Prosperity thanks to having few children

(Baonghean) - Every year, our province has hundreds of blocks and villages where no one has a third child, dozens of collaborators and population specialists are commended for their many positive contributions to population work, and many families are increasingly prosperous and happy because they know how to stop at 2 children to raise them well. The stories of families with few children who are doing well economically in Quy Chau, or the stories of civilized blocks thanks to many years of not having a third child in Thai Hoa Town are vivid proofs...

Residents of Tan Son block, Hoa Hieu ward, Thai Hoa town learn about population information at the block's mini library.

Currently, Chau Tien commune (Quy Chau) has completed 15/19 criteria for new rural construction. A significant contribution to that success is thanks to the locality's good implementation of population and family planning work; most families "advise" stopping at two children to raise healthy children, teach good children; have time to take care of economic development. Chau Tien has more than 90% ethnic minorities, but the vast majority of people are aware of family planning. This is partly thanks to the government and departments and branches in the commune doing a good job of propaganda; more importantly, people are self-aware when looking at the "mirror" of other families in the village and commune. Like the family of Ms. Vi Thi Tinh in Hong Tien 2 village, this year, she is only 45 years old but has 7 children.

Having many children, born close together, life is very difficult, the children are not well cared for and raised; or like the family of Ms. Nguyen Thi Nghia in Bua Lau village, who gave birth to 3 children close together, and the couple did not have land to produce, so their life revolved around poverty. On the contrary, the couple of Mr. Sam Van Son and Ms. Sam Thi Hoa in Hoa Tien 1 village were admired by everyone because they had 2 daughters but both were good students, the eldest of whom passed the university entrance exam. Their family is also a typical cultural family in the commune; they were elected to attend the meeting of typical farmer families in the province. Or like the family of Mr. and Mrs. Tran Van Ngoc and Ms. Luong Thi Kim in Hau 1 village, who got married when they were both in their 20s, after 10 years they rose from nothing to become well-off.

This is the result of his hard work in the rain and sun working as a bricklayer and carpenter for others, and later on, with capital, he switched to the forestry business. As for her, thanks to her quickness and diligence, she is very lucky in trading and now has a fairly large grocery store in the area. She confided: "He is Kinh and the first son, so when he saw that she and her husband only had 2 children, and both were girls, he could not avoid the gossip and pressure from her husband's family. Knowing that, she and her husband on one hand persuaded her husband's parents, on the other hand, focused on economic development, taking care of their children's education. Now, when they see their children have a peaceful and happy family, and their grandchildren are good and studious, their grandparents are very happy."

Talking about the core role of families in the construction of new rural areas of the commune, Mr. Tran Van Hoang - Chairman of the People's Committee of the commune excitedly said: "In the construction of new rural areas, the economic criterion is the most difficult for our commune. But I believe that the commune will reach the finish line because last year the poverty rate decreased by 5%, this year it will continue to decrease. This is thanks to the increasing number of families having fewer children and focusing their time on economic development and childcare".

According to Mr. Luong Van Sam - Director of the District Population and Family Planning Center: The number of couples in childbearing age giving birth to 1-2 children in the whole district accounts for more than 94% and the movement to build blocks, hamlets and villages without people giving birth to a third child or more has developed widely. Therefore, from 2009 to now, while the third child birth rate of the whole province has always increased at an alarming rate of approximately 20%, in Quy Chau it has only increased by about 6% (the lowest in the whole province). In the period 2009 - 2013, there were 3 communes achieving 1 year without a third child, 20 villages achieving 3-4 years, 24 villages achieving 5-9 years, 7 villages achieving 10-15 years.

In Thai Hoa, the story of building hamlets without people having a third child has also received the consensus of most people. In the past 5 years, Thai Hoa town has built 40 hamlets with no people having a third child for 3-20 years. Thereby, contributing to improving the material and spiritual life of the people, building cultural families and contributing to preserving and promoting the national cultural identity. One of the important solutions that localities have implemented is to strengthen communication work, deploy propaganda content to each target group, each age, each region, focusing on regions with high birth rates and third child birth rates. At the same time, promote the socialization of population work - family planning by mobilizing the participation of all social forces to integrate propaganda, integrate population targets with economic, cultural and educational development criteria.

In addition, each block has a good way of doing things, such as the way of Tan Son block, Hoa Hieu ward. This is a block with a large population of 218 households, the population is diverse with 4 ethnic groups Kinh, Thanh, Thai, Tho living together, 2/3 of the people in the block are traders. For 17 years now, the block has not had a third child, there are many cases of only one child but still determined to stop giving birth to raise children well and to contribute to maintaining the achievements of the block. Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong, a population collaborator of Tan Son block, said: This success is because for many years the block has done a very good job of coordinating between departments, branches, and organizations in promoting propaganda and mobilizing people to implement population policies well.

In addition, the block has also organized many diverse communication activities such as daily propaganda about population work on loudspeakers; equipped with many books and newspapers related to reproductive health, population policies, family planning, books teaching life skills or good parenting experiences for families to refer to. Maintain activities of clubs such as: "Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law" club, "No third child" club, "For family happiness" club... The block executive committee and population officers regularly meet with women to share their thoughts and feelings, understand each person and each family situation to mobilize, if any case is too difficult to mobilize the husband and family, the block executive committee will directly mobilize. Thanks to good population work, 45% of families in the block are quite rich, 95% of families are awarded the title of Cultural Family. Every year, the percentage of students in the block who achieve excellent students, advanced students and pass university entrance exams is over 60.

The two approaches and two examples above show that although the work of mobilizing and propagating people to have fewer children still faces many difficulties, wherever dedicated officials, authorities and people join in, there will certainly be good results. At the same time, it is further evidence that having fewer children and raising good children will be the basis and foundation of a happy family, the condition for building a civilized and developed neighborhood and thereby making an important contribution to improving the quality of population and quality of life.

Article and photos:My Ha