Nghe An strives to implement 'Happy Family - Prosperous Nation'

PV:More than 22 years ago, on May 4, 2001, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 72/2001/QD-TTg on Vietnam Family Day. So, could you please tell us about the significance of Vietnam Family Day and the importance of family work in social life in general, contributing to the enrichment and promotion of cultural identity and the people of Nghe An in particular?

Ms. Tran Thi My Hanh:Over many generations, Vietnamese families have been formed and developed with good values, contributing to building the national cultural identity. Precious traditional values ​​such as patriotism, love for the homeland, love and mutual support, loyalty, filial piety, studiousness, diligence, creativity in work, indomitability, and resilience in overcoming all difficulties and challenges have been preserved, cultivated and promoted by Vietnamese families throughout the history of building and defending the country.

Over many periods of development, the structure and relationships in Vietnamese families have changed, but the basic functions of the family still exist and the family is still an important and indispensable factor in the socio-economic development of the country.

In order to promote the responsibility of leaders of all sectors, levels, unions and social organizations, and all families to regularly pay attention to building prosperous, equal, progressive and happy families, promoting the work of protecting, caring for and educating children, contributing to building and defending the Fatherland, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 72/2001/QD-TTg on Vietnamese Family Day.

Since then, Vietnamese Family Day has become an extremely important cultural tradition and has profound meaning for us. This is a major cultural event to honor the traditional cultural values ​​of Vietnamese families; an opportunity for families to exchange and share experiences in building cultural families, aiming at the sustainable development of families in the period of industrialization, modernization and international integration; a day for relatives to reunite at home, reminding each other of what each family member has done to continue the good traditions, arousing in people compassion, understanding the value of home and together overcoming the storms to have a happy family.

In Nghe An, family work is given special attention through many plans and action programs, both to concretize the tasks set by the Party and the State for family work, and to demonstrate the province's high political determination in making culture and people truly become great spiritual values, important resources that determine the province's sustainable development.

Notably, the efforts to effectively implement Resolution No. 05-NQ/TU, dated December 14, 2016 of the Provincial Party Committee on building cultural people and cultural families in Nghe An to meet the requirements of integration and development. Thereby, the cultural environment in the family is concerned, contributing to preserving the good values ​​of traditional families, absorbing and supplementing new and progressive values ​​of modern families; promoting relationships in families and clans, building happy families and cultural families.

PV:With such role and significance, in your opinion, how has family work in Nghe An been specifically implemented in recent years?

Ms. Tran Thi My Hanh:Identifying propaganda as a central and key task in implementing family work, in recent years, Nghe An has promoted propaganda and mobilization with many diverse forms, such as: Strengthening communication on mass media; vivid visual propaganda with billboards, slogans, leaflets... on family building, activities to prevent and combat domestic violence and propaganda and education on ethics and Vietnamese family lifestyle in the period of industrialization and modernization.

Along with that, organize competitions, mass performances on family topics, cultural and sports exchanges between families, seminars to exchange experiences on skills and knowledge of raising and educating children, caring for the elderly and people with disabilities, and talks on family culture and building a cultural family.

Family work is also actively implemented by localities and units, integrated with the movement "All people unite to build a cultural life", the movement to build new rural areas, civilized urban areas and emulation movements of mass organizations. In particular, models on preventing and combating domestic violence, sustainable family development clubs are of interest to localities to build and replicate.

The province currently has 188 models for preventing and combating domestic violence, with 848 clubs, 1,663 groups for preventing and combating domestic violence, 2,881 community trust addresses and 673 hotline numbers to handle domestic violence cases. In 2022, the province handled 249 domestic violence cases. By the end of 2022, the province had 86.4% of cultural families.

PV:It can be seen that, in the context of our country's increasingly deep integration, Vietnamese family values ​​have been significantly affected by the negative side of the market economy and Nghe An is no exception. So, besides the positive results, what are the shortcomings and limitations in family work in the province, Madam?

