In Dinh hamlet, Nghi Thiet commune (Nghi Loc district), in the last days of the year, village cadres and people are busy preparing for the year-end summary and planning activities for the new year. Ms. Pham Thi Dinh - head of Dinh hamlet said: All activities and movements in the hamlet need funding to be maintained and encouraged. Therefore, it requires the hamlet cadres to be dynamic, enthusiastic, responsible, and transparent in revenue and expenditure to be able to call on and mobilize children living far away as well as "benefactors" to support and sponsor the movement effectively.
Ms. Dinh also confided that she and Party Cell Secretary Vo Van Chien are both in their sixties, with limited health and sometimes facing difficulties, but still trying to fulfill their responsibilities. “Partly because of their enthusiasm for the village, partly because nowadays the young generation has almost left their families and gone to work far away, so the source of village and hamlet cadres has been exhausted. In the role of the hamlet executive committee, regardless of day or night, no matter how big or small the “incident” is, we are always there from the beginning to find a way to resolve it,” Ms. Dinh expressed.
Before Dinh hamlet merged with Ban hamlet, the area was only limited to about 140 households, the work of the hamlet executive committee was also lighter than it is now. After the merger, the hamlet has nearly 1,200 people, 332 households. The area and population doubled, which partly made the work of the hamlet cadres sometimes overloaded, especially when urgent incidents related to natural disaster prevention and control, and the season affected the production of the people. From big to small matters, all need to be exemplary leaders of the "prisoners" of the hamlet.
Secretary of the Dinh hamlet Party Cell - Mr. Vo Van Chien gave an example: Recently, the hamlet executive committee divided themselves to go to each residential group, regardless of day or night, "going to every alley, knocking on every door" to mobilize people to support the funding to install a solar-powered light bulb system to light up the inner-hamlet roads. With the spirit of "party members go first", the village and hamlet officials supported first, then the families of party members... Seeing this, the people agreed to support an average of 300,000 VND/household, installing 8 bulbs, and it is expected to mobilize enough 25 bulbs to light up 100% of the inner-hamlet roads, both ensuring traffic safety and beautifying the hamlet landscape.
Talking about the role of the "leading force" in the hamlet, Mr. Tran Trung Son - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Nghi Thiet Commune Party Committee said that the hamlet cadres, including many secretaries and hamlet chiefs who have been "in prison" for 20-30 years such as Mr. Vo Van Chien in Dinh hamlet, Mr. Nguyen Ba Tinh in Quyet Tam hamlet... are truly multi-talented, enthusiastic and responsible people. Without them, the implementation of policies and strategies would not be able to reach the people in a timely manner. However, currently, the hamlet and village cadres are mostly elderly people, some of whom have proposed to retire from the hamlet many times. But it is very difficult to find someone who meets the criteria of prestige, enthusiasm and expertise to replace them. Therefore, the commune regularly encourages them to continue to stick together for the common movement.
Also in the story about the activities of the village and hamlet cadre team, Deputy Secretary of the Kim Thanh Commune Party Committee (Yen Thanh District) - Mr. Phan Tat Mau said: After the merger, Kim Thanh commune still has 5 hamlets, a population of 4,008 households, a large area, some hamlets are nearly 7 km from the commune center, such as Dong Ban hamlet. This hamlet has the Nha Dua inter-family group, formerly Nha Dua hamlet, living separately "no electricity, no road, no school, no household registration", and there are no local party members. Therefore, the Party Committee of the commune appointed Mr. Nguyen Xuan Vinh, former Chairman of the Commune Veterans Association, as Secretary of Nha Dua Party Cell, and admitted 5 more party members. In 2019, Nha Dua hamlet merged into Dong Ban hamlet (Nha Dua became the inter-family group of the hamlet), then Mr. Vinh was elected as the Head of Dong Ban hamlet, and now he has transferred to be the Secretary of the Party Cell.
After the merger, Dong Ban hamlet had 9 inter-family groups (each group had 30 households). As for Nha Dua inter-family group, because it was located on the "other side" of the mountain, separated from the hamlet center, when there was something that needed to be disseminated to the people, the hamlet executive committee had to hold a separate meeting. Other activities such as the Mid-Autumn Festival or the hamlet's great solidarity festival had to be held twice. This hamlet also had difficulty finding replacement staff, so at the end of the term, the Party cell secretary and the hamlet chief "switched places". Sharing about his work, Dong Ban hamlet Party cell secretary Nguyen Xuan Vinh confided that many times his children saw him working hard at night, his health getting worse day by day, and his support allowance "not enough for gas and for weddings and funerals", so he went to the commune cadres to ask for his leave. However, because he had not found a replacement and thinking of his responsibility as a party member, he continued to shoulder the people's and the Party's work.
