eMagazine

“Two roads, one will” in a difficult village

Khanh Ly • March 11, 2025 07:35

Thanks to a change in mindset, determination to open up transportation and focus on children's education, the life of the Thai people in Lau village - a poor village in the farthest area of ​​the difficult land of Chau Phong (Quy Chau) is gradually improving. According to the village elders, these are "two paths but one will: to eliminate hunger, reduce poverty, and build a prosperous village"...

"Revolution" in traffic

Leading us on the spacious concrete roads, Mr. Lu Van Dien (born 1986) - Head of Lau village excitedly said: "These roads are normal for other places, but for the people of Lau village, this is a revolution!"

Before, the roads in the village were mainly dirt, rough, jagged rocks, slippery and muddy in the rainy season, making it difficult for people to move around, houses on the slope had to park their vehicles on the main road...

Determining that if the village and hamlet wanted to improve, there had to be a "opening up" of traffic routes, the Party cell and hamlet management board "went to every alley, knocked on every door" to propagate and mobilize people to agree with the policy and contribute their efforts to build concrete roads within the hamlet.

With the high consensus of the people, from August 24 to 30, 2024, Lau village completed the construction of 200m of the inner-village slope road, 3.5m wide, 18-22cm thick enough for cars to pass conveniently, with a total cost of 106 million VND, of which the amount of money contributed by the people was more than 84 million VND (on average, each household contributed from 300,000 - 800,000 VND).

Due to the terrain characteristics of Lau village, although it is attached to Provincial Road 544, it is mainly a mountainous area, so the land fund is not much. Some households do not have vacant land to grow vegetables but are still willing to donate land to open roads, such as the households of Mr. Lu Van Phuc and Mr. Lu Van Thao, who donated 5-10m.²land.

Party members in the village party cell contributed 200 kg of cement each. In addition, Lau village also received support of more than 1 ton of cement from the Commune Farmers' Association, the Ethnic Boarding High School, the Health Station, the Commune Police Party Cell and 10 million VND from the People's Mobilization Committee of Quy Chau District Party Committee.

In the process of "overcoming the sun and rain" to build the road, the villagers also had the support of union members and youth of the police force and the direct contribution and participation of the leaders of the Party Committee, People's Committee and mass organizations of Chau Phong commune.

Thereby, creating a vibrant atmosphere and high determination. That is also the motivation for the Village Management Board and the people of Lau Village to continue to implement the remaining internal village routes so that every time it rains or each time of harvesting vegetables, transporting goods will be less difficult.

According to comrade Sam Van Lan - Secretary of Chau Phong Commune Party Committee: Ban Lau is the farthest area of ​​Chau Phong Commune, adjacent to Lien Canh Village of Chau Hoan Commune, with 122 households, 556 people (of which, there are 62 poor households, 20 near-poor households), natural area, forest land 25 hectares, rice field land 14 hectares. Previously, when talking about Ban Lau, people talked about many difficulties in electricity, roads, poverty, backwardness...

However, thanks to changes in thinking and working habits, the poor village has now had positive changes. In particular, the spirit of donating land, contributing labor and effort to build roads of the people has created spacious, spacious, clean and beautiful roads that not only help travel conveniently but also open up many favorable opportunities for people to develop the economy, improve material and spiritual life, contributing to changing the rural appearance of Lau village.

Along with traffic opening, Lau villagers are also actively looking for ways to develop the economy to escape poverty, including labor export and livestock and poultry farming.

The whole village has nearly 400 buffaloes and cows, typically the households with large livestock are Mr. Lo Van Ngoan's house with 18 buffaloes and cows, 18 hectares of acacia. Or the village chief Lu Van Dieu's house has 28 hectares of acacia, 13 cows, 5 buffaloes, a flock of more than 100 chickens, and 5-6 pigs.

“Due to the difficulty in land for production, many households have worked hard to build roads to the production area 20 km from the village bordering Que Phong district to build livestock farms and plant acacia trees to stabilize their lives; some households have sought to export labor, accumulate capital for economic development, purchase supplies, and build more spacious houses. People have gradually realized that if they continue to maintain a self-sufficient life, waiting and relying on others as before, they cannot escape poverty, so there has been a change in their thinking and working habits.

Village and hamlet cadres are exemplary, proactive in propagating and mobilizing people to change production practices, transform the structure of crops and livestock; and apply scientific and technical advances in production. In the near future, according to the commune's policy, the village will mobilize people to put Cu Phang sticky rice - a specialty with sticky and fragrant quality - into production to increase productivity and economic value" - Village Chief Lu Van Dieu said.

The "revolution" in learning

Through our conversations, the officials and elders in Lau village not only expressed their joy at the changes in housing, roads and economic development thinking of the people, but were also excited about the progress in their children's studies.

Previously, partly due to poverty, partly due to difficult transportation (from Lau village to the commune center is about 12 km, to Quy Chau district center is about 30 km), the village also only had electricity since 2020, so the children in the village mainly only finished secondary school and then dropped out, the number of children who went to high school could be counted on the fingers; the whole village also had no one working as a cadre or civil servant, so people still had an inferiority complex.

However, in recent years, with the participation of departments, branches, organizations and changes in thinking and awareness of the people, the education of the children of Lau village has had positive results. Currently, the whole village has 24 children studying in high schools, 10 children are studying at university, 3 people have graduated from university and are working.

