Since its inception in Vietnam in 2008, Home Credit’s sustainable development initiatives have been aimed at improving the community’s quality of life. Therefore, Home Credit has implemented, and continues to implement, many community activities to help ease the difficulties faced by the people.
In 2021, Home Credit Vietnam pursued this goal with activities to support the community during the Covid-19 pandemic, and initiatives to help women start up businesses or projects, besides efforts to increase knowledge of consumer finance across the country.
In 2022, Home Credit has continued to put environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) pillars into practice, through a number of activities. These include building financial literacy content on many digital and social media platforms that attract millions of interactions and followers; coordinating with Vietnam Television station and Voice of Vietnam station to develop programs on universalizing financial knowledge reaching out to diverse audiences; and offering preferential loan packages with a 0% interest rate to help upland women make a living and start a business.
Home Love Bus – a project born from sharing
The Home Love Bus, with its mission of spreading love, is an important part of Home Credit’s aim of building sustainable communities across the country. First deployed in September 2021 through the program “Delivering love from home, contributing to the Mid-Autumn Festival”, the Home Love Bus has gradually become one of Home Credit’s annual activities, providing direct support to disadvantaged people and poor children.
In July 2022, the Home Love Bus gave 122 gifts to the children of patients at Ben San Leprosy Treatment Center in Binh Duong Province and 93 gifts to children living and studying at the Hoa Hao volunteer class in HCMC. The gifts included stationery and necessities, helping the children have better studying and living conditions.
In August, the Home Love Bus brought Home Credit to Thua Thien-Hue Province in Vietnam’s central coastal region.
Dong Son Commune, A Luoi District, Thua Thien-Hue Province
Dong Son Commune in Thua Thien-Hue Province’s A Luoi District is a mountainous area bordering Laos. About 90% of the commune’s population are classified as poor households. The locality is near the A So airport area, which was requisitioned by the U.S. military during the war years, and has suffered terrible effects from Agent Orange for a long time, causing many children in the commune to have disabilities due to dioxin poisoning. People in this remote mountainous area have difficult socio-economic conditions and lack food and clothing; almost no one thinks about preparing for the Mid-Autumn festival.
Understanding the difficulties faced by families in the border areas, Home Credit’s Home Love Bus brought the joy of the Mid-Autumn Festival by offering children with gifts including moon cakes, lanterns, and sweets. Moreover, the Home Love Bus also carried necessities including rice, soy sauce, sugar, MSG, and other staples to help poor residents there. These gifts came from the hearts of Home Credit Vietnam’s entire staff, wanting to help ameliorate the difficult conditions faced by people in these areas in particular and throughout the country in general.
After two trips in July and August this year, the Home Love Bus is expected to return in December with presents for poor households in the northern mountainous region. This will be the next step in Home Credit’s assistance for communities in Vietnam.
Promoting social inclusion, creating livelihoods
In addition to directly supporting communities, Home Credit also undertakes regular activities to promote social integration, develop education and create jobs for Vietnamese women.
The goal of investing in educational development and providing opportunities for future generations is pursued through Home Credit’s annual “Road to the Future” program. Initiated in 2018, the program contributes to improving children’s access to education by awarding scholarships to high achieving poor students and donating school supplies, books, and other items. Funds are raised through individual donors and Home Credit staff in conjunction with a charity fund that has expertise in project implementation.
This year, the program returned in September to reach the people of Buon Ho town, Daklak. On this occasion, Home Credit gave eight scholarships, five sets of computers, 60 health insurance cards, and 60 study gifts to students who have overcome difficulties in studying well at primary schools in Daklak and Binh Dinh. The total value of all gifts amounted to VND200 million.
In addition, Home Credit supports the Vietnam Chess Project, sponsoring eight beginner chess classes for at least 80 disadvantaged children, children with disabilities, and orphans. The project is executed in HCMC (at SOS Children’s Village Go Vap, Anh Minh Private Special Education School, and Hy Vong Specialized School for the Deaf) and Binh Thuan Province.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, CSR activities mainly focused on providing charity and support to people in extremely difficult circumstances. But in the context of the new normal, when the society is making efforts to restore economic development, providing financial resources to allow those in difficulty to improve their situations is a must. At the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2022, Home Credit Vietnam cooperated with Hagar International and the Women’s Union of Yen Bai province to bring 55 packages with 0% interest loans for local ethnic minority women to start their own business or expand production, with the total value of the loan package at up to VND1 billion.
As a responsible digital finance company, in addition to business development and digital transformation, one of Home Credit’s top priorities is investing in community support strategies. This principle guides the company’s ESG activities in Vietnam, and creates a solid foundation for Home Credit to support customers, communities, employees and partners.
