(Baonghean.vn) - Seeing us admiring the 2-storey house that stands out in the middle of the Thuong Nam parish, the homeowner, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Son (in hamlet 4, Hong Long commune, Nam Dan) boasted: "All of these houses were built by my 3 children who went to work abroad... dozens of tall houses here are also thanks to people who went to work abroad."

Every family... goes to work abroad

Mr. Nguyen Hong Son - Vice Chairman of Hong Long Commune People's Committee, said: Being a purely agricultural commune, besides farming and raising livestock, there is no side job, even though people work hard, their lives are still stuck with food and clothing. From 2006 - 2007, the labor export movement brought a new wind. The commune Party Committee issued a resolution on labor export. The government proactively contacted a number of units with the function of labor export, not charging people for services, including: health check-ups, passport making, language learning and taking care of related paperwork. Realizing that this was an opportunity to escape poverty, people registered in numbers beyond the imagination of the commune government.

On the way leading us to the families of people who have gone to work abroad, Mr. Son excitedly said: Walking along the commune, every house that is tall and has a fresh paint color is the house where people have gone to work abroad. Indeed, there are many spacious houses here, two or three stories "as big as houses in the city".

The spacious houses in Hong Long commune (Nam Dan) were built with money sent back by workers working abroad.

In Hong Long, many people go to work through companies specializing in labor export, and some people contract out to "brokerage lines", "family lines"... Those who go first pick up those who go later, creating a movement. Within 10 years, there were nearly 1,000 people in the village going to work abroad. At that time, the whole commune had about 200 people working in Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia... The amount of money these workers send back to their families each year is up to billions of dong. This is the resource that has completely changed this poor village.

Responsible "single father"...

Mr. Pham Hong Son, Head of the Commune Culture Committee, has had his wife working in Taiwan for more than 6 years. In addition to the work of the commune, Mr. Son also raises livestock; produces on 4 sao of rice fields, alluvial land and takes care of his elderly parents on behalf of his wife and raises 3 children to become good people. He has completed all the national and family affairs carefully. When his wife went to work abroad, the youngest child, who was only in grade 3, has now passed the 10th grade exam at Dang Chanh Ky school in the district with a score of 42.5; the second brother has passed the entrance exam to Vinh University. Mr. Son shared: My wife has been away from home for a long time, I have worked so hard that I have gotten used to it. There is only 1 year left until my wife's contract expires, this time I will not let her extend her stay any longer.

Like Mr. Son, whose wife has been working in Taiwan for 5 years, Mr. Nguyen Van Luong (42 years old) wakes up at 5am every day to cook a big pot of bran for 5 pigs in the pen, and hurries to cook rice for his mother, over 80 years old, and 3 children of school age. After finishing the meal, he takes his hoe to the field. When we visited, he was rolling up his pants and fighting with the pigs that were panting from hunger. Wiping away his sweat, Mr. Luong happily boasted: "I not only raise buffaloes and pigs, but also produce on 4 sao of rice fields and 1 sao of alluvial land... But the happiest thing is that despite lacking their mother's care, my children are still obedient and diligent in their studies. My eldest daughter passed the entrance exam to the district's selective high school, my 6th grader won first prize in the district's online English competition, and won first prize in the district's cluster in chess."

Mr. Luong said: Before, his family was the poorest in the neighborhood, and they had to earn a living from meal to meal. Since his wife went to Taiwan to help with housework, the life of the father and son has improved. "Working hard", they have also bought necessary household items and built a spacious multi-story house with a total cost of more than 400 million VND.

Currently, the whole commune has 196 people working abroad, of which 120 are female workers, so more than 100 households are single men, from farming, raising pigs and chickens to raising children and educating them, all are taken care of by men. Mr. Nguyen Hong Son opened the book: To summarize, in hamlet 7, there is Mr. Nguyen Van Vuong's house, currently having 2 sons, 3 daughters, a daughter-in-law, and a son-in-law working in Taiwan; in hamlet 4, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Son's family has 4 daughters, 1 son, and 1 daughter-in-law working in Korea and Malaysia; in hamlet 3, Mr. Nguyen Van Minh's family also has 2 sons and 2 daughters-in-law working abroad in Australia... There are families where all the women work abroad, and when there is a death anniversary at home, only the men are there. In the Thuong Nam parish alone, out of every three families, 2 have someone working abroad. There are families that were previously among the poorest in the commune, but thanks to their wives and children working abroad, they have now "jumped off the top" and become well-off, such as the families of Nguyen Van Luong (in hamlet 7), Tran Van Hai (in hamlet 8), and Nguyen Van Nam (in hamlet 4).

Vice Chairman of the commune Nguyen Hong Son seemed surprised when I asked: do men fall into social evils when their wives are absent? Mr. Son quickly waved his hand: "That's not the case, for the past two years in Hong Long there hasn't been any negative phenomenon. When the season comes, men go to plow and harvest. During their free time, they do carpentry or work for construction bosses in the area"... Perhaps this is one of the special features of Hong Long commune.

Ngoc Anh