Spreading examples of overcoming adversity and building a happy life

Trying to have a better life

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh, in Cau Giat town (Quynh Luu) has a speech disability and lost the ability to speak due to a hemangioma and underwent many surgeries to remove the tumor when she was young.

Being sick and suffering from mental trauma due to inferiority complex, but due to the difficult economic situation of the family, combined with the sense of responsibility of the eldest sister in the family, Ms. Thanh overcame everything and worked with her mother to find a way to make a living. After a period of selling vegetables, melons, and tofu, in 2015, she was supported by the Women's Union of Quynh Luu district to build a model for purchasing, preserving, and supplying seafood.

After 7 years of starting a business, up to now, she has invested in 2 cold storages associated with seafood processing, her products are supplied to a number of supermarkets, clean food stores and exported abroad. Besides increasing her family's income, she also creates jobs for dozens of local workers with an income of 4 - 6 million VND/person/month.

"If we can, we should try our best so that our loved ones can have a better life and have the conditions to help more people" - Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh

With that in mind, every year, she deducts hundreds of millions of dong from her profits and calls for support from her seafood business partners to provide capital, donate livelihood models and give gifts to poor households and households in difficult circumstances inside and outside the district; and sponsors an orphan in An Hoa commune. In 2022, she was awarded a commemorative medal by former Vice President Truong Thi My Hoa to honor a female entrepreneur with a golden heart for the community.

Ms. Phan Thi Hien, in Dien Thai commune (Dien Chau) has a congenital motor disability, making it very difficult for her to move around. With the thought: Study to get a job, have an income, and be independent in life, she worked hard to study, graduated from a pharmacy college and opened a pharmacy. In particular, from her hometown's traditional honey cake making profession, she has been struggling to find and spread honey cake products to the market through connecting and promoting products on social networks like Facebook and Zalo.

Gradually, Dien Thai honey cake products are known to consumers in the province and across the country. To increase the amount of products brought to the market, she continues to invest in expanding the scale and buying machinery for processing; establishing a production association with 15 members to increase the quantity and quality of products for consumers. Her family alone produces about 4-5 tons of honey cake each year, with an annual revenue of about 450 million VND. Currently, this product is in the process of completing procedures to build an OCOP product.

Ms. Thanh and Ms. Hien are 2 of 30 exemplary disabled women who have overcome difficulties to rise up in the whole province, honored by the Women's Union of Nghe An province on June 20, 2023.

Ms. Le Thi Huong Giang - Vice President of the Provincial Women's Union shared: In terms of gender, women are "weak-legged, soft-handed", and women with disabilities have even more difficulty in finding a livelihood and organizing their lives. However, many of them are extremely strong-willed and have noble souls. They are like cacti on the sand, even in the harshest living conditions, they still strongly grow up and bloom, those women have overcome the darkness, lighting up life with their own willpower.

They have overcome their illnesses and difficult circumstances to create happiness, turning the impossible into possible, turning despair into hope to make life more beautiful. They deserve to be shining examples not only for women with disabilities but also for many people in society to follow.

Accompanying and supporting disabled women to rise up

According to statistics, the province currently has more than 69,000 people with disabilities, of which more than 17,000 are women with disabilities.

Implementing Directive No. 11, dated November 8, 2021 of the Standing Committee of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee on helping people with disabilities; Action Program to implement the Resolution of the 13th National Women's Congress and the Resolution of the 16th Nghe An Provincial Women's Congress setting the target of 80% of women with disabilities being supported in various forms, in recent times, women's unions at all levels in the province have provided many practical supports for women with disabilities, contributing to improving the quality of life of people with disabilities; creating conditions for people with disabilities to participate equally in social activities; building a barrier-free environment to ensure the legitimate rights of people with disabilities and supporting people with disabilities to promote their abilities.

The key activities are to promote, raise awareness, eliminate discrimination against women with disabilities; promote social security policies for disadvantaged women so that women with disabilities can access them. In particular, in 2022, the Provincial Women's Union organized a "Workshop on connecting networks and mobilizing resources to support women and children with disabilities in Nghe An province". Thereby strengthening the connection, mobilizing comprehensive resources from sectors and society to support women with disabilities to rise up and take control of their lives.

Accordingly, many activities to support women with disabilities have been implemented by the association at all levels, such as supporting economic development through loans, guiding the transfer of science and technology, supporting women with disabilities in starting businesses, vocational training, job referrals, etc. In addition, many associations at all levels have also created and organized many movements and savings models, creating resources to support women with disabilities in livelihood models, giving savings books, building houses, sponsoring children of women with disabilities, etc.

"Supporting and helping women with disabilities "so that no one is left behind" is one of the important tasks of organizations at all levels, contributing to promoting the task of supporting women to develop comprehensively, building prosperous, happy, progressive and civilized Vietnamese families" - Ms. Nguyen Thi Quynh Hoa - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, President of the Provincial Women's Union

Ms. Nguyen Thi Quynh Hoa - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, President of the Provincial Women's Union shared: Supporting and helping women with disabilities "so that no one is left behind" is one of the important tasks of the union organizations at all levels, contributing to promoting the task of supporting women to develop comprehensively, building prosperous, happy, progressive and civilized Vietnamese families - this is one of the three key tasks set forth by the 13th National Women's Congress and the 16th Provincial Women's Congress, term 2021 - 2026.

Therefore, the Women's Union at all levels in the province needs to continue to promote activities to support women with disabilities, such as livelihood support, capacity building, construction of sanitation facilities, clean water, shelters, access to social assistance services, prevention of gender-based violence; support households and women with disabilities in difficult circumstances to access preferential capital sources of the locality for economic development, start-up, business start-up; guide women with disabilities to participate in vocational training classes, create jobs and stable income; organize connections for women with disabilities to access appropriate social services to create conditions and equal development opportunities for women with disabilities.