Lesson 1: Changes in the ethnic group that sleeps sitting up

(Baonghean) -Decades ago, while patrolling the border, Nghe An Border Guard discovered the Dan Lai ethnic group living in the core zone of Pu Mat National Park, upstream of the Giang River. In 2006, the Prime Minister approved the project on Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Dan Lai Ethnic Minority. Up to now, after 6 years of implementation, in addition to items such as electricity, roads, schools, and stations that have been invested in, more importantly, there has been a change in people's awareness...

Settlement of the Dan Lai people in Thach Son, Thach Ngan commune (Con Cuong).

Because they live isolated from the outside world, the Dan Lai ethnic group is at risk of extinction due to poverty, backwardness, disease and incestuous marriage. After the Nghe An Border Guard discovered the existence of the Dan Lai ethnic group, local authorities at all levels and social organizations have implemented many programs to support and help the people. In 2006, the Prime Minister approved the project "Conservation and sustainable development of the Dan Lai ethnic minority currently living in the core zone of Pu Mat National Park, Con Cuong district, Nghe An province".

The project aims to improve living conditions, develop socio-economy to preserve and sustainably develop ethnic minorities currently living in the core zone of Pu Mat National Park, preserve nature of Pu Mat National Park, protect border security; organize the relocation of 146 Dan Lai ethnic minority households living upstream of Khe Khang in 2 villages Khe Con and Ban Bung, Mon Son commune, to resettlement areas in 3 villages: Ke Gia, Ke Tat, Ba Ha, Thach Ngan commune; organize the stabilization of life for 30 households staying in Co Phat village, Mon Son commune, Con Cuong district; continue to support 36 households that relocated in 2002. The project aims to preserve and promote national cultural identity, eliminate backward customs, prevent risks of racial degradation; raise awareness and intellectual level of Dan Lai ethnic people, ...

From National Highway 7, following the raw material road, passing through Yen Khe and Luc Da communes, we arrived at the mountainous commune of Mon Son on an early winter afternoon. After talking with Ms. Ngan Thi Ha, Chairwoman of the commune People's Committee, we were taken by Mon Son commune officials to the resettlement areas in Tan Son and Cua Rao villages. These are two residential areas that were formed in 2002, when 36 Dan Lai households moved out of the core zone of Pu Mat National Park. In the new land, these households were granted land for production and supported in various forms such as loans for business, support for plants and seedlings.

Dan Lai children can go to school and receive medical examinations at the health station. The project to renovate fields for the people was also implemented, turning 12 hectares of wasteland into terraced fields with an irrigation system, bringing water from Pha Lai dam to irrigate the fields. In 2013, the first Dan Lai family escaped poverty, that was Ms. La Thi Nguyet, Head of the Residential Group and an officer of the Women's Union in the Cua Rao resettlement area. Ms. Nguyet is a pioneer in renovating fields and gardens, growing vegetables, crops, corn combined with raising pigs and making wine. Currently, the Mon Son commune government is replicating Ms. Nguyet's economic model for the Dan Lai people to learn and follow.

Not far from Cua Rao village, right at the foot of the poetic Pha Lai dam, is a solid suspension bridge, spanning the Giang River, connecting the center of Mon Son commune to the road leading to the center of Co Phat village in the upper reaches of the Giang River. The bridge has been completed, and many sections of the road are also being urgently constructed. According to the plan, by 2014, the road to Co Phat will be completed, and the Dan Lai ethnic people will no longer have to go upstream on the Giang River by boat. Along with the suspension bridge and road construction projects, Co Phat has also changed a lot thanks to the socio-economic development projects of the Nghe An Border Guard.

