Focus on the grassroots, care about women's lives and jobs

Understanding members through "Visiting Diary"

“Love the association, be responsible, enthusiastic and for the members and women”, that is the thought of Ms. Tran Thi Ha - President of the Women's Union of Quynh Luu district. From a staff of the Propaganda Department, in 2018, she transferred to work at the District Women's Union. Up to now, after 6 years of working with the association, she has always wondered how to promote the movement, protect the rights and legitimate interests of women. The idea of ​​the "Household Visiting Diary" program was born as one of the ways to contribute to achieving the goals of her association's activities.

During the visits to households, Ms. Ha and the association officials shed tears countless times when they saw the circumstances of the association members. She shared: “Each family has a different story. And those lives really need the companionship and help of the community and society. I remember, once when I visited a single woman in Quynh Chau commune, her child was only 2 years old. She had a serious heart disease, her husband left her, while her relatives were far away, with no place to rely on. We arrived just when the child was crying loudly while the mother was struggling with pain. Witnessing that scene, none of us could hold back our tears. Some rushed to take her to the hospital, others stayed to take care of the child. After that, we made a plan to support the livelihood model and mobilized resources to build a charity house for the family, and regularly visited and encouraged the mother and child.”

The Women's Union of Quynh Luu district has maintained the "Household Visit Diary" program for nearly 5 years now. During that time, Ms. Ha and other women's union members and union officials have regularly visited and encouraged women in difficult circumstances, illness, etc. According to Ms. Ha, this is a way to get closer to union members, thereby paying attention to and promptly resolving problems and proposals related to women's rights. Through household visits, the union at all levels has helped 4,858 women in difficult circumstances, with a total value of over 3.8 billion VND to support livelihood models, support house construction and visit.

To help those in difficult circumstances, while resources are limited, Ms. Ha and the association's officials have been thinking about and creating good ways to call for support from members, philanthropists, children far from home, etc. In the past time, through many forms such as car washing to raise funds, collecting scrap, organizing rural markets to raise funds, stalls without money, "Save money for the poor", etc., the Women's Association at all levels of Quynh Luu district has called for over 12 billion VND to give gifts, support livelihood models, means of living, and repair houses for poor women and women in difficult circumstances.

For Ms. Ha, the motivation for her to try every day to develop the association movement is to always care for and protect the rights of female members. She shared: “Thanks to the large, enthusiastic and responsible membership, I feel empowered to continue to accompany the lives of women who are in difficult and unlucky situations in life. Based on the actual situation of the area, we try to choose and implement appropriate activities, along with that, learn from the experiences of other districts and learn from models on social networks. Through that, we hope that Vietnamese women in the new era are knowledgeable, healthy, dynamic, creative, compassionate, and responsible for themselves, their families and society.

Helping ethnic minority women confidently develop their economy

As both Head of the Ethnic Committee of the People's Council of Con Cuong district and President of the District Women's Union, Ms. Lu Thi Khuyen is always concerned about ethnic minority women members.

Ms. Khuyen shared: “In the past, many ethnic minority women, especially the Dan Lai ethnic group, were very reserved and did not dare to join the association. Therefore, the association officials at all levels always paid attention and promoted to help the women become more confident. The good news is that the women have changed every day, boldly developing their economy, and receiving support to borrow capital to do business. Thanks to that, many women have proactively written applications to escape poverty, including the Dan Lai ethnic group.”

Realizing the fact that women members are facing difficulties in developing the economy, especially collective economy such as cooperatives and cooperatives, and that many women lack jobs, knowledge, and capital for production and business, Ms. Lu Thi Khuyen has had an initiative to propagate, mobilize, and support cadres and women in developing the economy. The initiative has been focused on by all levels of the association, contributing to the implementation of the target program on poverty reduction for women in the district.

After a period of implementation, the "Women help each other develop the economy" association and cooperative groups have been established in 13/13 communes and towns in Con Cuong district, such as the handicraft cooperative group model, the yeast wine production cooperative group, the safe vegetable growing model, the cooking model for community tourism, the biomass corn growing association group model... In addition, the program also supported 56 women to start a business, of which 3 ideas were in the top 5 at the provincial level.

“In the early stages of implementation, I and the association officials always accompanied, closely followed, and worked with the women to help them have more motivation to develop their economy. In addition, we also called on local authorities and Party committees to pay attention to support from the district's economic development programs to support women with livestock resources. Up to now, we have supported 664 livestock for 664 households, creating more livelihoods for the women. Seeing the women's lives changing every day is the greatest happiness for me during the association's activities."

Not only propagating and mobilizing, Ms. Khuyen also called on the Women's Union Party Cell to join hands in sponsoring a child in difficult circumstances to help him have better learning conditions.

It can be said that, depending on the characteristics of each locality, the women's union leaders have appropriate ways of doing things, meeting the needs of the members, thereby contributing to helping women improve their material and spiritual lives, overcome difficulties in life, and be more confident in themselves in developing the family economy. This is one of the important factors contributing to the success of women's union movements at the grassroots level. Among many "leaders" of the union at all levels in the province, the two "leaders" of the women's union movement mentioned above, with their ways of doing things, have affirmed their role, courage and spirit for the community. These are the practical things that the members need, a bridge for women to be more attached to the union, contributing to building an increasingly strong women's union organization.