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First Person

Photo: VNAH

"Four years ago, I was only a timid girl with disability," says Yen (center). "I never thought that one day I would spend my life outside the sheltered home. I am now running my own small shop and so happy because it can help not only myself but also other disabled people."

Four years ago, Tran Hoang Yen was a timid young disabled woman with no savings who rarely left her church-sponsored shelter in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Today, she is a successful entrepreneur who employs 17 disadvantaged young people — more than half of whom are women with disabilities — at her small sewing shop.

Yen's vision for her future completely changed after she attended USAID-sponsored leadership training courses, which taught her how to start her own business and provided her with small grants to help it get off the ground.

Now Yen's products are distributed in markets and department stores in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Hai Phong, Danang and provinces in the Mekong delta. Her annual sales exceed 1 billion dong (around $70,000) — an especially amazing accomplishment considering that she earned an average of just $30 a month before entering the USAID program.

"Four years ago, I was only a timid girl with disability," says Yen. "I never thought that one day I would spend my life outside the sheltered home. I am now running my own small shop and so happy because it can help not only myself but also other disabled people."

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