Vietnam has made tremendous progress in improving the country’s overall public health and is on track towards meeting many health-related millennium development goals. However, there are still too many Vietnamese dying of preventable causes and too many health risks going untreated. Diarrhea, traffic injuries, and nutritional disorders all remain leading causes of death in Vietnam, while the emergence of lifestyle-related diseases, like cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular conditions, remains poorly understood by many. On top of that, the distribution of high caliber healthcare is uneven, with many poor villages lacking access to and unable to pay for treatment.

Upward mobility in life is often determined by access to capital. A little capital can help a family purchase goods to open up a shop, enable a farmer to acquire an ox to till the land, or support an aspiring entrepreneur to develop new ideas and solve a village’s recurrent problems. Financial capital is instrumental in bringing a community out of poverty and into prosperity. But with 43% of Vietnam currently surviving on less than $2 a day, it can be difficult for many Vietnamese to manage day-to-day living expenses, much less save up money to expand their current livelihood or jump start a new business.