From farming, after 1 year of participating in a local agricultural service cooperative, in 2020, Ms. Tran Thi Le in village 6, Quynh Vinh commune, Hoang Mai town boldly joined 10 other members to establish Binh An General Agricultural Service Cooperative. Ms. Le is also the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors and Director of the cooperative.
Sharing about the "start-up" path, the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director of Binh An General Agricultural Service Cooperative said: From 5 sao of turmeric grown by the family with the thought of creating quality products made by their own hands, along with the encouragement, guidance, connection, and loan support of the Women's Union to establish a cooperative. However, establishing a cooperative and producing products is not as difficult as finding a place for the products in the market, because the market experience of her and the members are all farmers "with muddy hands and feet" and the products do not have a "name". This difficulty is supported by the Women's Union by allowing the cooperative to participate in introducing and displaying products at meetings and training sessions organized by the Union; introducing through Facebook groups, Zalo, websites of Women's Unions at all levels; supporting participation in fairs, exhibitions, and competitions to spread the products.
From that initial spark, combined with the priority of quality, currently, the products of Binh An Cooperative have affirmed their brand. In particular, the turmeric starch and honey turmeric pills have met the 3-star OCOP standard and have been certified as typical rural industrial products at the provincial level in 2022. In addition to selling online on e-commerce platforms, the cooperative's products are available at OCOP stores in the province, the OCOP Shop chain in Hanoi, the Muong Thanh supermarket chain and especially at 2 supermarkets in Laos. Revenue reaches more than 5 billion VND/year and the income of members is stable at 6 - 7 million VND/month.
In contrast to Ms. Tran Thi Le, before establishing Hang Moon Herbal Import-Export Company Limited in Lam Son Commune, Do Luong District, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hang had 5 years of experience supplying medicinal herbs with a large number of regular customers. However, Director Hang believes that without the participation of Women's Unions at all levels, the company's products would not have spread so quickly. Because the products are made entirely of medicinal herbs, suitable for women and children, such as facial cleanser; baby shampoo; herbal shampoo; skin cream; feminine hygiene solution..., the promotion, connection, and bringing of products to members and women of the Union organizations at all levels are more convincing. Currently, the Union organizations continue to be the "channel" for consuming products for the company. In addition, the Association also guided businesses to participate in the "Women's Startup 2022" contest with the idea of "Bringing rural herbs to the market", becoming one of the 5 excellent ideas awarded by the Provincial Women's Union; at the same time, it was selected to participate in the Nghe An Province Open Innovation and Startup Talent Search Contest 2022 and was awarded. This will be an important springboard for the company's products to continue to develop and reach the market.
"Supporting women to start a business" is a project approved by the Prime Minister in Decision No. 939. This is also a breakthrough step proposed by the Resolution of the Nghe An Provincial Women's Congress for the 2021-2026 term. Ms. Nguyen Thi Quynh Hoa - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, President of the Provincial Women's Union, said that start-up activities are promoted by Women's Unions at all levels with many practical support activities, contributing to turning female farmers who are only familiar with farming, housework or small business into real economic workers and masters of their own lives. In addition to promoting, consulting, and supporting women to start a business and start a business successfully, every year, the Provincial Women's Union organizes a start-up idea contest and Women's Start-up Day associated with awarding outstanding ideas, promoting and spreading the start-up movement among members and women. Along with that is support to realize women's start-up ideas, including connecting to support loans; Support the establishment of cooperatives and enterprises; support participation in seminars, conferences, and trade promotion fairs; support promotion and connection for product consumption on-site and through social networks, build food safety and hygiene booths; display and introduce OCOP products...
Along with supporting women in starting and successfully starting a business, the Women's Union at all levels also has many activities to enhance women's economic power, such as supporting capacity building for female business owners, business household owners, and cooperative managers; supporting training, consulting, connecting, accessing market information for female businesses and establishing female businesses. During the year, 156 female business owners; 801 female business household owners, 29 female cooperative managers were supported to improve their economic capacity; supporting training, consulting, connecting, accessing information, and markets for 570 female businesses and supporting the establishment of 41 new female businesses.
Along with activities to support women in starting and successfully starting a business, the association at all levels also promotes many activities to support women in economic development, rising up to take control of their lives according to each member's specific conditions and circumstances. The focus is on coordinating to open vocational training classes; training on transferring science and technology, guiding management, use of capital, production and business plans; consulting and job introduction seminars; supporting loans through trust, bank credit and coordinating with TYM organization to lend capital to women.
In 2022, the association at all levels has entrusted and guaranteed banks to support loans for 169,000 households with a total amount of more than VND 3,743 billion and nearly 55,000 households through TYM with a total amount of more than VND 607 billion. In particular, the association at all levels has many creative activities, mobilizing other resources such as: Organizing savings activities at the association branches with 100% of the associations in the whole province implementing to create a fund to support members and women in economic development. Supporting working days or exchanging work for families lacking labor, creating opportunities for member families to maintain production, ensuring income in the districts of Quynh Luu, Yen Thanh, Thanh Chuong, Nam Dan, Con Cuong, etc.
The model of collecting recycled waste to raise funds to support livelihood models for poor and disadvantaged women has been implemented at all association bases in the province. Typically, Thanh Chuong district, responding to the peak month for the poor, 40/40 association bases organized to award 194 livelihood models including cows, goats, pigs, chickens with a total of more than 343 million VND from the movement "Green savings - Turning waste into useful activities" launched by the district association.
Some districts have supported the construction of a number of sustainable livelihood models, such as the coconut cake cooperative, the traditional food processing cooperative of Anh Son district; the safe cassava production cooperative, the traditional soy sauce production model of Nam Dan district; the broom production cooperative, the fruit tree planting model of Nghia Dan district; the Solanum procumbens production model, the mud-free eel farming model of Quynh Luu district; the chicken farming cooperative of Thanh Chuong district; the duck farming cooperative and the Tam Mi medicinal herbs cooperative of Que Phong district...
Ms. Le Thi Huong Giang - Vice President of the Provincial Women's Union shared that activities to support women in economic development and taking control of their lives continue to be required to be promoted by all levels with many key activities in 2023. In particular, focusing on activities to support women in starting businesses and starting successful businesses; propagating and mobilizing members to actively transform the structure of crops and livestock, applying science and technology, increasing production value associated with the impact, supporting training, coaching, supporting loans, and livelihood models from the Women's Union at all levels. In 2023, in addition to organizing Women's Startup Day, the Provincial Women's Union will also organize the "Forum for Women with Disabilities Overcoming Difficulties to Rise Up" to create opportunities for people with disabilities to exchange, improve their capacity and opportunities for economic development./.