Story of parishioners collecting trash and repairing roads

(Baonghean.vn) - In Thanh Yen commune (Thanh Chuong), everyone knows Mr. Le Van Yen (born in 1952), Phuc Yen parish, Yen Binh hamlet, because of his meaningful work: collecting trash and repairing roads.

Regardless of sunny or rainy days, every morning around 7-8am he leaves the house, barefoot, with a sickle and a machete on his hip, a lighter and a handful of scrap paper in his pocket. On the way, if he sees trash, he uses the sickle to “pick it up”, if it is “hard trash”, he will go back and get another bag of snake carcasses to put in.

Mr. Le Van Yen is picking up trash. Photo: Dam Phuong

On the way to the field, he would come home, take a hoe, level the ground, compact it, and use bricks to make it solid in case a rainstorm washed it away. When he encountered a hollow, he would carry a load of soil and rocks, then press and compact it until it was level. When he finished his work in his hamlet, he would go to another hamlet. From one end of the commune to the other, there was no bank or field that did not have his footprints.

On the edge of the field, many people are not conscious of fertilizing, spraying pesticides, and throwing bottles and plastic bags on the field. He goes around picking them up and sorting them. Those that can be burned are burned right in the field, and those that are worth burying are collected and taken to the landfill for burial.

Since the commune's landfill was put into use, he is the one who understands best which corner has dirty garbage, which corner has "hard" garbage, which corner needs to be burned and destroyed. He is like the "owner" of the landfill, coming in and "using" it every day. Some days he has just finished cleaning, the next day he comes out, the landfill is littered with all kinds of garbage at the entrance, he is busy sorting it to burn and bury.

Mr. Le Van Yen is processing garbage at the commune's landfill. Photo: Dam Phuong

When asked why he goes to work every day doing things that no one else does, he just smiles: "I do it for myself, not for anyone else." He believes and does that because, as he confided, his wife, Mrs. Tho, has had stomach cancer for 10 years now. If people had no money or health, they would have gone to their grandparents a long time ago, but Mrs. Tho only takes herbal medicine and has not been sick for the past 10 years. She does not have to undergo chemotherapy, does not go to the hospital for treatment, but still works in the fields, cooks and takes care of the family, leaving him to do the work "no one else does".

His house is opposite the church, Father Nhan - also a person who does many good deeds so the people in the commune respect him very much. Father often comes to visit, talk and encourage him, he is also the one who prints the no littering signs for him to put up, warning people not to litter indiscriminately to protect the environment. Hearing the bell ringing every day makes his heart peaceful. He believes that his work is not only to make the environment cleaner and fresher but also because God has given him and his wife a peaceful and happy life.

His children got married and had their own families, but his grandparents still lived the same way every day: each taking care of their own chores, while she still worked hard at the market, cooking, and working in the fields so that he had time to "eat at home and take care of the whole village"...

The couple Le Van Yen are an example of "living a good life and living a good religion" in Phuc Yen parish. Photo: Dam Phuong

Everyone knows what he does, many people also advised him to ask the commune to allocate the budget to pay his salary, but he replied: I do not work to get paid. He thinks so, so the commune government often holds him up as a shining example for everyone to learn from, also to remind them of environmental protection awareness. At the end of 2016, the commune leaders recognized and encouraged him with a certificate of merit and 1,500 thousand VND to reward him for three years of working to collect trash and repair roads for people in the commune...

Ha Linh