Tinh Thuong One member Limited liability Microfinance Institution (TYM), under the Vietnam Women’s Union, has just made an impressive milestone by winning two awards at the 2024 SineMaya International Film Festival.
The short film “Escaping Poverty: A Story of a Muong Woman Supported by TYM” won over the jury thanks to its touching story and special message about the role of women in the overall development of the family and society.
TYM’s breakthrough award at the Film Festival
The short film “Escaping Poverty: A Story of a Muong Woman Supported by TYM” tells the story of TYM client Bui Thi Thu Huyen and her journey to escape poverty with the support of TYM.
The film won 2 awards: Third Prize for Best Film; Best Cinematography. In addition, the TYM staff member who acted in the film was also nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category.
What is impressive about this short film is the true story of a TYM customer. More specifically, Ms. Huyen and her family members also played the main roles in the film, portraying very real, everyday, simple situations and emotions, and full of efforts to improve the lives of ethnic minority women in the Northwest of Vietnam. The short film brought the most genuine and profound emotions in the tireless journey to escape poverty. Accompanying this arduous journey are always the figures of TYM staff, and the loan from TYM supports each step of the customer to overcome difficulties.
SineMaya 2024 is not just a film event, but also a platform for communities to share their stories, promote creativity and art through filmmaking, and raise awareness of the role of microfinance and social development organizations in improving lives.
The SineMaya Film Festival, organized by CARD MRI and multimedia production company BENTE Productions, is the first community film festival in the Philippine microfinance industry. SineMaya began in 2022 within the Philippines; and 2024 is the first year that the Film Festival will expand its participation to microfinance organizations in the Southeast Asian region.
TYM customer’s courageous journey becomes an inspirational story
The short film “Escaping Poverty: A Story of a Muong Woman Supported by TYM” is based on the true story of Ms. Bui Thi Thu Huyen, a Muong woman living in Thanh Son, Phu Tho.
The film recreates Ms. Huyen’s life during the most difficult period. More than 10 years ago, she and her family encountered many obstacles in accessing capital to develop the economy and improve their lives. Ms. Huyen got married when both husband and wife were just 20 years old. The young couple entered married life with nothing, an unstable livelihood, no capital, and a lack of daily living expenses. Poor health prevented Ms. Huyen from doing heavy labor. Every month, she had to go to the hospital for check-ups and medicine, making her life even more miserable in poverty for many long years.
Many nights, she looked at her house, dimly lit by oil lamps, the whole house was empty, without any valuables or belongings, the roof was covered with tarpaulin, and underneath, pots and pans were covered when it rained. Her children were still young and skinny, making her unwilling to live in poverty forever. At that time, she only wished for a small source of money so that her husband and she could have capital to do business, buy some plants and some seedlings. Borrowing from the bank required collateral, and she went all over the village but no one could lend her capital to do business.
| The 2024 SineMaya International Film Festival screened 16 short films produced by microfinance and social development organizations from Southeast Asia, showing inspiring journeys of resilience, hope and empowerment. Previously, the event attracted 40 applications to attend the Film Festival and was selected by the Organizing Committee to enter the next round. |
In 2012, when TYM came to Thanh Son, she knew that the opportunity for her family to develop the economy had come. She applied to join TYM and borrowed 7 million VND, her first loan to invest in raising cows. The first year of borrowing and repaying the loan was favorable, so she decided to borrow more to raise pigs. However, that year, the storm and flood submerged the family’s pig pen, and she and her husband did not have much experience, so they lost everything. But that did not make her give up, they continued to work for hire everywhere to earn money for living. Thanks to TYM’s installment loan mechanism, she has been able to repay the loan regularly every week in small amounts for a year.
Seeing that the Thanh Son area has land, soil, and climate suitable for tea trees, she discussed with her husband the decision to borrow money to buy seedlings. She calculated that growing tea would not be risky and could be sold all year round. Although the price of tea was not high, it was always stable. Thanks to tea trees, her family’s income has also improved a lot. With economic development, the couple continued to borrow money to buy more seedlings and fertilizers to grow more tea. Thanks to that, the family’s tea growing area has increased from 4,000m2 to 10,000m2.
In the past four years, the couple has continued to expand into fruit tree planting. Since borrowing the first VND 7 million from TYM, Ms. Huyen’s family has now boldly took out a loan with a maximum outstanding balance of VND 50 million. Every year, Ms. Huyen still regularly avails loans from TYM to do business and buy more household items.
In 2020, from a poor household, Ms. Huyen’s family became a near-poor household. And by 2024, after 12 years of participating in TYM, Huyen’s family has escaped poverty sustainably and has a stable economy, and their quality of life has also improved significantly.
Currently, the couple has opened a small mechanical shop and continues to grow tea. They have two young children, who are both carefully cared for, raised and go to school. Thanks to that, not only has she escaped poverty, but she has also become an inspiration to many women in the area.
In her courageous journey of not giving up, Ms. Huyen’s efforts to overcome poverty have always been accompanied by TYM, helping her access loans from the most difficult times. The film has affirmed TYM’s efforts in accompanying women to overcome poverty and improve their social status. This success directly contributes to the implementation of Project 8 “Promoting gender equality and solving urgent problems for women and children” through sharing inspirational stories.
At the same time, the film’s international recognition is also a step forward in promoting the image of dynamic and confident Vietnamese women, contributing to the implementation of the Project to support women in international integration. TYM will continue to make efforts to not only support the economy but also enhance the position and voice of Vietnamese women globally.