Poverty Isn’t The Same Everywere
For the average worker in Vietnam, life is lived on minimum wage. 4.18 million dongs or approximately $180 per month. This will provide a meager one-room apartment and enough food to keep the family well-fed for two-income families. However, a demographic of people lives below this means, and they are some of the countries poorest. Often elderly and beyond the ability to perform everyday work. The Coronavirus lockdown is bringing them to their knees.
The National Lottery
There is no social security style program here, and those who become too old, are disabled, or other impoverished groups like single mothers have two options. The first is to sell Lottery tickets. Gambling is illegal in Vietnam, though I’ve seen at least three casinos in Da Nang. Only holders of foreign passports may enter. The state does, however, allow nationals to play a state-funded lottery.
Here, however, you don’t go to the corner store or gas station to purchase your tickets. Instead, you buy them from a ticket peddler. The poorest residence all over the country get up before dawn, ride their bicycles to the closest lottery office and collect a booklet of tickets. All tickets here are multi-numbered pre-printed randomized tickets. A drawing is held in each city and province at 4 pm each day. The tickets are unique to the purchase area, and each peddler has until 3 pm to sell the tickets. Then, at 3 pm, they must return the unsold tickets or risk being responsible for the price of their outstanding tickets.
The set price for a ticket is 10,000 VND, less than .50 cents, and the peddlers keep 10% of the ticket sales. It is not illegal to negotiate a higher price, and as the afternoon wears on, they will often try to arrange you up to 12 or 13,000. It’s usually a sign of desperation, and many typically accept it as it’s more of a charity transaction than the possibility of getting rich. The highest payout possible for the national lottery is 2 billion VND or about $86,000. Not a lot back in the states, but a rather large sum here.
Recycling
The second way they make money is quite frankly from trash sifting. Garbage pick-up is a bit strange here. Trash cans are small, and the bags are no bigger than large grocery bags back home. There is either a sizeable topless Styrofoam cooler or a plastic produce crate in front of each building. You place your bags in each day, and eventually, an open bed truck will come by, collect the garbage, and off it goes.
There is not a recycling truck per se, but recycling facilities will pay minimal amounts per weight. Usually, before the trash trucks come through, someone will ride by on a bicycle, pull a trailer or on foot, and sift through everything looking for bottles and cans. I always noticed Diem separating recyclables. The other day I asked her why? I have never seen a recycling truck. She looked at me and thought of how to say it in English. She told me, “It is for those that wander.” The statement hit me like a brick and sparked a curious question.
The Affects Of Isolation
The Government ordered all lottery offices closed in early March, and people have been called off the street since April 1. What are the poor, the wanderers of Vietnam, doing to survive? What can we do to help them? We separate our recyclables, but they can not collect. We played the lottery infrequently, but we played, now there are no tickets. With the authorities patrolling the streets and provinces shutdown, the situation is becoming desperate for many.
Some at-risk populations depend on these opportunities to earn as little as $4 to $8 a day. It is a paltry amount, but here it will buy you rice, and it may even afford you a roof to keep dry. Begging and panhandling are unheard of here, and I can’t say I’ve seen anyone noticeably homeless. But there are shanty towns, and there is one between us and the beach. Diem and I walked through it on one of my first days back before the lockdown. I can’t imagine how dire the situation is there. It’s only a few blocks away.
The Vietnamese are very proud and resilient. They will persevere. But things will get very tough for the lowest of income earnings here in this fledgling economy. I hope the Government gets through this effectively, and we can all get back to business but in a responsible manner. No need to rush, but the clock is ticking ever so swiftly for those who wander.
Some Statistics and Updates
In Kien Giang Province, a province of 1.6 million, there are an estimated 3,000 ticket peddlers. It is guessed that over a third are above 65 or severely disabled.
By publishing, local lottery offices had begun distributing baskets of rice, noodles and cooking oil, and other staples to ticket peddlers.
In addition, the Vietnamese Government has issued a “no citizen left behind edict,” strictly diverting resources to help impoverished families during these uncertain times.
Tables have begun to be set up in neighborhoods piled with bags containing noodles, rice, dried meats, and staples. Signs on the tables read, if you are in need, take one. If you are not in need, leave something behind. No one is staffing the tables as social distancing orders are strictly enforced. Instead, social media is being used to coordinate distribution.
In Hau Giang Province, a population of just under 1 million, 200 tons of rice were distributed to lottery ticket sellers.
The community is robust in Vietnam. It’s beautiful to see.
Click Here for true tales of struggle and perseverance.
Click here for just one great story of how people are putting their skills to work to help the underprivileged here in Vietnam.
