Early in the morning of March 16, while it was still dark, in the new house on a high hill in Hong Tien village, Chieu Luu commune, Mr. Kha Van Thang and his wife were bustling in and out. Choosing their cleanest clothes, the couple, both in their fifties, were busy cleaning up to move into the "house of gratitude" built by the provincial police force on the hillside behind the steep, winding slope. Next to it was still the old house with makeshift pillars and beams, some walls missing, and a roof covered with fibro cement. This was the home of a family of eight for many years. Only standing in this empty, windy old house could one understand the burning desire of him and his family for a solid, sturdy house.
Welcoming the Provincial Party Secretary Thai Thanh Quy and other provincial leaders to visit and encourage him, Mr. Thang could not contain his emotions, his eyes lit up with joy. Holding the hands of each member of the delegation, he said: The family is very excited and enthusiastic. Now that we have a new, spacious house, we can only encourage our children and grandchildren to focus on making a living and escape poverty.
Down the hillside, in front of Mr. Thang’s house, is the new house of Mr. Vi Van Thom (93 years old) and his wife, and next to it is the house of Mr. Vi Van Nam (43 years old). Two families, two generations, but they have one thing in common: they are both very poor. Without help and support, perhaps the dream of having a solid, sturdy house, so as not to have to worry about the land of “burning sun, hot Lao wind”, “constant storms and floods” of these poor households will take a very long time to come true.
Visiting each household directly, we felt the indescribable joy and happiness not only of the poor families and households with housing difficulties, but also of the neighbors through their every gesture, look, smile, and honest, sincere voice, such as the exclamation of "trembling with joy" of Mr. Bui Van Nam's mother when talking with Provincial Party Secretary Thai Thanh Quy in front of the new house that her son was given.
The families of Mr. Thang, Mrs. Thom, and Mr. Nam are 3 of the first 65 poor households in Chieu Luu commune to receive new houses out of a total of 123 households supported after 5 days of implementation (March 11 - March 16). The cost of production and installation of the body and roof of the house, worth 50 million VND/house, comes from the budget mobilized and supported by the Ministry of Public Security and the Provincial Police. The cost of building the foundation and floor of the house is mobilized and supported by the local Party Committee and government. The house handover ceremony was held on the morning of March 16 right in front of the new house of Mr. Cut Van An, a poor household in Luu Tien village, Chieu Luu commune, with the joy of the leaders of the province, district, commune, and villagers.
To achieve such “lightning-fast” progress, in coordination with the Provincial Police force, Ky Son district established a Steering Committee and working groups headed by members of the Standing Committee of the District Party Committee with the spirit of launching a campaign to eliminate dilapidated and makeshift houses. Hamlets and villages established groups to mobilize thousands of people to participate in supporting the transportation of materials, construction of foundations, and assembly of houses for poor households. People in the mountainous commune of Chieu Luu confided to us that they had never seen the housing construction movement become a festival like this program.
With the joint efforts of the army and people and the active participation of the political system, in the 6 border districts of Nghe An, 2,420 gratitude houses supported by the Ministry of Public Security and the Provincial Police will soon be completed this year, multiplying the joy throughout a remote border region.
Lieutenant Colonel Tran Ngoc Tuan - Deputy Director of the Provincial Police Department said that the whole sector is striving to complete the construction of 2,420 houses before August 19, 2023 to practically celebrate the 78th anniversary of the August Revolution and National Day September 2; 1,000 houses from mobilized and supported sources will be completed by May 31, 2023.
Up to now, through the survey, Nghe An province has 15,300 poor households and households facing housing difficulties, including 9,200 households in need of renovating their houses and more than 6,100 households in need of repairing their houses. The province is striving to have basically no poor households living in dilapidated, damaged, makeshift houses that are at risk of collapsing and unsafe for living and use by the end of 2025; instead, they will live in houses that meet the 3 hard standards: hard foundation, hard frame - walls, hard roof through the implementation of the Program to mobilize and support the construction of houses for the poor and people in difficult housing circumstances in the period of 2023 - 2025 launched by the Standing Committee of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee from February 4, 2023.
Responding to this meaningful program, in less than a month since its launch, by the end of February 2023, 128 units had registered to support the construction of 10,184 houses, equivalent to 521.193 billion VND. Within just 1.5 months since the province launched the program, new, spacious houses with hard foundations, hard frames and walls, hard roofs, long life spans, etc. have appeared, been handed over, and put into use.
The initial results demonstrate that the policy and decision to support and build houses for the poor and those with housing difficulties of the Provincial Party Standing Committee are in line with the people's wishes, receiving high consensus from the people, and the active participation of units and localities; at the same time, it is also a driving force for the Provincial Steering Committee, units, localities and people in the whole province to be determined and make the highest effort to complete the support for building warm houses for our compatriots.
Each new house awarded will motivate each poor household and household with special housing difficulties to strive for stability, develop the economy, build a better life; participate in ensuring security and order in the area, protect the peace of the homeland in mountainous and border areas, as the message and wish of the Provincial Party Secretary at the recent house handover ceremony in Chieu Luu commune, Ky Son district.
Leaving the Ky Son highlands, what remains impressive to me is that each house supporting the poor has more than 46.5m2All reserved solemn positions to hang Uncle Ho's picture, the national flag... The images convey a profound message about the Party's will and the people's hearts in unison; expressing the steadfast, sacred belief and affection always directed towards the Party and Uncle Ho of the ethnic people in the remote border region of Nghe An; multiplying the meaning and humanity of the program.
