Stories of #GoodChange
One Family, Two Pigs: Endless Posibilities
Give someone a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach someone to fish and you feed them for a lifetime.
Throughout our community development initiatives, Good Neighbors has endeavoured to promote sustainable living for the most vulnerable, by helping communities be responsible for their own futures.
Our Pig project focuses on providing communities in Vietnam with skills and assets that can be used to generate sufficient income and break the vicious cycle of poverty. BUT, we are not just giving them a “fish”, we are giving them the skills and resources that will allow them to sustain a living for a lifetime.
Thanks to the generous hearts of our sponsors, Good Neighbors Australia, in partnership with Good Neighbors Vietnam, are running an income generation project where one family is provided with 2 domesticated sow pigs.
Why pigs?
Pig’s provide varied benefits for these families. A pig is a familiar domestic animal to the local people, and many have previous experience in raising them. Importantly, a pig can be raised in a short time and provide substantial income for families. An added bonus is that pigs can eat food scraps and garden waste!
So, while being eco-friendly, they also do not put financial burden on the families receiving them.
How is it sustainable?
Black sow pigs are specifically grown for breeding. Each sow pig can bear 8-12 piglets two times per year. These piglets can then be sold and/or breeding can continue. A full grown sow pig weighs approx. 80kg and can earn families approx. 8,000,000 VND (447 AUD per pig).
Who received them in Vietnam?
Families in Tan Bac and Yen Thanh Commune, Quang Binh District. The families are chosen against the following criteria:
Ms. Chinh's Story
Ms. Chinh’s main job is farming. The family faces many difficulties regarding living income. They are living in a makeshift house and the floor is paved with cement. After years of saving, the family built a brick wall surrounding the house. However, the house is still roofed with old sheets and the doors are made of bamboo sheets.
Ms. Chinh shared “After my husband passed away, I alone took on a lot of work, being both a mother and a father raising my children. Many times, I considered going far away from home to earn more money, but then my children would be at home alone, with no-one to take care of and teach them. So I chose to stay home and become a farmer, growing vegetables and producing food to feed my family”.
“Thanks to the support of Good Neighbors International and your donations, I have been gifted 2 black pigs. I feel so happy and thankful for this support. It has helped me and my family a lot during this difficult time. We will raise pigs for further income. My children will also help me raise them after school. Hopefully, we will have a new herd of pigs, so that in the next school year, I will have more money to spend for my children’s education”.
