Nonghyup Bank gives return trip to overseas brides

Nonghyup Bank is helping overseas Vietnamese brides visit home

Since 2007 the bank, in co-operation with the National Agriculture Cooperatives Federation, has funded travel and living expenses for about 5,000 people from 1,300 mixed families of Korean and Vietnamese  nationals living in Korea to visit their Vietnamese relatives.

In addition, the federation hosted training courses and established consulting teams to support these mixed families and created aid programmes to provide livestock to help Vietnamese brides settle down in Korea.

These activities were regarded as practical help for Vietnamese wives beginning life in foreign climes. About 50-60 per cent of Vietnamese brides are living in the Korean countryside. 

Nguyen Thi Nghia married a Korean man 10 years ago.

“After I had a baby, I could speak Korean a little better. And I knew that my communication skills would improve if I went out and spoke with people. But by that time my mother in-law was sick and could not go out, while I had two little daughters. My husband was at work until 9pm every week day,” Nghia recalled.

In the initial period, Nghia more than once thought of returning home, but at last she decided to stay and support her husband.

In Korea, Nghia took care of her paralysed mother in-law for four successive years. The couple could not afford to bring their mother to hospital as well as to send money back to Vietnam leaving Nghia’s family in the Mekong Delta’s Dong Thap province.

Knowing her difficulties, Nghia’s husband Lee Yong Woo worked hard to buy his parents-in-law a patch of land.

“At last, we helped my parents to buy two hectares,” Nghia said happily.

She was able to return home for only second time thanks to the  support provided from Nonghyup Bank.

In a letter to State President Truong Tan Sang, Lee Sang Mi, Nghia’s daughter wrote, “in Korea, my mother is appreciated by many locals. She is diligent and cooks Korean food very well. She is also kindly and courteous with other family members. She is a wonderful mother and I am proud of her.”

“When I grew up, I wanted to become a diplomat to cultivate the relationships between Vietnam and Korea. So that my mother can return home more frequently and my relatives can visit Korea more easily, and the two countries will be like friends.”