Browsing the newspaper at the end of January 9, 2024, I came across the news that the Party Committee of Hong Son Ward was awarded the Flag of "Excellent completion of typical tasks" by the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee for the year 2019 - 2023. I was happy, but couldn't help but feel a little surprised. Because Hong Son is a small ward with an area of less than half a square kilometer, the residential areas are mainly located between Tran Phu and Ngo Duc Ke streets... Connecting with Vinh City Party Secretary, Mr. Phan Duc Dong to express his thoughts, he was told that Hong Son Ward is really small, but it is "small as a peppercorn", if you look into it, you will find interesting things...
Knocking on the door of the Hong Son Ward Party Committee, I was able to see the Report on the assessment of the implementation results of the Resolutions at all levels and the Ward Party Congress for the 2020-2025 term. Skimming through, I saw that among the achieved and exceeded targets, there was an item "Reducing the rate of poor households" continuously for 5 years "maintaining" the rate of 0.065%. The initial surprise turned to concern and conflict. Because "reducing the rate of poor households" is an important task that any Party Committee or government must strive to carry out and is one of the criteria for evaluating annual emulation work. Then from this conflicting point, I came to the only poor household in Hong Son Ward, corresponding to the number of 0.065%.
That is the household of Ms. Hoang Thi Hong, a single mother with 2 children of school age. The place where Ms. Hong and her 3 children live is a small house, in block 10, on Hoang Danh Suong street. It is called a house, but it is like a shabby, cramped, and dark rented room. On the afternoon of January 10, 2024, there was only one man in the house, Bui Van Manh. In the white shirt and dark pants uniform of Hong Son Secondary School, Manh looked quite handsome. Seeing that there were guests coming, he shyly said that his mother was working at Vinh Market, and his sister was studying. Entering the house, the cramped living space of Manh's family consisted of 2 separate rooms with an area of about 30m2.2. One room has a partition with a toilet, the other room has a small space for the kitchen. Outside the house, there is a narrow porch filled with packages, inside are scraps of plastic, beer cans, cardboard... "In the morning, Mom sells water at the market at Nga Sau, in the afternoon she goes to Vinh market to see if there are any uncles and aunts who need help carrying, cleaning up and collecting these things to store for sale..." - Manh whispered.
Regarding the family's food and living expenses, according to Manh, it depends on his mother's income. Every day, selling water and helping clean the stall at Vinh market, his mother receives about 100,000 VND, but there are days when she only gets more than 50,000 VND, enough for the three of them to save money. "Every morning around 3-4 am, my mother has to wake up to make water and go to the market early. When she doesn't have to go to school, my sister helps my mother make sweet soup, cook, do laundry..., and I also cook rice, do odd jobs to help my mother..." - Manh said.
When asked about the education of the two sisters, Manh said that she was studying in grade 11 at Vinh Technical Vocational College to learn sewing; and he was in grade 9. Despite difficult circumstances, Manh's academic performance was quite good, and he was an excellent student every year. "Only in the year of moving up to grade 6, because I was confused, I was not an excellent student..." - Manh boasted. Guessing that Manh would go to a vocational college like his sister, I asked about his plans after finishing grade 9. Unexpectedly, Manh confidently affirmed: "I will take the exam to enter Le Viet Thuat High School. After finishing school, I will go to work...".
In Block 10, veteran of the anti-American war Phan Nghia Hiep has been the Block Leader for many years. Listening to Bui Van Manh's story, Mr. Hiep said that Ms. Hoang Thi Hong is not a local but has been here for a long time, about several decades. Her husband died early, Ms. Hong is not clear-headed enough to do normal work, and her health is weak, so she has to raise 2 children of school age, so it is very difficult. According to Mr. Hiep, despite her real circumstances, she is a gentle person, very self-conscious, and active in all community work, including paying funds and fees on time. "Her family situation is difficult, but she is gentle and kind, so the people in the block love her very much, often coming back to help her..." - Mr. Phan Nghia Hiep said.
