Dan Lai people go abroad for work.

THE JOY OF FATHERS

For the people of Thach Son village, Thach Ngan commune (Con Cuong district), a year of hard work and production doesn't necessarily earn them 10 million dong. That's according to La Van Son, the Deputy Head of Thach Son village. Standing at the crossroads, near the large ancient banyan tree at the village's cultural center, Mr. La Van Son pointed towards the steep slope leading to the center of Thach Son and said, "There are two families there whose children have gone to work abroad, and two others who have been away for over a year live on the opposite slope."

Walking along the only road leading to the center of Thach Son village, where 100% of the inhabitants are Dan Lai people, one can see the stilt houses built by the State for the Thach Son people who relocated from the core area of ​​Pu Mat National Park in 2007, now bearing the marks of time.

Sitting inside his house, Mr. Le Van Thang gazed thoughtfully out the window, occasionally covering his mouth to suppress a hacking cough. It was the house of a relative of Mr. Thang's who lived alone, caring for his grandchildren while his children worked far away in the South. Mr. Thang also lived alone, so he often went to his relative's house to drink bitter tea to ease his sorrow. Mr. Le Van Thang was just over 40 years old, small in stature, with a gaunt, wrinkled face due to chronic illness. "For many years, I've been too sick to work, just staying at home. All our income depends on my wife's odd jobs, mainly peeling acacia bark," Mr. Le Van Thang explained.

When asked about his eldest son, he smiled and said, "My mother works as a hired laborer all year to support my father and younger siblings who are still in school, and she doesn't even earn 10 million dong. But he (Le Anh Duc – Mr. Thang's son) has been in Taiwan for over a year now, sending back around 10 million dong each month." Adding to Mr. Thang's joy, the Party Secretary of Thach Son, Vi Van Hoa, said that the four Dan Lai people from the village who went abroad for work all borrowed money from the bank and received additional support from the government under the National Target Program. Since the village was established, these are the first cases of people boldly borrowing capital to go abroad for work, to fulfill their dream of escaping poverty, as they shared before leaving. Besides Le Anh Duc, La Van Cang, La Van Truong, and Le Van Thang have also gone to work in Taiwan.

Hearing this, Mr. Thang interjected: "Duc went to Taiwan at the end of 2021. For the first few months, he didn't receive a salary, but after that, he sent about 10 million VND each month to pay off his bank loan. The family was guided by local and district officials on how to apply for a loan of over 100 million VND. The family borrowed an additional 20 million VND, plus over 5 million VND in government assistance, which was enough to pay for our son's trip to Taiwan. Now, we've almost paid off all the debt, and we're very happy. We hope he can work for many more years so that when he returns home, he can escape poverty and hardship, and the whole family can experience a better life, without having to worry about food and clothing shortages."

Sharing the same joy when talking about his son who went to work abroad, Mr. La Dinh Tham said that his son, La Van Truong, had worked in Taiwan for three years before returning to Vietnam before Tet and is now in Saigon trying to find work. “The cost of going to Taiwan was over 140 million VND. He went from 2021 to April 2023 and has paid off all his bank debt. He sends home about 30 million VND each month. Soon he will have capital and won't need to borrow from the bank anymore, and he planned to go to the South to find a stable job and then not go again. But recently he called home and said he plans to go work abroad again. Only by going abroad can he earn money and escape poverty quickly,” Mr. Tham confided.

OPENING PATHS OUT OF POVERTY

According to Ngo Tri Dai, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Thach Ngan commune, Thach Son village has 55 households of the Dan Lai ethnic group, of which 54 are poor and 1 is near-poor. Regarding the difficulty in escaping poverty for the people here, firstly, the people have very little land for rice cultivation and other food production. Each household only has a few hundred square meters divided among the family members, which is not enough to feed them. Currently, according to the production situation in 2023 and the local labor and employment situation, the entire commune has about 70 poor households facing food shortages out of a total of over 1,400 households, mainly concentrated in the two Dan Lai villages of Thach Son and Ba Ha.

When we visited Thach Son in mid-March, the weather was pleasantly cool with light drizzle. On the way to meet Mr. Le Van Thang, we came across two households digging wells to find a water source right at the bottom of the stream flowing through the center of Thach Son village. The rice had been planted but was quite stunted.

According to the Party Secretary of Thach Son commune, the area frequently experiences water shortages during the summer, and dry, barren fields are not uncommon. The villagers rely on natural streams for their water supply, but even that is insufficient year-round. Therefore, more than half of the households have to dig wells, with many digging in 3-4 different locations before finding a water source. After a while, when the water source dries up, they have to dig another well, which is very costly in terms of effort and money.

Regarding the labor and income of the villagers, the official from Thach Son village said that income from agricultural production and acacia cultivation is not enough to escape poverty. The only way out is to strive to learn, then seek employment in other localities within the province, nationwide, or even go abroad for work. However, nowadays, companies and businesses that pay high salaries also require highly qualified and skilled workers.

However, most of the children of the Dan Lai ethnic group in Thach Son do not complete high school. They mainly finish junior high school, and many even leave with their parents to work as laborers in the South or North before finishing junior high, or they get married and then go to work as laborers. But even then, they can only find manual labor jobs, which are both arduous and provide an unstable income.

To illustrate this point, the Deputy Head of Thach Son village stated, "No one in the village has completed high school. Even now, three students are in middle school, but they drop out after Tet (Lunar New Year) to work as laborers with their families, so they remain trapped in poverty."

“Currently, the government has implemented many policies to support ethnic minorities, especially Sub-project 3 of Project 4 of the National Target Program for Sustainable Poverty Reduction 2023, which supports people from poor, near-poor, and newly-escaped-from-poverty households in vocational training, job placement, or labor export. The National Target Program's support for eligible individuals going abroad for labor export will be provided in cash. Depending on the level of achievement of the criteria, support of 10-15 million VND per worker may be provided. Children of the Dan Lai ethnic minority in Thach Son who go abroad for labor export receive support of 5-10 million VND per person, covering various costs related to vocational training, completing applications, and other procedures. In addition, people can access loans with preferential interest rates,” said Mr. Phan Thanh Hung, Deputy Head of the Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Department of the Con Cuong District People's Committee.

Hopefully, with the support policies of the State and the assistance of local Party committees and authorities, more households in Dan Lai, not only in Thach Ngan but also in other communes such as Chau Khe and Mon Son, will soon escape poverty and backwardness, and rise to a prosperous and wealthy status, not only through actions but also in their thoughts and awareness.

In 2006, the Government approved the Project for the Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Dan Lai ethnic group in the core area of ​​Pu Mat National Park, aiming to relocate 146 Dan Lai households from the villages of Bung and Co Phat in Mon Son commune (Con Cuong district) out of the deep forest. In 2007, 42 Dan Lai households relocated to new settlements in the villages of Ke Tat and Thach Son, Thach Ngan commune. Other households subsequently relocated to resettlement sites in the villages of Cua Rao and Tan Son (Mon Son commune). Only 30 households remained in Co Phat village. In their new settlements, the Dan Lai people received government support to build sturdy and spacious houses and were allocated land for production. The Party Committee, government, and mass organizations assigned specific responsibilities to guide each household on how to cultivate wet rice, and how to develop farming and livestock raising for economic purposes.