The effectiveness of women's business clubs

(Baonghean) - With the motto "enriching yourself and enriching society", in recent years, Women's Business Clubs in localities have made positive contributions to the movement of helping each other develop the economy, eliminate hunger and reduce poverty and create jobs for female workers...

In our province, there are currently 17 women's business clubs in 12 districts, cities and towns attracting 736 members, each club attracting 30-40 members. The Dien Chau Women's Business Club was established in 2004. After 10 years of operation, in addition to the goal of increasing income, developing production and business, it has promoted the role and responsibility of each member in creating jobs for poor women and actively participating in charity and humanitarian work.

Up to now, 40 club members have created jobs for over 3,000 female workers with an average income of 2-5 million VND/month, helping the locality eliminate about 20 poor households each year, and at the same time supporting tens of millions of VND for humanitarian charity activities. A typical example is Ms. Tran Thi Chau in Dong Loc hamlet - Dien Ngoc commune, the owner of a large seafood processing facility with annual revenue of tens of billions of VND, she always spends time participating in the activities of the Women Entrepreneurs Club. She confided: Thanks to participating in club activities, women are increasingly united, have the opportunity to go to many places to meet customers... Those activities help me to mature more in business, and my business is increasingly favorable.

Or like the owner of a fishery logistics facility that produces ice and freezers, with an annual income of over 300 million VND - Ms. Tran Thi Luyen - Chien Thang hamlet, Dien Bich commune, to have what she has today, in addition to her own efforts, must mention the great impact of the commune's Women Entrepreneurs Club of which she is a member. Joining the club since its establishment, Ms. Luyen was soon given favorable conditions by the Club's Board of Directors to borrow capital, participate in training courses on production and business development, she boldly invested 5 billion VND in fishery logistics services, creating jobs for over 100 female workers in the locality.

Shrimp processing facility of Ms. Hoang Thi Nghi (Block 4, Nghi Thuy, Cua Lo Town).

In Cua Lo, the town's Women Entrepreneurs Club was established in 2007 and currently has 20 members operating in the fields of tourism services, frozen seafood, construction materials and livestock. Each enterprise creates jobs for 20-40 workers with a salary of 2-3 million VND/person/month. In addition, members of the Cua Lo Women Entrepreneurs Club also actively support the poor in building houses and developing the economy. Ms. Hoang Thi Hau (Block 4, Nghi Thuy, Cua Lo Town) - owner of a seafood processing facility said that she has been in the profession of grilling mackerel since she was young. After getting married, she and her husband were determined to stick with the profession and open up a larger development direction. In 2009, when she had a good amount of capital, plus the encouragement and support of the town's Women Entrepreneurs Club, she decided to rent 500m2 of land to build a new facility at Nghi Thuy Ward fish market, consuming 21 tons of various types of fish each month, creating regular jobs for 10 female workers with a salary of 4.5 - 5 million VND/person/month, her total annual income reached 1 billion VND. Her goal is to strive to expand the scale of production, creating more jobs for women in the area.

At the shrimp processing facility owned by Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoe, Ms. Nguyen Thi Nghi and Ms. Vo Thi Nam, it creates jobs for over 30 women not only in Nghi Thuy ward but also in other wards. Talking with Ms. Vo Thi Nam, we learned that: In the past, women in coastal areas only knew how to sit and wait for their husbands to go fishing, then bring the fish to the market to sell, very passive in life. Realizing that if they did not make a difference themselves, life would certainly be difficult, greatly affecting the way of life of their children. In 2008, Ms. Nam discussed and together with Ms. Nghi and Ms. Hoe opened a shrimp processing facility owned by them. Initially, they encountered many difficulties due to limited capital and her husband's lack of support. But with their determination, they borrowed capital for poor women, plus the support of the Ward Women's Union, the Town Business Club, and convinced their husbands to agree, and finally, they established a seafood processing facility under their own ownership.

Supporting women in economic development and sustainable poverty reduction is one of the key tasks of the Provincial Committee for the Advancement of Women, in which the work of propaganda, mobilization, and support for women to participate in economic activities, start and develop businesses has been focused on, directed, and effectively implemented. In recent years, the Provincial Committee for the Advancement of Women has proactively coordinated with relevant departments and branches to propagate, foster and improve knowledge and capacity for members in economic development and transfer of science and technology; Organized 3,460 training courses for 380,928 women to participate, including 3,636 women who are business owners and individual business households with the following contents: starting a business, planning production, business, marketing "introducing and selling", leadership skills, management, business operation... In addition, the Board also coordinated with the Provincial Women's Union to organize forums to create conditions for female entrepreneurs and production and business households to exchange, learn, share experiences, discuss difficulties and problems... create connections between businesses, production and business households to promote, display and introduce products. Create conditions for women to borrow preferential loans from employment programs, poverty reduction and official credit sources reaching 78.8%. Thanks to that, many small establishments have developed into enterprises with a fairly large production scale, and the spiritual life of women has also been improved.

However, the life of rural women, especially in mountainous, remote, and highland areas, is still difficult in many places. Many families headed by women have low incomes and a high poverty rate. Policies for female workers in enterprises have not received due attention. The rate of female manual workers is still high. Women's opportunities to access high-income jobs and economic resources are still low compared to men.

Recently, at the workshop "Increasing the rate of female business owners" held at the end of October 2014 in Vinh City, the workshop participants affirmed: Developing female businesses is an extremely necessary issue in the process of creating jobs for female workers. In the coming time, it is necessary to create conditions for women to borrow capital to develop production, business, create jobs, and increase income. Priority is given to poor households headed by women to borrow preferential loans from the National Fund for Employment, credit for poor households from the Bank for Social Policies. Combine loan policies with training and guidance on cultivation techniques, animal husbandry, agricultural and fishery extension to increase loan efficiency. Encourage investment, development, and establishment of female-owned businesses, rural businesses to attract more female workers, contributing to the construction and development of women's economic movements in the locality.

Thanh Thuy - Mai Giang