Field Officers with our partner TYM in Vietnam are known to go above and beyond! TYM has nominated two subsequent Field Officer Appreciation Award Grand Prize winners, Nguyen Thi Hang and Mrs. Dang Thi Vinh.
Mrs. Hang has been assigned to work in some of the most poor and challenging areas. To manage such kind of areas, requires not only a deep professional knowledge but also a good social understanding, and most importantly, passion for the sake of the poor and vulnerable groups.
She organizes many social activities in the evenings for members, contributing to a very low 3% -5% drop out rate. She also encourages them to have their own weekly savings. Currently, the savings balance under her management reaches over VND 1.8 billion, accounting for 37% of the total savings amount of the transaction office.
Ms. Hang has been an example for other TYM staff to follow. Although her husband, in the military, is stationed 100km away, and she is solely responsible for taking care of their elderly parents and children, she continues to go above and beyond her assigned tasks. She shares with us “my personal circumstance is not hard. I am lucky having steady and useful work for society where I can find joy and happiness.”
Mrs. Dang Thi Vinh manages a portfolio that is 18% higher than average in terms of number of borrowers and 3% higher than average in terms of portfolio outstanding. Mrs. Vinh also led efforts to raise over $5k from TYM and other local organizations & individuals to build a house for one of TYM’s neediest clients who was ill and also caring for a foster child. According to Mrs. Vinh, “kindness is absolutely necessary for a credit officer because you need to understand and love them to be close to them.”
According to TYM, Mrs. Vinh has several personal difficulties caring for old and disabled family members but she is always optimistic, resilient and sympathetic. She has excelled at savings mobilization, her savings portfolio is almost $123k, representing 38% of the total branch savings. Her savings to loan portfolio is 82%, compared to the TYM average of 45%! In general, TYM has been focusing on mobilizing savings to grow their loan portfolio. Now, their total portfolio (over $35 million) is financed from a combination of savings, retained earnings & borrowed funds.