Here, the internal traffic system is basically complete, and works such as community houses, medical stations, and kindergartens are increasingly effective. In the project for the sustainable conservation of the Dan Lai ethnic group, the role of the Border Guard force is extremely important in the on-site resettlement of the remaining households in Co Phat and Ban Bung. The Border Guard has established two working groups to stay close to the people and villages, guiding people to gradually change their hunting and gathering habits to farming and raising livestock. Through many different methods, the project component undertaken by the Border Guard has basically been completed and brought about changes in awareness among the Dan Lai ethnic group. Speaking slowly, Mr. La Van Bao, Head of Bung village, confided: “In the past, Dan Lai people still had the habit of sleeping sitting, eating raw food, drinking raw food, living here and there and not knowing what education was. But since receiving attention from the State, up to now, Dan Lai people are gradually changing, approaching civilization, there is no longer the scene of promiscuous marriage, sick people can go to the medical station, children can go to school. All thanks to the attention of the Party and the State.”

Dan Lai people are exposed to plows and how to grow wet rice.

Talking about the changes in the land of Co Phat, Ban Bung, Colonel Nguyen Dinh Duc, Deputy Commander of Nghe An Border Guard Command said: With the goal of sustainable conservation for the Dan Lai ethnic group, protecting land, protecting forests, and maintaining border security, the Vietnam Border Guard Command has made many efforts, invested in many programs and projects with a total capital of nearly 40 billion VND to help the Dan Lai people escape poverty. For the Dan Lai people, the problem is not investing money but holding hands, showing them how to do things, understanding them to gradually change their awareness, way of thinking, and way of doing things. In the first quarter of 2014, the army will continue to support the people with 400 million VND in seeds and seedlings for production. It is expected that by the end of 2014, all socio-economic development projects in Co Phat and Ban Bung implemented by the Border Guard will be basically completed.

Leaving Mon Son commune, we turned back to National Highway 7, down to Anh Son district, crossed the Cay Chanh suspension bridge, followed the district's raw material road to enter Thach Ngan commune, Con Cuong district. This season, the road to Thach Ngan is like a newly plowed field, there are only 2 ways to get in, either follow the truck carrying cassava, sugarcane, acacia, or walk. From the center of Thach Ngan commune, we had to cross 5 more spillways to reach Thach Son village, the new village of the Dan Lai ethnic group. In 2007, implementing a government project, 42 Dan Lai households in the core area of ​​Pu Mat National Park were moved to the Thach Son resettlement area in Thach Ngan commune.

It can be affirmed that the living conditions in Thach Ngan are much better than those in Co Phat and Ban Bung. People are provided with new, solid, spacious stilt houses, with electricity, schools, rice fields, alluvial land and forests for growing raw materials. After the initial confusion about life in the new land, up to now, the Dan Lai people are really catching up with modern life. Most families have televisions, telephones, some households have motorbikes, buffaloes, cows, chickens, pigs, etc. The village secretary, Mr. La Giang Son, confided: People not only know how to do rice farming, grow crops, and raise livestock, but are also guided by the village working group of Con Cuong district and Thach Ngan commune, including cadres who are engineers and experts in fields such as agriculture, construction, military, police, and youth union, to organize production, use tractors to plow the fields, and guide them on how to preserve agricultural products.

From the original 42 households, Thach Son village has now increased to 50 households, with many Thai people from other villages coming to marry Dan Lai people. The image of Dan Lai children going to school is no longer strange. The kindergarten in Thach Son is also a common learning place for children of Kinh and Thai people in Thach Ngan commune. Many other students have crossed flooded dams to go to high school at the district school.

It can be said that, up to now, thanks to the sustainable conservation project, the lives of the Dan Lai ethnic people in Nghe An have really changed. Mr. Ho Dang Tai - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Con Cuong district confided that the biggest benefit of the project after 6 years of implementation is not only items such as electricity, roads, schools, stations but also the change in people's awareness. "Currently, people are gradually getting used to new production methods, new civilizations, and the situation of incestuous marriage is also gradually decreasing. The economic and social life of the people is visibly improving."

(To be continued)

Article and photos: Reporter Group