Only by having a home can one find a job. Understanding the desire of thousands of poor households in the province, since 2019, the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee (VFF) of Nghe An province has conducted a review and launched a "campaign" to eliminate more than 8,100 makeshift, dilapidated houses. Thousands of "Great Unity" shelters with deep affection have been built, multiplying the spirit of mutual love, mutual assistance, and noble compatriotism of the people of Nghe An.
Receiving the solid, sturdy house that had just been built with the joint efforts of the Fatherland Front Committee of the district, commune and the villagers, Ms. Vi Thi Thin, in Thanh Dao village, Bong Khe commune, Con Cuong district, had tears in her eyes, tightly held the hands of each Front cadre, and exclaimed: "Thank you Front!". Witnessing that moment, everyone was moved, sharing the indescribable joy with the mother and child of the woman with the most difficult circumstances in this highland Thai ethnic minority village.
Her husband died in an accident many years ago, and Ms. Thin’s health is poor, so life for the mother and child is extremely difficult. Food and clothing are a daily struggle, and she does not dare to dream that one day she will be able to live in a house that is “tight on top and durable on the bottom”.
Sympathizing with Ms. Thin's situation, after conducting a field survey, the Con Cuong District Fatherland Front Committee allocated 40 million VND from the "For the Poor" Fund and called on the Con Cuong Fellow Countrymen Association in Ha Tinh to support an additional 40 million VND; together with the commune's "For the Poor" Fund, the community contributed 6 million VND to build a 2-room house worth 86 million VND, to be completed in August 2022. In addition to supporting money and urging and supervising the house construction to ensure quality, Con Cuong District Fatherland Front officials also connected with Ms. Thin's husband's family to organize a clan meeting to agree on land division, and at the same time, assigned the Commune Fatherland Front to guide her to complete the documents to separate and grant "owner" residential land to the mother and child.
Similar is the case of Mr. Vi Van Hoc in Hong Dien village, Don Phuc commune, Con Cuong district. Understanding his situation, poor health, alone in an empty thatched house, the district and commune Fatherland Front Committee supported him, as well as called for socialized resources to build a house worth 80 million VND for him. On the day he received the house, Mr. Vi Van Hoc could not hide his emotions and said: "The house is made of love and solidarity. Thank you Front, thank you yellow-shirted cadres". To achieve that result, despite the fact that it is a mountainous district with many difficulties and many things to worry about, each cadre doing Front work in this locality has a strong sense of love and loyalty, understands the situation of the people and always strives to do their work.
Comrade Pham Trong Binh - Head of the District Party Committee's Mass Mobilization Committee, Chairman of the Con Cuong District Fatherland Front Committee said: Based on the direct assessment of the housing status of poor households, the District Fatherland Front Committee organized information, shared images as well as the circumstances of the households on Facebook and Zalo groups; from those images of "real people, real events, real houses", called for and mobilized organizations and individuals to support. In particular, the district leaders themselves called for the support of businesses and philanthropists for this activity. "From the beginning of 2020 until now, we have supported the construction of 57 new houses with an amount of 1.8 billion VND and repaired 17 houses with an amount of nearly 400 million VND for poor households".
Hoang Mai town in the northernmost part of Nghe An province is the first locality in the province to launch a campaign to build and repair houses for poor households in the area. To be exact, since June 2019, based on the review and consultation of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee, the Standing Committee of the Town Party Committee issued a policy to organize the Campaign "All people join hands to support the construction and repair of houses for 126/126 poor households in the town".
The Secretary of the Hoang Mai Town Party Committee at that time personally wrote an Open Letter to the Party Committee, the government, agencies, organizations, businesses, cadres, party members, and people in the town; and children of Hoang Mai living and working all over the country and around the world. Through many channels, especially social networks, the letter of more than 700 words containing profound humanistic meaning, expressing the Party Committee's leadership's concern for poor and near-poor households so that "no one is left behind" has spread, moving many people to join hands and contribute.
