Lun Thoeun's success story
Lun Thoeun winning the best client award and her daughter receiving VisionFund's scholarship
"We have our own house"
“Since my family borrowed small loans from VisionFund Cambodia, we have earned more money by doing various businesses, and life has changed a lot now that we have our own house unlike before,” says Lun Thoeun, 51, who lives in a remote village, more than 30 kilometers far from Kompong Thom provincial town.
“Since my family borrowed small loans from VisionFund Cambodia, we have earned more money by doing various businesses, and life has changed a lot now that we have our own house unlike before,” says Lun Thoeun, 51, who lives in a remote village, more than 30 kilometers far from Kompong Thom provincial town.
Thoeun, her husband, Loy Ly and their five children have been so proud of the new wooden house with ground and first floors, which are nice enough to shelter and prevent them from getting wet in the event of rain.
“My house should be a building that a typical rural Cambodian in my Chunlous village, Tuolkreul commune, Balang district would dream of,” she says.
Previously, her family lived in a cottage-like house with dilapidated thatch walls and roof through which rainwater would soak them.
“When it rained, we would take a plastic tent to cover the roof, otherwise, we would get soaked and cold the following morning. It was so terrible,” Thoeun recalls her past with tears down her cheeks. “Sometimes, we also borrowed rice from other neighbors.”
Thoeun’s family earned only US$ 0.5 per day by farming and selling local snacks before she got the first loan of US$ 12.5 from VisionFund in 2002, which she knew through an Area Development Program implemented by World Vision Cambodia. With the income, the family did not have capital to expand business and buy fertilizer to increase agricultural output.
After the first loan, Thoeun borrowed from VisionFund US$ 25 in 2003, US$ 125 in 2004, US$200 in 2005, US$250 in 2006 and US$250 in 2007. She used all the micro-financing to buy fertilizer for farming, create assets—a set of television, a bicycle, a motorbike— purchase land and wooden materials for her new house, 2.5 hectares of farmland, pigs and a saw to cut wood into housing panels with wages.
Thoeun’s family currently earns at least US$ 2 per day, in addition to about US$ 1,000 in annual income from farming, which she insists is a big impact on her family’s living conditions compared to the previous daily income of US$ 0.5.
In January, 2008, Thoeun borrowed US$ 125 from VisionFund to construct a stall in front of her house for her husband to offer bicycle repair services.
“Hopefully, the new business will generate more income for my family; thus my children will have more resources when they go to school,” Thoeun says.
Out of her five children, Ly Thai, 25, and Ly Oung, 20, sell fruits in Poi Pet town at the Cambodian-Thai border. The rest, Ly Chantha, 17, Ly Maony, 16, and Ly Soly, 12, are in grades 10, 9 and 7 respectively.
Maony has won scholarship from VisionFund’s Children Scholarship Program as her mother has been recognized as one of the organization’s best clients for making significant changes in life. Under the Scholarship Program, Maony annually receives school materials until grade 12, including uniforms, bags, notebooks and a bicycle.
When asked what Thoeun thinks of her children’s future, she replies optimistically: “I want my kids to go to higher grade education; I want some of them to become VisionFund staff. And I want my youngest daughter to be a teacher in the future.”