Photo: Dang Ngoc Tan takes control of his pressing machine at Rainbow Village construction site Kien Giang City, December 2009   For 30 years Mr. Tan had never imaged he could own a decent shelter.  Growing up into a poor family, he shared a 40 square meter house with seven siblings and parents. Eventually, he decided to leave his hometown but was only able to earn money extracting waste from a dump site, which he did on his own until he got married in 2002.  At that time, he began to look for employment that would better support a family.  In 2008, Mr. Tan, having heard about the Rainbow Village building project, decided to rent a house and a pressing machine to begin a small construction enterprise.    Now after a year, he finally has a home of his own, actually owning a pressing machine and renting another, supervising two 5 person construction teams.  His employees work on a local government project and at the Rainbow Village construction site.    Now that he has the pressing machines (the only two in his community), his income has increased to 2 million VND a month, approximately 110 US dollars.  However, with the security of her own home, his wife, Mrs. Thi, supplements that income with earnings of her own—one million VND a month—from selling baguettes using a pushcart in their community.   Smiling happily, Mr. Tan says that his wife and children enjoy the new house because it’s “bigger and cleaner.”  He adds, “When we were still at the dump site, the children had to suffer from the dirt and smell. Now, they can go to school and concentrate on their study.” Also, when the rainy season comes, he says that he does not have to worry that the roof will leak.   However, Mr. Tan realizes that the security of a home and the education it provides will afford his own children even more employment opportunities than he and his wife enjoy with a 5th and 8th grade education respectively—that his daughter will “continue to study higher and higher.”   For his daughter Han and the other children of Rainbow Village, the options are endless.  Like her father and his construction machines, she is building a brighter future for herself. Since moving into the Rainbow village, Mr. Tan has a more stable life, one that will allow his children to construct their more secure tomorrows on the foundation of decent housing today.

Photo: Duck raising has maintained good income for Mr. Danh Thao at his new place. Kien Giang City, December 2009 Rainbow Village has improved the lives of Mr. Thao, his wife, and each of their five grown children, not only improving their personal comfort and sense of well being, but transforming their lives economically, as well.  Four of their children already own homes in Rainbow Village.  The fifth will move in next year.   Only last year, these five small families were still living at the dump site picking up plastics, and Mr. Thao was working at a road construction team far away from home. “We rented five houses to live on the dump site so that everyone could work there. My children had been complaining that life was so tough but we didn’t know where else to move to,” says Mr. Thao. There was no water supply so they had to buy drinking water on a daily basic. Here at Rainbow Village, all he has to pay is 20,000 VND (1 USD) for the whole month and simply boil water for drinking purpose. According to Mr. Thao, the dump site community was also complicated with drug and alcohol addicts, as well as gang fights, but, he says, “here, such things do not exist.”   So many other fundamentals in his life have changed. Mr. Thao’s children have all acquired new jobs.  Some are working at the plastic factory, some at Habitat’s construction site, others at sea fishing.  Mr. Thao has turned himself into a skilled farmer with close to 100 ducks that he has learned how to raise.  He spent 700,000 VND (38 USD) to buy baby ducks he fed three times a day.  After a few months now, Mr. Thao is looking forward to the festive season when hopefully the need for ducks will go up, and he can make more profit at 1-2 USD/kg. He also helps care for a rice field in front of his house, harvesting and fertilizing for two seasons a year.  And when the rice season is over, he’ll work at Habitat’s construction site.   “I helped build the training and resource centre over there,” says Mr. Thao, proudly!   Raising the ducks take most of his time.   Other than feeding them, he set them free twice a day to the rice field - now a pond. When he calls them back for food, they recognize his signal and swim back in a wonderfully happy duck rhythm. He then collects banana trees from the neighbourhood and chops them so finely that the ducks would find it more tasty. He then mixes it with rice and bran. Only seconds after he pours, the huge duck food pot is completely empty and clean.   Mr. Thao has persuaded his son-in-law, the only member of his family still at the dump site, to join the construction project at Rainbow village—to both build his own home and gain new employment helping to build others.  He also hopes that his daughter, who already lives at Rainbow Village, will open her own home-based grocery shop—something she could not have done without the safe, decent house Habitat for Humanity has helped her build.  Mr Thao dreams that, like him, his children would take a more active part in the economic revitalization Rainbow Village has brought to this community.  

Project Name: Rainbow Village - A Community Upgrading Initiative - Project Length: November 2007 - November 2010- Implementing Partners: Catalyst Foundation, Kien Giang Union of Friendship Organisations, Rach Gia Womens Union, Rach Gia Peoples Commitee - Corporate Partners: HFH Australia, Colmar Brunton, Holcim Vietnam, Communities for Communities, Capitaland Singapore. Habitat partnered with Catalyst Foundation in 2007 in a joint initiative to reposition an entire community that were living and earning on a public dumpsite.  Adopting a holistic and integrated approach, this project aims to improve the safety, security and lives of over 90 families by introducing access to educational and training opportunities; improving options for income generation; enabling access and support for house ownership and supporting integration into the wider community.  The project includes an operation Vocational Training, and technical support for the local community. Successes to date: - The first stage of 12 houses were occupied in March 2009. - Completion of Vocational Training Centre in June 2009. - The second stage of 12 houses were occupied in September 2009. - 25 community members participated in the construction labourer training scheme and some now are working in the construction industry. - Health checks and health education provided to the community. - The Vinh Quang School is now at full capacity with 106 children now enrolled with scholarships. - 20 children have progressed to government schools with scholarships.