"We survived"

“I am so grateful for the support. Thanks to it we bought food to eat and survived through the flood.”

That’s what Ho Thi Van, a widowed farmer in the Quang Tri province of Vietnam, said after receiving cash from CARE.

Heavy rainfall from consecutive tropical storms in October 2020 caused flooding and landslides that destroyed homes and crops across wide swaths of land in the central region of Vietnam, including Van’s farm.

Van, who lives with her son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, relied on money from the farm and seasonal jobs by family members for daily living.

The landslides destroyed nearly 2,000 of her acacia trees—the main source of her livelihood. Since the trees take between five to seven years to cultivate before they produce fruit, the family was left with nothing but their home and feelings of uncertainty about the future.

Then they received cash from CARE, with support from the Humanitarian Coalition and the Government of Canada, that allowed them time to start recovering after the flood. With the money, Van bought food for two months for the family.

It will take time to cultivate the new trees. In the meantime, her children have found temporary jobs to feed the family. It may take years before the impact of the storm has passed, but for now, they are in a better place.