Explaining the reason for the visit to Mr. Hiep, he wanted to hear more from the grassroots. According to Mr. Hiep, the reason why Ms. Hong's family could hardly escape poverty was because they did not have land to live in. The house where the mother and her three children were living was built on borrowed land within the planning area for the reconstruction of the Vinh Temple of Literature.
Also visiting Ms. Hong's house on a late winter afternoon was comrade Nguyen Thi Lan Anh - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Hong Son Ward. Before working for the Party, Ms. Lan Anh had many years of experience in women's work, so she was closely connected with Ms. Hong's family and understood the hardships of the mother and her three children for many years. "Now the two children are grown up, so it's much better, but before this family was very miserable. During the years I worked for women's work, every time I came down to visit and give gifts, I often held Thanh and Manh..." - Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan Anh said. And the female Standing Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Hong Son Ward was more specific about the fact that during the 2020 - 2025 term, the ward decided to "maintain" the poverty rate of 0.065%.
The Party Committee of Hong Son Ward determined that all tasks must be focused on, ensuring substance and effectiveness. Particularly for poverty reduction work, it is necessary to support and help the poor create livelihoods, so that they can sustainably eliminate poverty. Hong Son Ward is the central ward of Vinh City, with Vinh Market and many convenient commercial routes; a part of the population are civil servants, public employees, and armed forces who are working or have retired, the rest are basically business households, so their education and living standards are relatively equal. However, in the past, there was also a part of the population belonging to poor and near-poor households.
With many specific measures such as loan support, job introduction, building charity houses..., by the 2016 - 2020 term, the ward only had 3 poor households and 4 near-poor households; by the 2020 - 2025 term, only Ms. Hoang Thi Hong's family remained. In 2020, the task of poverty reduction for Ms. Hong's family was discussed by the Party Committee, the government, the Fatherland Front, the ward's mass organizations, the Party cell, and the executive committee of block 10. Through discussion and consideration, it was realized that if the family mobilized donations to repair the house and buy items that met the poverty reduction criteria, the family would continue to fall into misery, the children would not be able to enjoy policies for poor households, and would have no future. Therefore, it was agreed to keep Ms. Hoang Thi Hong's family as a poor household until the end of the term...
Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Hang - the ward's policy officer, showed me many reports from 2013 to present on poverty reduction work; thereby, I better understood the ward's methods and actions towards this work. In the case of Ms. Hoang Thi Hong's household, in some documents sent to superiors, it was clearly stated that this was an irreversibly poor household! Therefore, I asked Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Hang: When the ward reported the poverty reduction plan for the 5-year term with the information of keeping the rate of 0.065%, were the superiors concerned or not? The answer was: "Of course the superiors were concerned about the ward's poverty reduction plan. But when listening to the ward's detailed explanation of the reasons and plan to mobilize Ms. Hong's family to escape poverty at the time when the two children learned a trade and had jobs, they were completely in agreement...".
Also in this place, we learned more about the specific help for Ms. Hoang Thi Hong's family. That is, the Women's Union of the ward chaired the call for mobilization, helping to repair the house worth 10 million VND; supporting the livelihood of a sales cart worth 3 million VND; buying a smartphone worth 3.5 million VND for Manh to study online during the Covid-19 epidemic... In particular, in 2022, they sponsored Manh until he was 18 years old with an amount of 48 million VND. Talking with Secretary of the Party Committee of Hong Son Ward Hoang Ngoc Cu, he confided: "Keeping the poor household card for Ms. Hong's family is a demonstration of the good nature of the regime. Thereby, creating social attention for a family with truly difficult circumstances, helping the children have the conditions to study, have the will to strive to have jobs in the future to help the family overcome poverty sustainably, contribute to the block and hometown...".
Knowing clearly the policies of hunger eradication and poverty reduction of the Party and the State, it is always clear that the poor themselves must rise up to escape poverty, against the mentality of waiting and relying on the support of the State and the community. However, in poverty reduction work, it is necessary to ensure substance, not chasing after achievements leading to unsustainable poverty reduction support, leading to the situation of falling back into poverty. Therefore, I think that the behavior of Hong Son ward towards Ms. Hoang Thi Hong's family is correct and humane. This is a beautiful action that needs to be spread...