A man devoted to the 'prisoner' profession

(Baonghean) - For the past 7 years, people in Hong Long commune, Nam Dan district have been familiar with the image of Ms. Nguyen Anh Tram (born in 1981), a population officer of the commune, who does not mind the sun or rain, or the long distance to each household with collaborators to propagate policies and improve population quality.

Ms. Nguyen Anh Tram (far right) promotes population and family planning work to the people.

Graduated from the Nursing major of Thanh Hoa Medical College, refusing the opportunity to work in the city, in 2009, Ms. Tram decided to return to her hometown to work in population work. To get used to the job, in addition to attending training courses for new population officers, Ms. Tram also diligently researched and learned from her senior colleagues, and researched documents to master the assigned work.

Sharing about the job of "eating at home, carrying the burden of the whole village", Ms. Tram said: Population work and family planning is a job that requires patience, sympathy and understanding. When she first started working, she was a bit hesitant when talking about reproductive issues and contraceptive measures, but gradually, she realized the meaning of the job and from there adjusted her mentality, completing the assigned work well. During the 7 years of working, countless times, she and 13 population collaborators went to each hamlet and each household to persuade, analyze and propagate to people about population work.

The propaganda work also encountered many difficulties when Hong Long commune has many farming households and 20% of the population is Catholic, so people are not aware of the importance of family planning and reproductive health safety for women. Therefore, she and her collaborators always keep in mind that they must closely follow the locality and circumstances of each household.

In addition, the propaganda must come from the heart, be skillful and tactful, so that not only the wife but also the husband understands and takes responsibility for family planning with his wife. There are times when, not only persuading couples, Ms. Tram also has to persuade the mothers-in-law and husbands' families of some women in the neighborhood not to put too much emphasis on having a son to continue the family line after the family already has 2 obedient daughters.

Thanks to her dedication to population propaganda, despite her young age, Ms. Nguyen Anh Tram was trusted by the women in the neighborhood to confide in her and ask about reproductive issues that she did not understand clearly. Up to now, Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan, village 12, Hong Long commune still considers Ms. Tram and the population collaborators as her benefactors when they propagated and persuaded her to go for health check-ups in the neighborhood, thanks to which she discovered uterine fibroids for timely treatment.

Not only helping and propagating to change people's awareness, Ms. Tram also guides and helps collaborators with weak capacity, or proposes to reward enthusiastic and energetic collaborators to encourage and promote the movement. With positive contributions to population work in Hong Long commune, Ms. Tram has received many certificates of merit from the commune and district, becoming a shining example for many people to learn from.

Chu Thanh