Uniting and gathering youth in special regions: New changes

(Baonghean) - Nghe An has nearly 21,000 religious youth (mainly Catholic). In recent years, the youth unions at all levels in the province have had many activities to expand and strengthen solidarity work, gather youth, and improve the quality of grassroots movements in areas with religious compatriots...

Movement from the base

To attract and gather youth union members in areas with a large number of religious followers to actively participate in union activities, many localities in the province have had good practices, creating positive changes.

In early June, we returned to Hung Tay commune at the right time when the commune, hamlet and youth union officials were discussing plans to prepare for the construction of a volleyball court for the people and youth in the area with a large number of religious followers. The chosen location was the cultural house yard of Bac Ke Gai 1 hamlet. Secretary of the Hung Tay commune Youth Union Phan Thi Thuy said: “Hung Tay has 26 rural youth unions, of which 16 are youth unions.

Launching ceremony of the 2017 summer volunteer campaign in Dien Thanh commune (Dien Chau).

With financial support from the District Youth Union, along with the contribution of working days from the people, mainly the youth union members, up to now, Hung Tay has completed 2 volleyball courts for hamlets with many Catholics, creating a playground for people to exchange sports, strengthening solidarity and cohesion.

The Secretary of the Youth Union of Hung Tay commune also said that in addition to building a football field, the commune also regularly organizes other diverse activities such as organizing summer activities, mini football exchanges, art festivals, Team ceremony rehearsals, Green Sundays to clean up the environment, repair public works, etc. to attract young people to participate, creating closeness and solidarity for the common development of the locality.

Mr. Cao Anh Duc - Secretary of Hung Nguyen District Youth Union said: Hung Nguyen is a locality with 15/23 communes where Catholics live with a number of young Catholics of about 8,000 people, the gathering rate has only reached about 50%. Therefore, in recent years, the District Youth Union - District Youth Union has deployed many diverse forms to attract young people from special areas to participate in union activities. Notably, the program of repairing and building new volleyball courts for people from special areas was launched by the District Youth Union since 2013.

In addition to renovating 7 volleyball courts for parish hamlets in Hung Nhan, Hung Trung, Hung Tay communes... each worth about 20 million VND, the program also partially supported the Youth Union branches to repair and upgrade about 15 old football fields. In addition, the District Youth Union also directed to increase twinning activities, cultural and artistic exchanges - sports between the Youth Union branches of agencies, units, schools and the Youth Union branches in the parishes to create solidarity and cohesion in the community; maintain the mechanism of district Youth Union officials attending the grassroots Youth Union branch activities at least once a month, giving priority to Youth Union branches in the parishes to improve the quality of activities.

Along with paying attention to spiritual life, Hung Nguyen District Youth Union also actively supports youth in specific areas to develop economic models to create jobs and increase local income through activities such as transferring science and technology; training on start-ups, prioritizing loans from the Employment Fund, directly working with local authorities to propose creating conditions for youth to rent land, allocate land... Up to now, the District Youth Union has coordinated with local Party committees and authorities to support the construction of 7 youth models for economic development in difficult areas and areas with many religious followers.

Nghi Loc District Youth Union is also one of the units that is assessed to have made positive changes in the work of uniting and gathering youth in special areas. Although the area has 22/30 hamlets with Catholics, the union activities take place quite evenly, and the youth of both religions and non-religious people are united in youth activities.

Nam Loc commune youth union officials share ways to unite and gather youth in the commune.

Nghi Loc District Youth Union Secretary Nguyen Thi Le said: “The movements launched by the District Youth Union and the District Youth Union always aim to create a playground for young people, creating solidarity among the people. In addition to regularly organized cultural and sports activities, every year Nghi Loc District Youth Union carries out at least one youth project to build the homeland, for example the project “Lighting up the countryside”; accordingly, the youth union members have personally installed more than 400 light bulbs and power lines for the alleys in 10 hamlets in the commune, mainly hamlets with many religious followers.

In addition, the District Youth Union has also successfully built a model of cultural Youth Union in Duc Thanh hamlet, Nghi Hoa commune with 10 criteria, in which the Youth Union must ensure that it has 20 or more members, maintain regular activities; carry out Youth Union work and pay union dues in accordance with regulations, the gathering rate is 75% or more; there are no youth union members with social evils and violations of the law... Realizing the positive effects of the cultural Youth Union model, the Nghi Hoa commune government and other localities have expanded the model in many hamlets with many religious followers.

In Nam Dan district, where 13 out of 24 communes have a large number of religious followers, the work of uniting and gathering youth is also focused on with many diverse forms of activities. One of the units with a prominent youth union movement, attracting many union members and youth to participate is the Nam Loc commune Youth Union - an area where 93% of the population follows Catholicism. Sharing the "secret" of uniting and gathering union members and youth, Secretary of the Nam Loc commune Youth Union Tran Van Khang said: The commune Youth Union always determines the goal of union activities to create a useful playground, a joyful and exciting atmosphere for young people.

