Men's Village

(Baonghean) Our elders often say "men build houses, women build homes", but in Thuong Nam Parish, Hong Long Commune, Nam Dan, it's different. All the big and small chores in the family, from taking care of children, cleaning the house, chopping duckweed, cutting vegetables to farming, are all done by men.

It has become a tradition for more than 10 years now, every morning, when the roosters just crow, Mr. Nguyen Van Huyen, hamlet 3, Hong Long commune, gets up quickly to light the fire to prepare breakfast for his 3 children to eat on time for school, then turns to cook pig feed, cleans the house and then carries the basket to the field to work like other men in the village. Married since 1994, due to the family's difficult economic life, in 2000, he decided to borrow money from the bank for his wife to go to Taiwan to work.

She left him with three children, the oldest only 6 years old, the youngest just over 1 year old. Although he knew that the children were still young and in need of a mother's care, for the sake of life, he had to accept his wife's commitment to making a living. That also meant that he had to do all the housework for her. Huyen confided: "I have to be both a mother and a father, so I have a lot of difficulties in raising the children. Before, when my wife was at home, I never had to stay up late or wake up early, but now I have to take care of everything so that the children can study."

Like Huyen, Nguyen Trung Han, from Hamlet 4, Hong Long, also has a wife who has been working abroad for nearly 9 years. At first, taking care of the housework for his wife was very difficult for him, but over time he got used to it. Now, in addition to doing housework well, he is also a police officer and exemplary president of the parents' association of Thuong Nam Parish. Up to now, his family's economy has been getting better and better.

Hong Long Commune currently has 5/13 hamlets with Catholics, with 240 households, 1,182 people, accounting for nearly 1/3 of the commune's population. According to statistics, 2 out of 3 households go to work abroad, currently the whole commune has 196 people participating in labor export, of which Thuong Nam Parish has 165 workers, mainly women, so only 70 - 75% of men stay home to take care of the family.

Talking to us about this issue, Mr. Nguyen Van Nam - Chairman of Hong Long Commune People's Committee said: Implementing the policy of labor export to create jobs, eliminate hunger, reduce poverty, and enrich legitimately of the Party and State, in recent times, Hong Long has paid attention to labor export. To do that, the local government has proactively contacted labor export units to advise those who need labor export.

Thanks to that, risks are limited, income is stable, and the hamlets with a large number of people working abroad have better economic development, with average income per capita reaching over 15 million VND/month. In the coming time, the locality will continue to identify labor export as one of the key points to reduce poverty and develop a sustainable economy.

Kim Dung