'The Head' in Tham Tham

In this remote border area, people who do not accept poverty, overcome difficulties to become successful in business, send two children to university, and take care of people's and village affairs like Va Ba Ca are "rare".

Pioneer in economic development

Quickly leading guests to visit the peach garden with hundreds of trees on the hillside with light pink buds, surrounded by papaya trees with round, hanging fruits, Village Chief Va Ba Ca (born in 1986) smiled and said simply: "Last year, the peach blossoms bloomed early so the harvest was poor, this year the peach blossoms bloomed in season, the flowers are all there so the price is good, the people also have a warmer and more prosperous Tet."

It is known that Va Ba Ca is one of the pioneer households growing ornamental peach trees in Tham Tham with 3 gardens, each garden has several hundred trees, with an average income of 20-30 million VND/Tet peach season. Peach trees are mainly sold to people from the lowlands to buy for trading or Tet display. They come to the garden and bid on any tree they like to dig up the whole tree or cut off the branches.

Seeing the village chief's effective peach tree planting, since 2020, many people in Tham Tham have started to follow suit, with small households planting a few dozen trees, large households planting 100-300 trees, and in 2023 alone, the whole village has planted more than 3,000 trees. Peach trees can be sold after 4-6 years of planting.

Tham Tham is a village located at the beginning of Nhon Mai commune, along both sides of National Highway 16. Previously, there were only a dozen households of the Khmu ethnic group living there. And Ba Ca, originally from Huoi Co village, was one of the first Mong households to move to live in Tham Tham in 2003 because he realized the potential of the land and climate here, plus the terrain near the national highway, which was convenient for traveling and exchanging goods. Up to now, Tham Tham village has grown to 32 households, 130 people, of which 12 are Mong households, 1 Thai household, and the rest are Khmu ethnic groups.

Life is still full of difficulties, as the head of the village, Va Ba Ca and the Party Cell, the Management Board of Tham Tham village are always struggling to find ways to propagate and mobilize people to actively change the structure of crops and livestock, diligently develop household economy to reduce poverty according to the orientation of the Commune Party Resolution and the reality in the area. He always believes that "to make people listen and believe, the village leaders like me cannot be behind, but must "go ahead, do first" to change the awareness, thinking, working habits, old farming practices of the people", from reclaiming land, breaking ground to sow corn, grow rice, then grow ginger, grow peaches...

When no one in the village dared to grow passion fruit, Va Ba Ca boldly experimented with 300 trees, then continued to expand the area of ​​passion fruit to 700 trees. After that, the villagers saw the high economic value and competed to grow it. When passion fruit was no longer effective due to pests and diseases, Va Ba Ca pioneered the destruction of more than 2 hectares and switched to growing high-yield cassava. Last year alone, Va Ba Ca's family earned 70 million VND from cassava.

In addition, Va Ba Ca also invested in developing livestock. He boldly applied science and technology to help improve the quality of the herd, such as making incubators for raising chicks; growing elephant grass to fatten buffaloes and cows.... Thanks to diligence and hard work, up to now, the family of the village chief Va Ba Ca has become a "millionaire farmer" with nearly 40 free-range buffaloes and cows; and a flock of more than 100 chickens. Besides raising cattle in the hills, Va Ba Ca also built barns, built shelters and learned experiences in protecting buffaloes and cows from the cold and heat.

Talking about income from farming and raising livestock, Mr. Va Ba Ca shared: “On average, my family sells 7-8 buffaloes and cows a year, plus income from ginger, peaches, cassava... each year we earn about 100-150 million VND, enough to raise 2 older children to go to university and the youngest to go to elementary school.

At that time, many villagers saw that my family had achieved good results and had a stable economy, so they also came to visit and learn how to do it. I enthusiastically guided everyone who came, held their hands and showed them how to do it, and shared my experiences for them to follow. Some of them escaped poverty and had food and savings.

As mentioned, at first, only a few households in Tham Tham village boldly followed Va Ba Ca to clear passion fruit trees to grow cassava, but now, the village has 12 hectares of high-yield cassava covering the bare land. This year, the smallest household earns about 15 million VND from cassava, while large households like Va Ba Gio's family earn from 50-80 million VND. Many households in the village raise buffalo and cows (currently the whole village has about 170 cows), many households raise from 20-40 cows.

In addition, the Party Cell and the Village Management Board also encouraged people to boldly introduce economically effective plant and animal varieties such as ginger, squash, and taro into production for high economic efficiency. Thanks to that, although the lives of the people of Tham Tham village have not yet ended, they have improved a lot. In 2023, in the village, there was 1 household that volunteered to leave poverty, Moong Van Hoi, and 4 households that rose from poverty to near-poverty. Some households rose to become well-off households, such as Va Tong De household, with a livestock model and opening a blacksmith to serve the people in the village and neighboring areas, and the products were also sold to Laos.

Talking about the pioneering role of the "leader" of Tham Tham and Ba Ca villages, Mr. Luong Van Thanh - Vice Chairman of Nhon Mai Commune People's Committee said: In the area of ​​12 villages, among the most prominent young village leaders is still Mr. Va Ba Ca - the pioneer in economic development to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty with many livestock and crop models that bring high economic efficiency for the villagers to learn and follow.

