The 'nuclei' of village solidarity

XONG BA DENH:
"Red seeds" of the highlands

"Xong Ba Denh is the pride of our people", that is the sentiment of the people of Na Ngoi border commune, Ky Son district when someone asked about the young man Xong Ba Denh - Secretary of the commune's Youth Union, as a positive example in production labor and participation in social work.

As a child of the Mong ethnic group, Xong Ba Denh was born and raised in Buoc Mu 1 village, more than 75 km from the district center, the mountainous road is dangerous and difficult to travel. More than anyone, Ba Denh understands the hardships and deprivation that the family and people here have to go through, today wild vegetables, tomorrow stream fish, life depends a lot on nature. Because of hunger and poverty, young people also "leave the village" to work far away. Therefore, this young man born in 1985 always has the desire to do something useful to both retain young people and help poor villages.

In 2012, realizing that ginger is a plant with a high market price and is easy to grow, with his acumen, Ba Denh launched a pilot movement to implement a collective ginger planting model in the village youth union. Money collected from ginger will be used to raise funds for youth union activities right at the grassroots level. To prove that his direction is correct, Ba Denh has set an example by planting more than 1.6 hectares of ginger.

He confided: “I am a leader of the group and a party member. If I want to mobilize the youth in the village and commune to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty, I must do good business myself. If I do good work, people will be pleased with me, and then they will believe, listen and follow me.”

In the early days, only 3 youth unions responded, but now in the commune, 13/19 youth unions in villages have collective economic models. In particular, from growing ginger to connect youth and villages, now there are 121 youth families building private economic models such as growing doong, rieng, raising buffalo, cows, black pigs..., bringing in stable income.

Born into a Mong family that wholeheartedly follows the Party, for Xong Ba Denh, doing a good job every day and living responsibly towards society is a practical way to repay the gratitude of the Party and State, contributing to building a peaceful, prosperous and beautiful village and homeland.

VI VAN HAI:
When "the fish is no longer stranded"

Being a Thai ethnic, born in Ke Bang village, Chau Hanh commune (Quy Chau), Vi Van Hai graduated from college with a major in land management, and has worked for nearly 10 years in enterprises in Quy Hop district. Although he thought that a "desk" job would bring stability, the young man Vi Van Hai still hasn't found his true inspiration and passion.

“I always feel like a stranded fish!” - Hai confided.

Faced with many choices, Mr. Hai returned to his hometown to start a business as if to find himself again.

“At first, when we planned to start a farm, everyone was worried about the risks because they had no experience. But I think if I have the will and determination, there is nothing to be afraid of. I believe I can do it!” - Mr. Hai expressed.

In the early days, looking at the land area full of weeds and rocks, he did not know where to start. The whole family had to join forces, both renting an excavator and utilizing the labor of family members to improve the land. After 3 months of hard work day and night, more than 1 hectare of hill land was improved. He boldly raised the first batch of chickens with 1,000 free-range chickens, and dug an additional 1,000 square meters of pond for fish.

Every journey has to go through difficult and challenging roads. Initially, when he first invested in the integrated livestock farming model, Mr. Hai encountered many difficulties, especially in livestock farming techniques, methods of preventing diseases for livestock, as well as finding sources for products. Losses are inevitable, but after each failure, Mr. Hai became more steadfast and determined.

With his tireless work, the barren, barren lands have now become green and fertile. Although the road ahead is still full of challenges, like a "fish" returning to the vast river, Mr. Hai remains steadfast in his choice, continuing to freely swim with his passion for getting rich on his homeland.

HOANG CONG LANH:
12 years in prison

Once a soldier, at the age of sixty, the Tho ethnic man Hoang Cong Lanh (Dua village, Nghia Yen commune, Nghia Dan district) is still very agile and active. With a deep voice, the village chief of Dua village told us the story of mobilizing villagers to join hands to build new rural projects. In the early days, Mr. Lanh and village cadres mobilized, some people agreed, but many people did not understand. Persistently and patiently, he went to each alley, knocked on each door to propagate. The rain soaked in slowly, the policy was right, the people also listened willingly, voluntarily donated fences, forest trees to build more than 1.4km of concrete roads between hamlets. Since then, the appearance of Dua village has been dressed in a new, spacious, clean and beautiful coat.

12 years of “eating at home, carrying the burden of the village”, countless happy and sad memories, all of which are closely linked to the people. From changing farming methods with the people, developing the economy, especially forest economy, planting citrus trees and short-term crops; to the whole Coconut village together searching for soldiers on the Su-22U military aircraft that crashed during a training flight.

“That was the most memorable and saddest memory of Dua village. That afternoon, after a loud explosion, black smoke rose up. Knowing there was a plane crash, I ran up the hill and called the authorities to report the situation, mobilizing people to search for the plane and the soldiers. It was pouring rain, but the army and people were united, quickly approached the scene, and urgently searched,” he recalled.

Taking on the “general” work with a pure and innocent heart, for Mr. Lanh, the secret to doing his job well is simply “just lead by example and the people will follow. If I succeed and my family’s life changes, then the people will trust me” - hamlet chief Hoang Cong Lanh shared.