Ducks Bring Hope From Tragedy

After losing her husband, Ngon was grief stricken and didn’t know how she’d provide for her children. But when she received ducks as a Holt Gift of Hope, her future changed for the better.

Rainy season is supposed to be over in Vietnam, but you’d never know it today. The rain comes down in heavy drops, sliding off the dense palmleaf jungle that surrounds us. The path back to Ngon’s family’s home is flooded, so we balance on stumps and logs to cross puddles and hold banana leaves over our heads like umbrellas.

We are a group of Holt staff who spent a week traveling through Vietnam to meet children and families in Holt’s programs. We’ve visited a care center where children are waiting to be adopted or reunified with their families, an incredible school for children with special needs, young students who are thriving because of Holt donor support and more. Today, we’re visiting a very special family who is thriving in Holt’s economic empowerment program.

By the end of the path, we were all soaked. But we embrace it — as do the dozens of feathered Gifts of Hope we hear quacking and waddling around in the pen behind Ngon’s house. Tragedy struck Ngon’s family three years ago. But then last year, Holt donors gave her ducks as a Gift of Hope. Because of their generosity, her life is now drastically different — and full of hope.

Family Tragedy

Ngon walks to the front of her home, waving as we approach. Her 15-year-old daughter Thi and 12-year-old son Khuong trail close behind her. She shows us around her home, a narrow cement building with a front room and two small dark bedrooms with woven mats to sleep on. The kitchen is a small space that Ngon and her family added to the back of their home. They built it with bamboo and palm leaves found around their property, over a dirt floor, with space for a cooking fire in the corner.

We come back out to the front of her house, where a metal awning gives the house a covered front porch. Sitting on red plastic stools, she tells us about the hardships she and her children have faced.   

“He passed away three years ago,” Ngon says of her husband. “He went fishing [to earn] income for the family, but then he fell down and passed away after that. The family mostly relied on his work and income generation.”

Ngon’s voice is low and her face downcast as she shares. Clearly, it’s still difficult for her to talk about her husband’s passing. Her children, sitting on either side of her, show the same grief. The rain continues to pour loudly behind them, matching the tone of the conversation.

When Ngon lost her husband suddenly, she also lost her family’s livelihood. He didn’t earn much as a fisherman, but it was enough to sustain the family. Without him, she’d have to figure out how to feed and care for her children on her own. While smart and resourceful, she never finished grade school and didn’t have the education required to get a well-paying job.

Deciding to try her hand at fishing, she took out a loan from the bank and bought fish and shrimp to raise in a nearby pond. But when she lost her whole fishing supply in one season, she suddenly found herself in debt — and still needing to provide for her children.

Neighbors and local government officials knew about Ngon, her husband’s passing, and the difficult situation she and her children were in. So they referred her to Holt International for help.

Help From Holt Donors

In Vietnam, Holt works in partnership with the local government. Officials will identify families in need and then refer them to Holt — whether for educational support for their children, help earning a stable income, crisis response or other needs. Many Holt-supported families in Vietnam are also headed by single mothers, who are among the most vulnerable in their communities.

When a Holt-partner social worker visited Ngon, Thi and Khuong, she saw that they needed support and helped them determine their options.

“It’s very individualized,” says Hang Dam, Holt’s director of programs for Vietnam, about how Holt’s economic empowerment program works. “We work with families to identify their strengths and resources, and we support them in developing the business plan they choose for themselves.”

After exploring different options, Ngon and her social worker identified a very promising avenue for Ngon to earn an income — ducks!

Ngon had raised ducks as a child and knew all about caring for them. This seemed like the perfect job for her. She would have tried doing it on her own, but she didn’t have the funds to buy the initial flock of ducks.

This is where Holt donors stepped in with a gift from Holt’s Gifts of Hope catalog. Ngon became the recipient of ducks through Gifts of Hope, and that’s all she needed to get started.  

When the conversation turns from Ngon’s loss and hardship to her ducks, her entire countenance lifts. She smiles and speaks animatedly about her work with them. She’s so proud.

Raising Ducks in Vietnam

“Ducks grow very quickly,” Ngon shares, explaining why they’re the best livestock to invest in. “They give a lot of eggs. Very easy to raise, difficult to die.”

Ngon’s initial gift from Holt was one hundred ducks. She received them as ducklings and raised them until they were big enough to sell. Each duck earns her about $7.60 USD. From the ducks she sold, she was able to pay off her bank loan and purchase more ducks, which are the ones she’s raising now.

“I feel like I’m successful in raising ducks, and with the money I save from raising ducks I’m going to buy a cow. The cow will help us to overcome poverty quicker.”

Sometimes, only about once every two months or so, Ngon will use one of the ducks to feed her own family. But because she can earn so much from a duck, she prefers to spend her income on pork or other less costly foods for her family.

While her duck business is thriving, she has dreams of expanding into other livestock.

“I feel like I’m successful in raising ducks, and with the money I save from raising ducks I’m going to buy a cow,” Ngon says. “The cow will help us to overcome poverty quicker.”

She plans to purchase a female cow so that it will have calves, which she can sell for a large profit.

Ngon’s dream is that her children will be able to complete their education. That they won’t go hungry, and that they can someday find jobs that support themselves as well. Already, with the support of Holt sponsors and donors, her children have completed so much more schooling than she ever did.

For Ngon and her children, the impact of one gift of ducks is the opportunity to rise above poverty, and envision a future full of hope.

A Better Life

It’s still raining, but Ngon insists on taking us behind her house to see her ducks.

She calls out for them with a loud “kee keee keee keee” noise, as she steps over the plastic fencing and wades into the knee-high muddy water in their enclosure. She’s unphased, so excited and proud to show us her ducks.

She scoops a bucket of feed, and about 30 black-and-white ducks and come running. They’re loud and muddy and seem thrilled by the rain.

“Their lives become more stable and they feel supported,” Hang says of how Holt’s income-generating support helps families — whether through opening a food cart, a tailoring business or raising livestock. “They can independently support their children with the food, education, clothes and more they need. They can have a better life.”

Ngon has a huge smile on her face, which seems to say that despite the rain and the mud and her noisy backyard companions, she knows these ducks have changed her and her children’s lives for the better.