The job of “carrying the prison and the whole village” in the lowlands is one of the hardest, but for the remote villages in the mountains, it is even more difficult. On the occasion of visiting Mong Pha Bun village of Huoi Tu commune (Ky Son highland district), I saw the village chief Ho Tong Lau holding a book and busily walking up the slope. Upon asking, I learned that in the village there was a case of a person over 80 years old who had migrated to Laos more than 10 years ago, so the village chief immediately came to visit to grasp the situation.
Taking on the "prisoner" role since 1998, Mr. Ho Tong Lau said that "the village's work is busier than the housework". The village's work he mentioned is attending district and commune meetings to grasp the policies and guidelines of the superiors and deploy them to the people, and to propagate and mobilize people to understand and follow them. Besides, the customs and practices of the villagers when there is a happy or sad event, the village cadre must be the first to be present to share and support. For example, recently in the village, there was a case of two villagers fighting because of drinking alcohol, Mr. Lau and the village's reconciliation team had to organize a reconciliation, analyze the reason and the emotion so that the parties could be in harmony, happy, and not sue each other, affecting the solidarity in the village.
“Pha Bun village has 60 households, nearly 300 people. The households are scattered far apart, and people often go to the fields, so when there is a need to contact or resolve a matter, the village cadres have to go there, which is very difficult. Sometimes we have to go to the fields, into the forest, and walk all day to meet them, but it is our responsibility to try, as long as the villagers are satisfied, actively produce, do not migrate freely, do not marry early, and do not violate social evils, then we are happy,” said Mr. Ho Tong Lau.
In addition to the team of secretaries, hamlet chiefs, and heads of the Front's working committee, the cadres of the branches and unions are also the "core" in spreading movements at the grassroots level; contributing to bringing policies and campaigns into life. In Noong De village, Nam Can border commune (Ky Son), people have a lot of affection for Ms. La Thi Khan, born in 1991 - the head of the Women's Association of the village, who is very active, enthusiastic, and devoted to the common work.
I met Ms. Khan when she was going from house to house to encourage women in the village to join the brocade weaving group. Ms. Khan said: People have long maintained traditional weaving, almost every house has a loom but mainly to serve the family. Now, the Women's Union wants to help women develop the economy, turn brocade products into goods, so they invite everyone to join the weaving group. The products are sold at Nam Can border market or collected for Lao people, so they have a stable source of income. The most diligent families have 5-6 million VND/month, normally they have 3-4 million VND/month. "The work of the Women's Union is also quite busy. All movements and activities from the commune to the village have the participation of the union, from developing economic models, preserving cultural identity to participating in protecting border security, preventing epidemics...", Ms. La Thi Khan confided.
Commenting on the role of the Head of the Women's Union of Noong De village, the President of the Women's Union of Nam Can commune - Ms. Vu Y Nai said: Ms. Khan is not only active in union activities but also takes care of housework and is good at economics. Her husband works far away, she takes care of two small children alone, there is no deputy head of the union, but she still does a good job in women's work and is the head of the weaving group of the village. She also opened a grocery store and worked in the fields to increase her income. In 2022, the village was absent from the Secretary of the Youth Union due to working far away, the Head of the Women's Union La Thi Khan also took on this position, in every role she completed her tasks excellently, creating excitement for the movements at the grassroots level."
Arriving at Pha Xac village (Huoi Tu commune, Ky Son), after many phone calls, we finally made an appointment to meet the head of the Women's Association, Ms. Vu Y Ma. Hurriedly returning home from her family's fields, Ms. Vu Y Ma said that normally, only when there is work for the village do the cadres of the branches and organizations stay at home, the rest are on the fields. Because "with only a few hundred thousand dong in allowance each month, in the high mountainous terrain, the roads are far and difficult to travel, we have to work, produce, and raise livestock to earn extra income, to help "feed" our enthusiasm for the movement". Despite the hardship, the cadres of the branches like her are still enthusiastic about the local work, she also takes on the role of head of the Pha Xac village embroidery team. According to Ms. Vu Y Ma, the Pha Xac women's embroidery group has gradually stabilized after more than 3 years of operation, bringing in a monthly income of 1.5-2 million VND/person for the women.
Talking about the hardships and silent contributions of the cadres of the branches and unions in the villages, Mr. Mua Ba Gio - Chairman of the People's Committee of Huoi Tu commune affirmed that they are the "extended arm" of the local Party Committee and government. Especially in the condition that young workers go to work far away, staying in the villages and hamlets are mainly the elderly and children, whenever there is a movement or activity, the branches and unions, typically the farmers' association and the women's association always play a core role. Although they still have the pressure of making a living and the burden of family, the current allowance is only for encouragement, but many people still persevere and stick with the common work of the village.