Ms. Tran Thi My Hanh:Along with the development of the country, besides the achievements in improving the quality of life of families, there are still many issues that need to be concerned and resolved. That is the fact that the moral values ​​and good traditions of the family such as filial piety, loyalty, respect for elders, and yielding to juniors are showing signs of deterioration. Along with that, the conflicts between generations in the family about the way of life and lifestyle are posing significant challenges for each family and for cadres working in family affairs.

In addition, social evils continue to penetrate families, especially among young people. In particular, the serious issues of domestic violence and child abuse have caused concern and outrage in public opinion. Meanwhile, the implementation of the Law on Prevention and Control of Domestic Violence at the grassroots level is still limited due to lack of operating funds. Coordination and dissemination of legal education, the Law on Prevention and Control of Domestic Violence, and the Law on Marriage and Family are not yet extensive. The work of identifying, detecting, collecting and reporting information on families and preventing and controlling domestic violence in many localities is not honest, objective, accurate, and timely.

It must be acknowledged that the coordination between local authorities, functional agencies, departments, branches and organizations is not tight, not synchronized, and has not really taken action to handle domestic violence cases. The community and society have not shown a resolute and strong attitude of criticism towards those who commit domestic violence, and still consider it an internal matter of each family.

PV:Could you tell us what issues will be focused on in the promotion of family work in the coming time?

Mrs. Tran Thi My Hanh: As a standing agency, advising and guiding the implementation of family work, the Department of Culture and Sports will continue to strengthen propaganda work based on the guiding documents of the Central Government and the province, to raise people's awareness of the position and role of the family, especially Plan No. 711/KH-UBND dated October 13, 2022 of the Provincial People's Committee on implementing the Vietnam Family Development Strategy in Nghe An province to 2030; Plan No. 709/KH-UBND dated October 13, 2022 implementing the Program on preventing and combating domestic violence in the new situation to 2025; Plan No. 319/KH-UBND dated June 9, 2021 on propaganda and education on ethics and lifestyle in families in Nghe An province for the period 2021-2025...

In addition, continue to promote the movement of building cultural families; focus on combining the roles of family, school and society in educating traditional families to preserve and promote the good morals of Vietnamese families. Continue to direct the replication of models of preventing and combating domestic violence associated with propaganda, education on ethics and lifestyle in families, establishing groups to prevent and combat domestic violence, and sustainable family development clubs.

In addition, periodically guide and organize communication campaigns annually in response to International Day of Happiness (March 20), International Day of Families (May 15), Vietnamese Family Day (June 28) and National Action Month for Prevention and Combat of Domestic Violence, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (November 25) with practical content, suitable for practical conditions to create a strong social impact, honor family values; regularly and promptly commend and reward exemplary and happy families; at the same time, criticize, condemn and fight against deviant behaviors that create negative public opinion and have a bad impact on the community to contribute to adjusting the awareness, attitude and behavior of each family.

Along with that, improve the effectiveness of the family work steering committees at all levels. Strengthen coordination between departments, branches and sectors in organizing and implementing family work tasks to preserve the cultural standards of Vietnamese families in the new context. Strengthen exchanges, experience sharing, and training to improve management capacity for cadres and civil servants performing family work at all levels.

On the other hand, it must be recognized that the issue of building “Peaceful Family - Happy Society” is also the responsibility of each individual, not only in the propaganda and mobilization activities of departments, branches, unions and social organizations. In each family, each individual must constantly raise awareness of the position and role of the family and the positive values ​​of family ethics and culture, the importance of preserving the values ​​of Vietnamese family culture in socio-economic development...

Only then will the four criteria: "Respect, equality, love and sharing" exist in each family and spread out to the community and society, thereby contributing to promoting sustainable development of the country, such as the general theme of family by 2025 that we are striving to achieve: "Happy family - Prosperous nation".

PV:Thank you for this conversation!