With a team of union cadres that are more than half graduated from college or university, have working skills, combined with the enthusiasm of youth and the attention of the Party Committee and the government, for many years now, the Nam Loc Commune Union has organized many practical activities such as undertaking the repair and dredging of canals in the fields, clearing the flow of streams and cutting down mimosa trees in the commune... on the one hand to raise union funds, on the other hand to attract youth union members to participate in collective activities.

Nam Loc Commune Youth Union also proactively organizes activities for the whole union at the commune People's Committee headquarters. Collective activities always attract not only the participation of youth union members but also many people to join in the fun, creating a bustling, united and joyful atmosphere in the village. In addition, the Commune Youth Union regularly organizes cultural and sports exchanges; gives gifts to poor families and poor but good students with an annual budget of about 20 million VND... helping local youth see the meaning and benefits of participating in union activities.

Diversify the form of gathering

Identifying the expansion of the solidarity front and gathering youth as important content to educate, foster, motivate and promote the role of youth in the cause of building and defending the Fatherland, in recent years, the Provincial Youth Union - Provincial Youth Union has had many practical activities towards special areas.

The focus is on strengthening the youth union organization, improving the quality of youth union activities; conducting surveys and evaluating core activities at the grassroots level, especially at weak grassroots levels to focus on improving the quality of activities; coordinating with relevant sectors to organize training courses to improve skills and expertise in youth mobilization work, uniting and gathering youth for youth union cadres in areas with a large number of religious followers; establishing commune-level volunteer youth teams; supporting youth economic development; supporting the construction of sports, cultural and artistic playgrounds; organizing 4 rounds of commendation of typical religious youth in the fields of study, participation in economic development, and youth union work at the provincial level...

In addition, every year, the Provincial Youth Union Executive Committee - Provincial Youth Union coordinates with the Provincial Religious Committee to organize many meaningful Christmas and New Year activities for people in religious areas; organize visits and give gifts to dignitaries, officials, party members, key union and association officials in religious areas.

According to Mr. Phan Trong Loc - Head of the Provincial Youth Solidarity Committee, in 2016 and the first 6 months of 2017, the Provincial Youth Union and Provincial Youth Union mobilized social resources to organize 4 sports exchange activities in the parish youth union branches in Hung Trung commune (Hung Nguyen); Dien Quang commune (Dien Chau); Cong Thanh commune (Yen Thanh), Nghi Phuong commune (Nghi Loc); Quynh Vinh commune (Hoang Mai town).

The Provincial Youth Union supports youth union members of Dien Hanh commune (Dien Chau) to build a volleyball court.

The activities attracted a large number of parishioners, youth and religious dignitaries to participate, creating a healthy and united playground for the Catholic and non-Catholic communities. At each activity, the Provincial Youth Union presented 10 gifts to disadvantaged Catholic students and cash gifts to the youth union branches in the religious areas. Thanks to that, the relationship between the youth union organizations and religious dignitaries and the people has become increasingly close. Religious dignitaries and followers actively responded to the patriotic emulation movements launched by the youth union and association.

Difficulties

In addition to the advantages and achievements, the work of gathering and uniting youth in areas with a large number of religious followers is currently facing certain difficulties. Although the activities of the Youth Union at all levels have been diversified and enriched, the quality of the members is not high, the gathering rate is low, only reaching about 50%. There are branches that have to regularly improve the core staff because of frequent job changes and thin forces. There are areas that still have no youth union branches, such as in Hamlet 10 of Hung Chau Commune (Hung Nguyen) because there is no force to participate. Previously, Hamlet 9 of this commune also did not have a youth union branch and has just been improved by the Hung Nguyen District Youth Union.

There are many reasons leading to the above situation, including the fact that the activities and movements of the Youth Union in some places have not really gone into depth, have not gathered and attracted the participation of young people in specific areas; in many areas, the Youth Union lacks effective solutions to gather and build a core force among religious youth to build the movement. A part of the youth in religious areas still has a strong ideology of separation between religion and life, and is not enthusiastic in participating in activities organized by the Youth Union.

In addition, the capacity, qualifications, and ability to propagate and mobilize the cadres doing union and association work in specific areas are still limited, so they have not been able to promote the effectiveness of the work of solidarity and gathering of youth. On the other hand, due to financial difficulties, the concentration of union and association activities in specific units is not regular, mainly concentrated in youth month and summer volunteer campaigns, so it is difficult to create a widespread influence and attract wide attention in the work of solidarity and gathering of youth...

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