Young people change resettlement areas

Village chief helps people do wet rice farming

We returned to Ta Xieng village (Ngoc Lam) when the villagers were preparing to harvest the crop. Passing through the golden rice fields, village chief Vi Van Tuyen (born in 1979) could not hide his excitement that this year the villagers had a bumper crop. “In the past 3-4 years, the villagers’ lives have changed a lot. If in the past people still had the mentality of waiting and relying on the project’s subsidized rice and neglected production, now many households have rice reserves and no longer worry about not having enough to eat when the government stops supporting them.”

Stopping in front of 2 acres of fertile rice fields next to Khe Vang of Mr. Vi Van Phong's family (born in 1965), Mr. Tuyen did not forget the difficult early days when they worked together to improve the land and bring water to reclaim land for rice cultivation. Seeing the village chief come to visit the fields, Mr. Phong and his wife enthusiastically welcomed him and told him the good news: the 2 acres had yielded nearly 600 kg of rice. For Mr. Phong and his wife, village chief Vi Van Tuyen was like a family member when all of his economic business plans were enthusiastically and wholeheartedly advised by him.

Village chief Vi Van Tuyen (right) is a companion of Mr. Vi Van Phong's family in reclaiming land along the stream for wet rice cultivation. Photo: Thanh Quynh

Recalling the time 12 years ago, when studying was still difficult in Ta Xieng village, Tuyen was one of the few people with a secondary school degree. After graduating, he returned to his hometown and has now worked as a village cadre for nearly 9 years. Now, he is one of the few young intellectuals in Ngoc Lam area who is trusted by the villagers to be elected as the village chief. With his youth, he has accompanied the villagers to build a life in the new land.

In his story, Mr. Phong recalled the first day he came here, seeing his neighbors returning to their hometown to do business, he and his wife also felt uneasy. But then, with the encouragement of Mr. Tuyen, the family decided to stay and "try" to do business. Then the couple brought water from Khe Vang to cultivate 3 sao of rice fields. In 2012, the couple invested 11 million VND to rent machinery, renovate, and build embankments for nearly half a month to plant sticky rice variety 97. The family planted more than 8,000m of the remaining hilly land.²hybrid glue to create a long-term livelihood. Thanks to that, his family's life gradually became prosperous.

After Mr. Phong's success, Mr. Tuyen used it as an example for the villagers to convince everyone to stick to the land to make a living. Now, the whole Ta Xieng village has nearly 9 hectares of rice fields cultivated by 43 households.

Thanks to stable production, the poverty rate in the village has decreased significantly. If in 2008, the poverty rate of the village was 100%, now it is only 57.6%. That achievement has a great contribution from the young and dynamic village chief Vi Van Tuyen.

Currently, Ta Xieng village has nearly 9 hectares of wet rice cultivation area, a large part of which is reclaimed by the locals themselves. Photo: Thanh Quynh

The pride of Kim Lien villagers

As a graduate of the National Economics University, Ms. Vi Thi Nhan (born in 1987) is the pride of the people of Kim Lien village (Ngoc Lam). In 2010, after graduating from the Faculty of Economic Management, she returned to her hometown of Tuong Duong to live and work. After moving with her family to the resettlement area in Kim Lien village, in addition to the work of reclaiming land for farm economy, she also held many important positions in the village such as Head of the Women's Association and some organizations such as the Front, Youth Union... In each position, she showed the enthusiasm and dynamism of a young party member.

With words and actions, she encouraged her family to reclaim more land to grow tea on the 3 sao of land allocated. At the same time, she called on people to work together, overcome difficulties and stick to the land to get rich. Up to now, out of 77 households in the village, 70 are attached to tea trees. Of these, 22 households have boldly reclaimed land to expand the area. Last year, success bore fruit on the difficult land when 10 households had a stable income from tea trees.

Ms. Vi Thi Nhan (left) - Secretary of Kim Lien village Party Cell shares joy with Ms. Luong Thi Lien's family after a bumper tea crop. Photo: Thanh Quynh

With a family of more than 13 sao of tea in harvest season, Ms. Luong Thi Lien (born in 1976) does not forget the first difficult days of getting used to tea plants - a plant that her family had never cultivated during their time in the old village. But then, thanks to the enthusiastic companionship of the female President of the Women's Union, her worries were reduced.

In 2017, Ms. Nhan was elected by the villagers as Secretary of the Kim Lien village Party Cell. Becoming the first and youngest female Secretary of the village is the motivation for her to continue to devote her youth and enthusiasm.

Poor village determined not to have a third child

This afternoon, Nhan Pa village was busier than usual, because the village's "No third child" club had its meeting. The issue of family planning, which used to be a sensitive issue, now had the unanimous agreement of the women. Leading this movement was none other than the village Party Secretary Kha Thi Nhung (born in 1988).

She is also the initiator and leader of the “No Third Child” Club with 84 members in the village. Since the Club was established, the rate of third child births in Nhan Pa has decreased significantly. The whole village has 7 couples with only female children, but none of them intend to have more children. Achieving that result is partly due to Ms. Nhung - a female village cadre who has been involved in population work, then women's work and now is the Party Cell Secretary.

Having been involved in many activities of the people for more than 10 years, Ms. Nhung still considers it a lucky thing in her life, and an opportunity for a Bachelor of Pedagogy to become more mature. Even though, her peers at Nghe An Pedagogical College at that time all chose to work in big cities or district centers.

Kha Thi Nhung, Party Secretary of the village, is the leader of the "No third child" club of Nhan Pa village. Photo: Thanh Quynh

Ms. Nhung is also a woman who gave birth to only daughters, so she understands better the thoughts and feelings of women in the same situation as her. And to spread optimism as well as eliminate backward concepts of male superiority and female inferiority, she has wholeheartedly encouraged her family, relatives and neighbors to stop at two children to raise them well. Especially when the village is still haunted by poverty.

Thanks to that, in recent years, many families in Nhan Pa village no longer have "a lot of children and grandchildren" and can focus on making a living and escaping poverty.

Talking about young intellectuals with university, college and intermediate degrees holding key positions in the government apparatus and the commune party committee, Mr. Lo Huy Hung, Chairman of Ngoc Lam commune, said: Currently, the locality has 9/14 villages with young people with intermediate degrees or higher holding key positions in the village. In addition to the three comrades Vi Van Tuyen, Vi Thi Nhan and Kha Thi Nhung, the commune also has comrades: Vi Van Xan with university degrees is the Head of Huoi village; Mac Van Nghi with college degrees is the Head of Noong village; Vi Van Mui with intermediate degrees is the Head of Nhan Mai village; Quang Van Phan with college degrees is the Head of Kim Hong village; Quang Van Mao with college degrees - Secretary of Kim Hong village Party cell; Lo Thi Tuat with intermediate degrees is the Head of Cha Luan village.

Thanks to their dynamism, enthusiasm and creative thinking, the young cadres have brought a breath of fresh air to economic activities, building community solidarity in the Ngoc Lam region. Since then, people's lives have had many positive and sustainable changes.