Houses of love for the meritorious
In recent years, the movement of "Repaying gratitude", supporting meritorious people in difficult circumstances with housing, helping and creating conditions for meritorious people and their families to develop the economy, eliminate hunger and reduce poverty... has been actively responded to by Party committees, authorities, the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations, and people of all walks of life in Nghe An province, bringing practical and meaningful results.
Thosehouse of love
The new house of Mrs. Dang Thi Thin (96 years old), in Nghi Long commune (Nghi Loc) was moved in by her and her daughter since the beginning of 2024. The house was built with a budget of 150 million VND, of which the Fund for Supporting Families of Martyrs supported 50 million VND.
Mrs. Thin is the mother of martyr Le Van Hung, who died in the resistance war against the US to save the country. Mrs. Thin said with joy: "For a long time, my daughter and I dreamed of having a decent house like this to live in, but we were powerless. We didn't even have half the money to build a two-room house with enough space to get in and out during the rain and sun... Now, thanks to the support of social organizations and the neighbors, my daughter and I have a decent house to live in."
Also in Nghi Long commune, the Association for Supporting Families of Martyrs supported Ms. Dinh Thi Nhu Hoa in Kim Dien hamlet to build a spacious two-room house. Ms. Hoa is the wife of martyr Hoang Van Thai, who died in the Southwest battlefield. For many years, Ms. Hoa and her second son had to live in a small, dilapidated house. In recent years, her son went to the South to find work, leaving her alone in the house, which was indeed very difficult. From the support of 50 million VND, her family mobilized additional resources from her brothers and neighbors to build a new house worth nearly 200 million VND, ensuring a new, spacious place to live and a peaceful old age.
According to Nghi Long commune policy officer - Ms. Nguyen Thi Quynh: Although there are very few policy beneficiaries in the area who benefit from socialized funding for housing construction, the commune government has used many other funding sources to support and care for meritorious people. In the past 5 years, the commune has mobilized more than 500 million VND to support the repair and construction of 10 new houses for meritorious people who are elderly, single, sick or wives or mothers of martyrs facing many difficulties in life.
Mr. Dang Van Luong - Head of the Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs of Nghi Loc district said: In the past 5 years, the district has built and repaired 110 houses for people with meritorious services with a total amount of 6 billion 805 million VND from socialized sources. The beneficiaries are mainly wives or mothers of martyrs. Although the support source is not much, only from 50 - 100 million VND/household, it has solved most of the difficulties for households in building and repairing houses.
In Hung Nguyen district, in 2023, the district mobilized socialized resources to support the construction and repair of 41 houses for families of meritorious people who are still facing housing difficulties in the area, with a total cost of 1.1 billion VND. In addition, the district also mobilized other sources to build and repair 55 houses for meritorious people, with a total amount of more than 3.4 billion VND.
In more than 2 years (from January 2022 to June 2024), the whole Nghe An province has mobilized over 41 billion VND from the "Gratitude Fund", along with funds mobilized from organizations, individuals, and businesses to support the construction and repair of houses for 479 policy families with housing difficulties, with a total value of 20,393 million VND.
Humane and timely policy
On April 26, 2013, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 22/2013/QD-TTg on housing support for people with meritorious services to the revolution. Accordingly, the beneficiaries are households of people with meritorious services to the revolution and relatives of martyrs who are living and have permanent residence registration at that house before June 15, 2013. Households receiving support must meet two conditions: First, they must be households with people with meritorious services to the revolution that have been recognized by competent authorities. Second, they must be living in temporary housing or severely damaged housing (including households that have been supported under other previous policies) to the extent that they must be demolished to build a new house or have to repair the frame, walls and replace the roof of the house.
Also according to this decision, the State budget (including the central budget and local budget) will support 40 million VND/household in cases where houses must be demolished to build new ones, and 20 million VND/household in cases where houses must be repaired, walls repaired and roofs replaced.
The support must ensure the principle that after receiving support, households can build new houses or repair and upgrade existing houses, ensuring a minimum usable area of 30m2.2.
The People's Committee at the commune level will guide, inspect and urge households to build houses that ensure the requirements on housing area and quality according to regulations and encourage households to build houses themselves. For households in difficult circumstances such as the elderly, single, disabled... who cannot build houses themselves, the People's Committee at the commune level will organize the construction of houses for these households.
Accordingly, over the past years, Nghe An has thoroughly implemented the policy according to Decision 22 and has achieved the set progress, despite facing many difficulties during the implementation period.
The total number of households with meritorious services to the revolution that received housing support was 22,022 (of which, 10,955 households built new houses; 11,067 households repaired houses), with a total cost of more than 659 billion VND. The districts that received the most support were: Yen Thanh 2,599 households, Anh Son 1,705 households, Thanh Chuong 1,312 households.
The policy of supporting the construction and repair of houses for people with meritorious services is a very timely and necessary humane policy. The policy has been implemented to some extent to reduce the fear of difficulties for people with meritorious services in housing. However, according to the survey, many families of people with meritorious services still have many difficulties in daily life, especially housing. Therefore, the government and social organizations will mobilize resources to better care for people with meritorious services, both materially and spiritually.
Ms. Ho Thi Chau Loan - Deputy Director of Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs
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