As many as 2,300 poor women across the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho have accessed financial assistance and training courses from a project jointly implemented by the city’s Women Union and the Save the Children Organisation in the 2010-14 period.

According to Gunnar Andersen, Director of Save the Children in Vietnam, the project offered loans and financial management courses to local women, and improved their farming skills.

After five years of implementation, nearly 100 percent of the loans have been repaid, he said at a conference to review the project, which aimed to enhance women’s economic capacity, on February 5.

Meanwhile, Le Van Tam, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, noted that many economic development models have taken shape thanks to support from the project, increasing incomes for rural households.

Particularly, the poverty ratio in Thoi Lai district reduced to 5.11 percent or 1,500 households in 2014, from 13.22 percent or nearly 4,000 in 2010, he said.

Furthermore, knowledge acquired from training courses not only helped women improve their family’s incomes, but also aided them in child care, he added.

Reaching Vietnam since the 1990s, Save the Children has had over 10 years of experience in assisting poor households to develop sustainable micro enterprises in the Mekong Delta, northern mountainous and central regions in Vietnam.-VNA