Chairwoman of the Fatherland Front Committee of Hoang Mai town Ho Thi Hang shared: From the mobilization of the spirit of support from the entire population and the responsible participation of departments, branches, agencies, units and enterprises in the town, the locality has mobilized a large resource to build houses for the poor. Up to this point, in addition to 126 poor households in need of building houses surveyed in 2019, which were basically supported to build houses, there have been dozens more poor households in need of support to build "Great Unity" houses newly registered in 3 years (2020, 2021, 2022) also received support, an average of 50 million VND/house.
In the remote Ky Son district, although life is not yet abundant, every year each cadre in the Fatherland Front system from the district to the grassroots voluntarily contributes 1 day's salary to help poor households, including building "Great Unity" houses. In particular, according to Vice Chairman of the Fatherland Front Committee of Ky Son district Ho Dinh Que, the Front at all levels has mobilized businesses and people to participate in supporting the "Zero Dong Bus" to transport materials to build houses for the poor; as well as mobilizing people, whoever has wood to contribute wood, has cement to contribute cement or contributes working days to build houses for poor households...
Starting from June 2019, the Standing Committee of the Fatherland Front Committee of Nghe An province has directed the Fatherland Front system at all levels to conduct a general review of the current situation of poor households in need of housing to develop a roadmap and plan to call for and mobilize support resources; at the same time, classify the priority order for meritorious people, lonely elderly people, orphans, ethnic minorities, etc.
At the time of review, the whole province had 8,160 poor households in need of housing, including the need to build 6,020 new houses and repair 2,140 houses. To convince philanthropists, the Nghe An Provincial Fatherland Front Committee has carefully surveyed, conducted a general census and built a database of poor households in the whole province in need of housing improvement and livelihood support; made a master plan and established a profile including images of the current status of each house, specific information about poor households, subjects, addresses... to call for businesses, philanthropists, and the community; built a system of priority criteria for housing improvement support and livelihood support to ensure fairness among subjects.
Based on the review results, with the consent of the Standing Committee of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee issued an appeal to mobilize the construction of 1,200 "Great Unity" houses for poor households in especially difficult circumstances on the occasion of the 130th anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh's birthday (May 19, 1890 - May 19, 2020); then continued to expand to all poor households in the review list.
With the advisory role of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Nghe An province, the movement to eliminate temporary and dilapidated housing for the poor has strongly stirred emotions and feelings and aroused and spread the spirit of "mutual love and affection", "the healthy leaves cover the torn leaves" of the community, philanthropists, and businesses inside and outside the province; raised to a broad program of the entire political system, demonstrating the Party's will and the people's hearts in unison, with the Fatherland Front at all levels as the bridge. The Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee; leaders of departments, branches, districts, cities, and town Party Committees have taken every opportunity to strengthen connections, proactively raised issues to mobilize businesses, entrepreneurs, business associations, and business associations inside and outside the province to support resources for building houses for poor households.
Accompanying Nghe An, the Central leaders have also called for and joined hands to carry out the campaign to eliminate makeshift and dilapidated houses for the poor. Most recently, during his working trip to Nghe An in early September 2022, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc presented 100 gratitude houses to poor households in the province; before that, in June 2022, Comrade Do Van Chien - Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, XV National Assembly delegate of Nghe An delegation, together with the Provincial National Assembly Delegation, mobilized Masterise Group to support the construction of 50 "Great Solidarity" houses for poor households in Nghe An province with a total value of 2.5 billion VND.
The Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Nghe An province also signed a coordination charter with the Vinh Diocese Bishop's Office on mobilizing and supporting the improvement of housing and livelihoods for poor Catholic households in the period of 2020-2025. After 2 years of implementation, the two sides have coordinated to support the construction of 183 houses for poor Catholic households, with a total amount of more than 11 billion VND.
Comrade Le Van Ngoc - Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee shared: From changing methods and ways of working according to the motto: "Clear objects, clear addresses, clear circumstances" needing support associated with diverse forms of mobilization, specifically identifying the "key" role has created strength and widespread spread of the "campaign". As a result, after 3 years of implementation, the whole province has built 4,419 "Great Unity" houses. In the coming time, the Fatherland Front at all levels of Nghe An will continue to prioritize groups and mobilize everyone to continue helping poor households in need of housing to have a solid home.