A young girl plays with the cow that her family received with a loan from the ‘cow bank’ thanks to financial support from LCMS World Relief and Human Care. After school, the girl and her seven siblings care for the cow. Her mother hopes the income generated from raising the cow will help her family pay off old debt and interest.

August 25, 2009

In six rural communities of Vietnam’s Phu Tho Province, a unique bank makes four-legged loans and helps turn around the lives of families struggling with poverty and malnutrition.

Some 130 families already take part in the "Cow Bank," a project sponsored by LCMS World Relief and Human Care and LCMS World Mission in partnership with Vietnam’s National Institute of Nutrition (NIN). Instead of a cash loan, the bank provides a cow to poor farm families. Instead of repaying their loan with money, the families give their first calf to another needy family.

One recent loan recipient is Nguyen Thi Tinh, the mother of eight children. Tinh can use her new cow to boost her family’s income by selling calves. Some families also use their cows to transport tools and crops.

The Cow Bank is helping to reduce extreme poverty in these "overlooked" communities northwest of Hanoi. Seventy-seven percent of the households lack enough to eat and as many as 29 percent of the children suffer from malnutrition, according to surveys conducted in conjunction with the Cow Bank project.

The micro-credit bank is only one facet of a $60,000 hunger and poverty reduction effort now in its second phase. The project also targets improved health care and support for kindergarten programs by:

• Equipping six community health clinics where families receive basic health care and free medicines. Most importantly, children get free vaccinations.
• Supplying six community kindergartens with necessities ranging from clean water tanks to blankets. Children also benefit from a daily high-nutrition snack.
• Assisting 12 of the poorest households with making basic sanitation upgrades.

Since 1995, LCMS World Mission has worked as a registered non-profit in Vietnam. In 2007, Vietnam’s NIN recognized LCMS World Relief and Human Care and LCMS World Mission for nutrition and poverty reduction efforts.

Support from caring Christian donors through LCMS World Relief and Human Care make possible the Cow Bank and other projects that touch lives in Vietnam and worldwide.