The diligence and hard work of the village chief Va Ba Ca is evident in his garden with rows of bright yellow mustard greens, a full granary, a firewood storage area filled with dry wood, and a firmly reinforced buffalo and cow pen. In the garden, there are also small wooden chicken coops built by the owner himself, and below the gentle slope behind the house is a lush green elephant grass patch for raising livestock. Everything is neat, clean, and orderly.

Wholeheartedly for the people's work, the local work

Not only a pioneer in economic development, but according to the comment of the Secretary of the Nhon Mai Commune Party Committee, Luong Van Hoa: "Chief of the village Tham Tham Va Ba Ca is also an exemplary grassroots cadre, daring to think, daring to do, responsible for the people's and the village's affairs".

As a Mong person born and raised in a village near the Vietnam - Laos border, he came to the village of the Khmu people to settle down and make a living. At first, some people were not very satisfied, but with his efforts, Va Ba Ca gradually erased the distance and was loved by the people in the village.

In 2006, he was honored to join the Party while he was Deputy Village Chief and Police Officer. In 2008, Va Ba Ca was elected by the people as Village Chief for two terms and then as Party Cell Secretary.

Previously, Tham Tham village Party Cell was included in Project 01 of the Provincial Party Committee on "Building Party Cells and developing Party members in blocks, hamlets, and villages without Party Cells, without Party members, and blocks, hamlets, and villages at risk of no longer having Party Cells in the period 2016 - 2020".

To create a source for Party development, along with doing a good job of propaganda, mobilization and finding factors to build and nurture, create a source for Party admission, and prevent re-defection of Party members, Va Ba Ca (at that time was the Party Cell Secretary) and Party members always promoted the spirit of setting an example in everything so that people believed, listened and followed.

Thematic resolutions on economic development, crop restructuring, and strengthening security and order in border areas implemented by the Party cell were effectively implemented. The masses were excited and increasingly trusted the leadership of the Party cell, thereby motivating them to strive to join the Party.

Thanks to that, Tham Tham village Party Cell recruited 4 more local party members. In 2022, the Party Cell recruited 1 more party member from the Youth Union, Mr. Va Ba Giong, and this year, 1 more party member from the army was added.

Up to now, the Tham Tham village Party Cell has 9 party members, including 7 local party members, 1 reinforced commune cadre, and 1 temporary border guard party member. "Deputy of Tham Tham village, party member Va Ba Co graduated from Hanoi University of Agriculture, is Va Ba Ca's younger brother, and Va Ba Co's wife is also a party member," added Secretary of the Nhon commune Party Committee Mai Luong Van Hoa.

Currently, in his position as Deputy Secretary of the Party Cell and Head of the Village, Mr. Va Ba Ca continues to be the center of solidarity and a prestigious person in the village. “Because the village has many ethnic groups, everything always requires objectivity, impartiality, fairness, transparency and exemplary behavior from village cadres, party members, from the assessment of poor households to other policies.

In meetings, in addition to speaking Mong, the Village Management Board will also speak Thai so that people can understand clearly and express their opinions according to the motto "people know, people discuss, people check. Party cell secretary Moong Van Hoi is a Khmu person, I myself am Mong but can speak Thai fluently, so it is more convenient for people's work because all Khmu people know Thai", Village Chief Va Ba Ca shared.

With the solidarity of the Party cell, the village management board, the consensus of the people and the help of the Border Guard Station officers (belonging to Nhon Mai Border Guard Station) stationed in the area, Tham Tham is now a drug-free village, with stable security and order, and few conflicts that need to be reconciled in the village.

In 2023, from the cement source supported by the State, Village Chief Va Ba Ca and the village management board "skilledly mobilized" people to participate in building 2 traffic routes, repairing and leveling the foundation of the cultural house area. The cost of buying sand and gravel is taken from the forest protection fee of nearly 200 million VND/year, a part is divided among the people (each household from 4-5 million VND/year), the other part is left as a village fund for community projects and activities.

When we visited, Va Ba Ca was supervising the repair of the community cultural house supported by the State. He happily said: With a new spacious cultural house, this Tet the Village Management Board will be able to organize many activities to celebrate Tet and welcome Spring for the people. In addition to cultural exchanges, performances, and drinking rice wine, the village also organizes many folk games imbued with national identity such as tug of war, stick pushing, crossbow shooting, cockfighting... Families in the village also organize their own new rice ceremony to exchange between the Mong and Kho Mu people, creating a joyful, warm, and united atmosphere in the village.

Busy with the people's affairs, village affairs and household economic development, but Village Chief Va Ba Ca still makes the people in this remote land admire him, because he always cares about his children's education. Currently, his two older children are studying at Vinh University and Nghe An University of Economics, the youngest is in 2nd grade. "No matter how hard it is, I still try to take care of my children's education, accumulate knowledge, because later on, no matter what they do, they need knowledge and intelligence", Va Ba Ca confided.

The new way of thinking and doing of the "prisoners" in this remote border area of ​​Tuong Duong district is a good sign showing the importance of village and hamlet leaders in propagating and mobilizing ethnic people to unite, compete in labor and production, eliminate backward customs, and build a new, more prosperous and progressive life!