if they work effectively and their children have good academic records, GreenFeed will deduct 1/5 of the loan to reward to them. Moreover, after each school year, the children of farmers participating in the program who have good academic performance (good / excellent GPA, passing junior high school and high school entrance exams, passing university entrance exam and have achievements from the district, provincial or national contests) will be awarded from 500 thousand to 3 million VND in cash. This program is not intended to help the company increase its output or market share, but to serve one of their missions called corporate social responsibility (one of GreenFeed pentagram’s faction).Vietnam is an agricultural country, whereas agricultural sector has attracted a quarter of the country’s population, equivalent to 23 million people. As GreenFeed is serving the agricultural sector, the farmers will be given higher priority. It is the company’s happiness to see the participating farmers who have risen from empty handed poverty to confidently supporting their children’s academic path.
ACHIEVEMENT AND IMPACT
Some companies in the agricultural sector have their social activities mainly as charity. However, the number is relatively small, about 4,500 companies, according to VCCI. FDI investment in this sector is less than 1% of total FDI. GreenFeed is one of those rare companies. Moreover, the program is not just about giving away money as it is not a way to help farmers escape poverty under GreenFeed’s perspective. With a budget of more than 50 billion VND, the program has funded 32 rounds of capital in 15 provinces and cities nationwide, helping 1,920 farmers escape poverty and giving more than 2,946 scholarships to pupils and students of the farmers participating in the program who have good academic records.FUTURE DIRECTION
GreenFeed will continue to maintain a long-term strategy towards the goal of helping Vietnamese livestock farmers to change their lives. The Board of Directors ponder on giving as much for the community as possible, as there are still many difficult lives. One way is by calling for more people to join, as proved since GreenFeed’s implementation of the program, our partners, suppliers, agents and employees have so far contributed up to 30% of the fund, even more than the amount that GreenFeed spent on the program in its first year. From GreenFeed’s point of view, 50 billion in budget is not big, but ‘each river starts with small drops of water.’ The company is gathering those little droplets to create a large river, hoping that the program will continue to bring joy and happiness to many poor farmers.
GreenFeed Vietnam is Vietnam’s fourth largest feed millers. Operating for 15 years, GreenFeed has possessed 8 domestic and overseas feed factories with the turnover of nearly 11 trillion VND.
