Joy of the fishing village

(Baonghean) - Van Tai fishing village (Vo Liet - Thanh Chuong) has 113 households, in the past all families lived on old, tattered, cramped boats, from generation to generation. Their lives mainly depended on fishing on the river, or they did whatever job they were hired to do, today they anchored their boats on this part of the river, tomorrow they anchored on another part of the river. The most prosperous households only had a wooden boat as a place to stay, a small radio to listen to weather information and a few pieces of nets and fishing rods dropped into the river to catch fish to exchange for rice for daily meals. The majority of the remaining fishing gear was old and tattered but they could not afford to buy it, so making a living became even more difficult.

Due to the precarious life, poverty clings to children all year round, the education of children in the Van Tai fishing village is unfinished... Over the past 10 years, with the attention and facilitation of the local government, up to now 60/113 families in Van Tai village have gone ashore to start a business. Determining to help people in the fishing village stabilize their lives and escape poverty, population work must be given special attention. Having few children and being diligent in doing business, many households have become rich and well-off; the education of their children is given due attention.

Population propaganda at Van Tai fishing village (Vo Liet commune, Thanh Chuong).

A typical example is the family of Mr. Nguyen Viet Thanh, who used to live mainly by fishing, drifting on the Lam River with an old, dilapidated boat. Life was hard all year round and he tried his best to earn just enough to feed his children. In 2004, he decided to "go ashore" to settle down. Thanks to his diligence, saving, and capital borrowed from the bank, he boldly invested in buying an excavator to mine sand and gravel. In addition to the family's annual income of hundreds of millions of dong, he also created jobs for 5 regular workers in the area. Although he had savings and had only daughters, he and his wife decided not to have more children. "Everyone wants to have both boys and girls, but if we have more children, we will not have the conditions to take care of them, so we discussed not having any more children to raise our children well. Nowadays, if our children do not get a proper education, their lives will be very difficult" - Mr. Thanh shared.

On the annual population communication festival, the staff of the district's Population and Family Planning Center, along with the specialized team and collaborators from the hamlets, will visit each boat, visit, persuade and advise on measures, and provide contraceptives to families... On the swaying basket boat, with Ms. Nguyen Thi Loan - a population collaborator from the Van Tai hamlet, we visited the "boat houses" on the river. Mr. Nguyen Van Quy and his wife, Ms. Nguyen Thi Dan, gave birth to two daughters in a row. Although they only had one child, this young couple did not want to have a third child. Thanks to her husband's understanding and understanding, Ms. Dan was very comfortable mentally and went to get an IUD when the population officer came to her house to propagate and persuade her.

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy - a population officer of Vo Liet commune: Traditional media such as loudspeakers, leaflets, and banners are not always effective in the river environment. They are rarely present at village meetings, club activities, and population communication sessions. The only way is for population officers to choose the right time and go to homes, boats, and meet with people to launch a reproductive health care campaign, distribute condoms, and free contraceptives. At the same time, they mobilize families to sign a pledge to have a small family, not have a third or more child, and build a cultured family. The subjects that population officers pay special attention to are people of childbearing age and have only one child. Thereby, people in fishing villages are provided with full information about the Party and State's policies and laws on population work, how to take care of their health, and how to effectively implement family planning. Most people in Van Tai hamlet now have high awareness and accept the application of modern contraceptive methods.

In the past 6-7 years, the rate of third child births in Van Tai hamlet has decreased significantly, the gender imbalance has been controlled. For example, in 2012 and 2013, no household had a third child or more, in 2004 there was 1 household and in the first 6 months of 2015, no household had a third child. This is a very encouraging sign in the population work in a fishing village, and at the same time, it is also a driving force for the economic development of the locality.

Ngoc Anh