The National Week for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control in 2019 with the theme “Disaster risk reduction starting from the community” will take place from May 15, 2019, to May 22, 2019. The week aims to raise public awareness of the efforts to build a society resilient to natural disasters for sustainable development. Currently, 41% of TYM members live in coastal areas. People there have been suffering from natural disasters which negatively affects their lives and household economy. TYM realize that the best way is to help members have the knowledge, skills and tools so that they can face increasing natural disasters and thus take measures to limit risks, build a continuous business plan, avoid seeking credit for use in emergency.
Disaster and climate change risk have recently been alarming in Vietnam, especially when the impact of extreme weather and climate change has caused serious losses on the economy, society, and human life.
Currently, 41% of TYM members live in coastal areas. People there have been suffering from natural disasters which negatively affects their lives and household economy. They earn their living mainly from agriculture, forestry, fishery, business and production activities, which are highly dependent on the climate. The poor and low-income families are the most vulnerable ones as they lack resources, knowledge, and skills to cope with climate change and natural disasters. As they are disadvantaged people, it is more difficult and time-consuming for them to recover their household economy after being hit by natural risks. In fact, many families have fallen into a state of exhaustion, relapse into poverty, and their life becomes extremely difficult…
TYM started implementing the project “Capacity building on disaster risk prevention and business continuity planning” for TYM members from February 15, 2017 at 6 branches of 3 coastal provinces, Nam Dinh, Thanh Hoa and Nghe An with the support of Oxfam. The project is implemented in 2 years and divided into 3 phases. At each stage, the project focuses on a key activity: Phase 1: Raising awareness of staff and members of the institution on disaster risks and responses; Phase 2: Supporting and guiding members to make business development plans including active plans to prevent natural disaster risks; Phase 3: Developing a credit policy to support members. After the end of phase 3 of the project, TYM has quickly piloted loans for recovery from disaster risk in Hai Hau branch (Nam Dinh province) and in Quynh Luu branch (Nghe An province) since January 2019.
