Enumerators and supervisors profiles

Hoa, Nguyen Thi. Enumerator. Cham Mat Commune , Hoa Binh Province.

Hoa filling out the questionnaire.

Occupation: Vice-chairperson of the Women’s Union, Cham Mat Commune.

Educational level: I have completed high school. Currently, I am pursuing a college degree on Gender and Advocacy.

Motivation: I volunteered to be an enumerator. I was fully aware of the importance of the 2009 Census. On the other hand, I am Vice-chairperson of the Women’s Union in the Commune, so I wanted to take part in this undertaking.

Work load: 183 households in 20 days, all sample survey.

Challenges:

- The timing. People were working during the day, so I had to arrange time to visit the households early in the morning, at lunch time or in the evenings.

- Some questions were difficult for people to understand so I spent some time explaining what sort of information I needed.

Khai, Ngo Quang. Enumerator. Thien Phien Commune, Hung Yen Province.

According to Khai, people at the households were aware of the census and its objectives.

Occupation: Head of the village.

Educational level: Graduate from College of Accounting (two-year programme).

Motivation: As head of the village I am committed to census.

Work load: 157 questionnaires, all sample form.

Challenges: It was very difficult to arrange interviews at lunch time because the heads of the households were at work, ant that is why we had to meet them at noon or in the afternoon. Apart from that, I noticed that some people found it difficult to explain their main occupation, because they usually were involve in different things at the same time, having several incomes.

About the process: From my personal experience, the advocacy campaign was conducted very well and all the people were informed about the census. Head of households were aware of the census and its objectives.

Hao, Nguyen Thi. Enumerator. An Long Commune, Hai Duong Province.

To find people at home, Hao had to arrange time for the interviews in the evenings.

Occupation: Farmer.

Educational level: Currently, studying Geography at vocational college.

Motivation: I am the first secretary at the Youth Union and wanted to participate in this important initiative.

Work load: 72 households.

Challenges: I found it difficult to answer question 13, about highest education grade. Additionally, it was complicated for the head of the household to answer some questions related to Reproductive Health. Sometimes I had to go back several times to the same house in order to interview the woman and get the correct information on that issue. On the other hand, I had to work in the evenings from 7 to 9 or even later, otherwise it was difficult to find people at home.

Thuong, Bui Viet. Supervisor. Lien Son Commune, Hoa Binh Province.

For Thuong this was his third census.

Occupation: Staff at the Commune’s Peoples’ Committee, Statistics Unit.

Educational level: No information.

Motivation: As statistics staff I have been involved in collecting information at the commune level, this is why I decided to become a supervisor. I had participated in the last two censuses as enumerator, and this time I wanted to try as supervisor. This is my third census.

Work load: I had two enumerators under my supervision. Every day at 7:00 am I arranged meetings with them to assess possible difficulties and distribute the questionnaires. When it was necessary I went with them to the households. Once the questionnaires were completed I reviewed them to fix the errors.

Challenges: The education background of some heads of households was limited and we had to spend a lot of time for them to understand the questions.

Lan, Trinh Phuong. Supervisor. Cham Mat Commune, Hoa Binh Province.

Whenever Lan found errors in the forms she had to go back to the households.

Occupation: Officer at the Statistics Office, Cham Mat PPC.

Educational level: I have completed High School.

Motivation: Related to my job.

Work load: I supervised three sample enumerators on their work and reviewed the questionnaires. When there were errors I fixed them by going back to the households to get the information required.

Challenges: People found it difficult to fill in the questions related to their occupation. Sometimes enumerators could not get the information because the head of the household did not understand the purpose of the survey, being complicated to provide further information.

Thuan, Do Duc. Supervisor. Phuong Hung commune, Hai Duong Province.

Thuan supervised 6 enumerators in the 2009 Census.

Occupation: I work in the commune.

Educational level: No information.

Motivation: Because of my work I have been involved in the census preparation.

Work load: I had six enumerators under my supervision. During the first days of the census I accompanied enumerators while visiting the households. I followed some interviews to see if they had any problems and solved them.

Challenges: Enumerators made minor mistakes, for example, when filling out the questionnaires they wrote numbers in a wrong way. For questions related to reproductive health, it was difficult to find accurate answers. But we did our best to find the correct information.

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