In particular, in the 2023-2024 school year, Lau village has Vi Thi Chang (child of a poor household) in the top 4 high scores in the Provincial High School Graduation Exam with 54.6 points/6 subjects, and was commended by the District and Provincial People's Committees. In the village, Lo Thi Lam (born in 2002) has become a source of pride and a shining example of the studious spirit of the Thai ethnic people as the first student of Lau village and Chau Phong commune to do postgraduate research abroad.

In the small house along Provincial Road 544, Mr. Lo Van Thach (Lo Thi Lam's grandfather) said: "Having a child who studies well, my whole family is very happy and proud! My wife and I have 4 sons and 10 grandchildren. Although life is not without difficulties, we always encourage our children to try to develop the economy to invest in their education; because to do any job, we must have a foundation of knowledge and skills. For example, the family of the second son, Lo Van Ngoan, is very good at raising livestock. If we did not invest in the education of our children, we would have built a big and beautiful house, but the future of the younger generation is more important...".

It is known that Lo Thi Lam is the daughter of Mr. Lo Van Ngoan (Mr. Thach's son), has had a studious spirit and a will to strive since childhood. Graduating from Hanoi Law University, the Thai ethnic girl from a poor village received a scholarship to study for a master's degree abroad and is currently studying in Russia to realize her dream of becoming a good lawyer.

Tam's younger sister, Lo Thi Tuong (born in 2004), also follows her sister's example and is a third-year student in the Faculty of Primary Education at Vinh University. The young student expressed her dream of becoming a good teacher "to bring knowledge to the children in the village"; and her youngest brother, Lo Van Vien (born in 2006), is studying for a university preparatory course in Sam Son (Thanh Hoa). Mr. Lo Van Ngoan's family is not only a studious family but also a typical example of good economic performance in Lau village.

Talking about the positive movement in the education of children in Lau village, Village Chief Lu Van Dien excitedly shared: Currently, in the village, there are a number of young people who have graduated from Pedagogy and are pursuing teaching careers. The village also built a scholarship and talent promotion fund to encourage children to study; maintain and preserve the cultural identity of the Thai ethnic group.

That has been motivating the young generation in the village on the path to approaching and rising up to get rich with knowledge, contributing to changing lives and contributing to building the village.

Accompanying the difficult version

New roads, well-built houses, green fields... have embellished the picture of new life in Lau village; also demonstrating the policies, attention and support of local authorities and Party committees for the difficult areas.

With the motto "when each village and hamlet prospers, the commune will prosper; when each village and hamlet moves, the commune will change", in addition to promoting propaganda and mobilizing people to overcome the mentality of waiting and relying on others, and to strive to escape poverty; the Party Committee and the government of Chau Phong commune have implemented many solutions to focus on supporting disadvantaged villages and hamlets.

For example, to consolidate the political system, improve the leadership capacity and fighting strength of the grassroots Party cells, Chau Phong Commune Party Committee assigned comrades: Luong Van Huan - Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee; Luong Van Chung - Member of the Party Committee, Chairman of the Commune Farmers' Association to participate in Party activities at Lau Village Party Cell; assigned comrade Lu Thanh Duc - Member of the Party Committee, Secretary of the Commune Youth Union to be in charge of Lau Village.

Thanks to that, the quality and order of the Party cell's activities have been constantly improved, and the work of training and developing new Party members has been strengthened. According to the Party cell Secretary of Lau Lo Van Chanh village: In early 2025, the Party cell admitted one more outstanding mass member to the Party, that is Mr. Lu Manh Cuong - Deputy Secretary of the Youth Union of the village, bringing the total number of Party members in the Party cell to 21 comrades, and currently the Party cell committee has just introduced two outstanding masses to attend a training class on Party knowledge.

As for the party members assigned by the Party Committee of the commune to work in the village, such as Secretary of the Commune Youth Union Lu Van Duc, they have promoted the spirit of "Where there is a need, there is youth, where there is difficulty, there is youth", actively coordinating with organizations and individuals to carry out many activities to support Lau village.

A typical example is helping the Lau village Youth Union improve the quality of its activities, thereby discovering and nurturing outstanding people for the Party; bringing programs such as "Warm Winter" and "Tet for the Poor" to the village.

In 2024, young party member Lu Thanh Duc and Chau Phong Commune Youth Union coordinated with Nghi Loc District Youth Union to present cultural institutions worth 50 million VND to the people of Lau village; presented 60 gifts to poor households, each worth 500,000 VND; and supported the installation of a solar light system to light up the communal cultural house of the village.

Other organizations and unions in the Chau Phong commune political system also prioritized many programs and activities for Lau village, such as the Commune Women's Union launching the model "Gathering and attracting members and women to participate in union activities" in Lau village, creating many useful playgrounds, opening up opportunities for learning and exchange; attracting over 85% of women to participate in activities. From there, new typical examples and models were discovered in the implementation of emulation movements, contributing to the implementation of political tasks in the locality.

The Commune Farmers' Association prioritizes loan sources, training programs, propaganda, and mobilization of Lau villagers to change production practices, convert crop and livestock structures; apply scientific and technical advances in production to increase income...

Talking about the movement in the village in recent years, the head of the Party cell and the Management Board of Lau village are all optimistic, although there are still many difficulties and challenges ahead (the poverty rate is still high, some households still have difficulties in housing, land, lack of long-term livelihoods...).

However, we believe that when people's awareness changes, the spirit of solidarity is multiplied, combined with the attention and close support of the Party Committee, government, and organizations in the political system of the commune, in the near future, Lau village will soon rise to become a fairly prosperous village of Chau Phong commune.