Community-based Tourism in Hua Tat, Vietnam
Capacity building for the Hmong people
Overview
Hua Tat is a Hmong village located at the low mountains in Northern Vietnam
Hua Tat is a beautiful village seated at over 800 metres on the Moc Chau Plateau in Northern Vietnam. Home to 150 families of Hmong people, the dominantly-agricultural community continues to struggle to sustain their livelihood. At present, government-disbursed loans are only able to cover daily expenditure for the low-income families. Compounding to the problem, many households also have low financially literacy. Also, while children have access to education, there is only 1 English language teacher for all 7 schools in the village.
Hands on activities with the children in school
Actxplorer recognises the potential for tourism at Hua Tat. To ensure maximum economic benefit for the villagers, we have worked with Singapore Management University (SMU) students to design skills and infrastructural upgrades to help Hua Tat reach it’s full potential.
Areas of work:
- English language education for students and adults
- Financial literacy courses for adults
- Develop tourism landscape (mapping trekking routes, upgrading hiking trail signages, etc.)
- Water and sanitation projects (toilet upgrade in schools, installation of water tanks in village, etc.)
Partners involved in this project:
- Actxplorer coordinates and facilitates the ongoing partnership between the village leaders and volunteers.
- Actxplorer Vietnam works on the ground with the Hua Tat villagers and Vietnamese government agencies to ensure seamless implementation of the skills and infrastructural upgrades.
- Singapore Management University students to run English language and financial literacy courses for the locals. Three volunteer groups tag team to run these courses for a total of six weeks. At the same time, the students will also be handling the logistics of trekking routes upgrades, as well as exploring with household the niches they can fill in the community-tourism framework.
- A Chu Homestay allows us to learn the ropes of running a homestay business.
- Hua Tat Village Chief supports the implementation of financial literacy courses and sanitation projects.
- Son La Department of Culture and Tourism approves and supports tourism development at Hua Tat.
