Mr. Ha, from Yen So, Hoai Duc District, Hanoi was born in a family of four children. Unfortunately, his left leg has been disabled since he was young causing him trouble while moving. In spite of his disabled leg, he determined to go to school on a wheelchair, to assimilate with the society and work. In 2005, he achieved a distinction degree in English at Hanoi University.

He could raise his family by teaching English but that was not all he wanted to do. Being born disabled, he could able to thoroughly understand the hardship of other people with disabilities. In 2006, along with the support of the family, he established Hong Ha sewing center which aims for bringing opportunities to poor people and disability.

However, after few years, the enterprise faces great obstacles due to lack of capital to broaden the manufacture size and advertise to access to the market. Additionally, his product was not as competitive as others and workers didn’t have stable income. All these things really made him nervous for months.

Fortunately, being vice-president of disable communities of Hanoi, he discovered Hanoi Thriive project which is a loan with no interest and allows debtors to pay back for the communities by training jobs and giving products. After careful consideration, he thought that his company could satisfy all the requirements of Thriive, so that he applied for this huge opportunity. Finally in 2013, his center officially became loan-capital enterprises of Thriive project, and gradually developed into limited company.

The total loan was 200 million VND. With this large capital, Mr. Ha bought 20 sewing machines, opened a new workshop in Long Bien and looked for more disabled people around Hanoi to train.

After 2 years of lending capital and upgrading the center, he could help nearly 100 disabled people to have stable job (this number used to be 20) and donate more than 700 coats for the disabled in Hanoi.

During the time he used the capital to develop the enterprise, Mr. Ha was always given consulting support by Thriive. His repaying program is the most outstanding about both progress and meaning to the society.

As the vice President of Hanoi Association of people with disabilities, Mr Ha has wide connection with other social enterprises. He always brings Thriive to his speech to motivate other business owners to apply and change with Thriive. He also supports them during business development process with the opinion “ Being a precursor, it is my responsibility to help people”.

Despite being Thriive enterprise since 2013, the connection between Mr.Ha and Thriive still remains strongly. We visited his company in a stormy day, but the atmosphere was incredibly peaceful to us. It is light and cozy smiles from disabled friends who eventually are able to assimilate with the society. More impressing, the professional working environment inside brings the feeling that this is a foreign-invested enterprises.

 

Mr Ha opened speech at the Thriive loan information day at Hanoi Association of People with Disabilities on 26th July 2018

After 20 years in social work, Mr.Ha only hopes that all disability can get on well with the community. And his hope needs more projects like Thriive because of the fact is that many social enterprises need the no-interest loan from Thriive.

For more details please contact:

The Center for Economic Development Studies, VNU University of Economics and Business

Room 201-203, G4 Building, 144 Xuan Thuy Street, Cau Giay, Hanoi

Website: http://ceds.ueb.edu.vn

Email: thriive.hanoi@gmail.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/han.thriive.5