Using 'body language' to propagate population to the people of the West

(Baonghean.vn) - Ethnic minorities have limited awareness and are not fluent in Mandarin. In order to communicate with people, population officers often have to use 'body language'.

Staff instructing ethnic women on population and family planning. Photo: Cong Kien

These past few days, the weather has turned cold, but Ms. Vi Thi My - a population officer of Luong Minh commune (Tuong Duong) still arranged her work to go to Coi village to attend a regular propaganda session.

The road from the commune center to Coi village is nearly 10 km long with sharp turns and countless “potholes”, even “elephant holes”, the motorbike kept jumping up and down. During the media session that day, many women in Coi village asked about the issue of having a third child and reproductive health.

Population officers of Xa Luong commune (Tuong Duong) go to the village to propagate about population policy - family planning. Photo: May Huyen

For the people in the mountainous areas, "empty talk" to communicate population and reproductive health will not bring much meaning. People do not understand because their level of education is limited. Therefore, Ms. My cooperated with the population collaborators of the village to explain with visual images. That is, showing pictures, explaining verbally and visually, even using "body language" to hope that the women can understand. For example, when talking about sterilization, the population officer had to use a string to tie a plastic hose across so that the women could easily visualize. The population officer even had to use his feet and hands to create visual and vivid images when communicating.

Ms. Vy Thi My said: “Luong Minh commune has complex terrain, the population is scattered in 3 clusters, of which 2 villages are in the Ban Ve hydroelectric reservoir area, the majority are Khmu ethnic group. Only 4 villages in the outer area have phone signal, while 6 villages in the inner area are not covered, so communication and information gathering are extremely difficult.

Meanwhile, the monthly allowance is very low. Previously, those who received the province's target program received 215,000 VND/month, but since 2016 it has been reduced to 121,000 VND/month. With this allowance, it is not enough to pay for phone bills, not to mention gas and boat fare to Ca Moong and Xop Chao villages.

Compared to Luong Minh commune, Xa Luong commune is more convenient, the whole commune has 7 villages, mainly along National Highway 7A. However, the people's lives are still difficult, mainly due to agricultural production, many households have to set up camps far from the village, sometimes they do not return to the village to participate in local activities, so they do not know or grasp the policies.

Awareness is still limited, people here still have the mindset of "having children when they have them", families must "have children to continue the family line", so the work of population workers, which is already difficult, becomes even more difficult. To fully organize a propaganda session on population policy, or to organize a health check-up is really difficult, sometimes population officers have to cross the forest and mountains to the fields, meet each household to propagate, or mobilize women of the right age to participate in regular health check-ups.

Ms. Mua Y Mai (Mong ethnic group) in Hop Thanh village said: “My family often stays in the fields, only coming home occasionally, so we have little information about village meetings. Before, we didn’t know much about the law, so we just had children, and families that didn’t have a son had to have them. Now, officials come to our homes to tell us that having more children than the prescribed limit is a violation, so our villagers know and know how to take care of themselves.”

Mong women in Tuong Duong often stay in the fields, rarely go home, and are not fluent in Mandarin, so propaganda work faces many difficulties and hardships. Photo: May Huyen

There were years when the number of third children increased dramatically, so the district and commune had a policy of encouraging the husband or wife to get sterilized. It took a whole month to mobilize, but when the group came to do the sterilization work, both husband and wife went to the fields. So the collaborators and population officers of the district and commune had to go to the fields to continue the mobilization.

Tuong Duong district currently has 179 grassroots population collaborators in 154 villages and 16 population officials in communes and towns. In terms of quantity, it can be considered relatively sufficient, but for a mountainous district with a large area, inconvenient transportation, and mainly ethnic minorities, there are still difficulties and shortcomings.

The difficulties and disadvantages are countless, but that does not mean that the population officers and collaborators have lost their enthusiasm for their work. Most of them no longer remember how many mountain passes they have crossed and how many streams they have waded through to reach villages and households. For example, Mr. Luong Kham Tuyen - a population collaborator in Minh Thanh village (Luong Minh), Mr. Vi Van Hoan in Phay village (Xieng My) has been involved in this work for more than ten years.

To make propaganda work effective, grassroots population officers in Tuong Duong often integrate propaganda content with meetings of other departments and organizations. Photo: Cong Khang

Ms. Lo Thi Chien - Deputy Director of the District Population and Family Planning Center said: "Propaganda work in Tuong Duong area still faces some difficulties, including language barriers. There are remote villages, when organizing propaganda, there must be an interpreter, so the content of the propaganda is more or less affected.

For example, with the Mong people, especially women, most of them are not fluent in Mandarin, so when organizing propaganda, most of them find it difficult to grasp the content of the information. Therefore, we must invite both couples to participate and invite departments and organizations such as Youth, Women and Fatherland Front to integrate the content into the meeting.

It can be said that the cadres who work as population workers at the grassroots level are the ones who “bear the brunt of the burden” because of the hardships, difficulties and disadvantages in their daily work. For them, the joy is to help people understand the policy to reduce suffering and poverty due to having many children and having them close together.

May Huyen - Cong Khang