Dynamic female Youth Union Secretary in Western Nghe An

Creating jobs for Thai people

Although graduating from Hanoi National University of Education in 2014, Luong Thi Nga did not pursue a career in teaching but was passionate about the Youth Union. With the energetic, daring spirit of youth, this female Bachelor of Education born in 1991 was elected to the Executive Committee of Chau Hanh Commune Youth Union and has held the position of Secretary of the Commune Youth Union from 2022 to present.

It is worth mentioning that, in addition to doing well in the Youth Union work, Luong Nga is also a start-up in her hometown with the profession of making incense. Since her university days, Nga has brought Quy Chau incense to Hanoi to do business, both to earn extra income and to spread the hometown products. With the advantage of having experience as well as a number of regular customers through many years of business, after graduating, Luong Nga always cherished the wish to open an incense production facility in her hometown to both preserve the traditional profession and create jobs for local people.

Luong Nga shared: “Chau Hanh commune has up to 83% of Thai people, life is still difficult, people's awareness is limited, people work hard all year round on fields and raise livestock but their income is unstable, many families have to leave their children at home to go to the South or North to work as workers. Therefore, my wish is to be able to open a production facility to bring people to work, both to preserve the traditional profession and to create income to help people reduce their hardships.”

Thinking is doing, in 2015, after graduating for a while, Nga decided to discuss with her family to borrow money and open an incense production facility in her hometown. At the beginning of the business, she encountered many difficulties, there were not many large orders, and the capital was still low, so Nga only dared to hire 2 workers. However, with the motto of putting quality first, all stages from selecting raw materials, drying, grinding, rolling or packaging were all carefully performed by Nga before reaching customers. Thanks to that, the products are increasingly trusted by consumers, production and business have changed, gradually escaping the initial difficult times.

Up to now, Luong Nga's incense production facility has created regular jobs for 12 workers in her hometown, with an income of 5 - 7 million VND/month; hard-working workers can earn 10 million VND/month - something that previously, farming work could not bring.

The nature of the incense making profession is seasonal, especially in the last months of the year, there is a lot of work, this is also the time when I hire the most workers. In the remaining months of the year, the number of orders decreases, however, because I do not want people to lack work and lose income, I continue to hire people to grow incense roots as raw materials, because currently, there are very few incense roots enough to produce incense, often having to import from other districts. The cost of growing trees is from 200,000 - 300,000 VND/day... people have extra money to spend, extra money to come in...

Luong Nga - Secretary of the Youth Union of Chau Hanh commune, Quy Chau district

Support the lives of the poor

Besides the incense production work, the female union secretary also takes the lead in local volunteer movements. Luong Nga has accompanied many disadvantaged and disadvantaged people, calling on philanthropists to join hands to share.

One can mention the case of Lim Van Hoa, Ke Ninh village, Chau Hanh commune, orphaned, living alone in a makeshift bamboo hut. Luong Nga wrote an article, calling for help from benefactors, after tireless efforts, the boy was able to live in a charity house thanks to the community's cooperation. Or the situation of Luong Van Thao, Chau Hanh commune, after an accident that broke his spine, Luong Nga both supported and called for help for him, after a short time, his family received 130 million VND from benefactors, enough to cover the hospital fees, helping him gradually recover...

Regarding the work of the Youth Union, Luong Nga and the local Youth Union members have regularly and continuously carried out many meaningful programs for the community such as: Organizing the Day for Beloved Juniors; organizing birthdays for poor children in the mountains; supporting people to build roads, plant rice, and bring water to the fields for the people; elegant young women's contest to call for donations for the fund for orphans and disabled youth; building free wardrobes for people in the highlands... The activities all took place enthusiastically, with practical meaning for the difficult circumstances in the Western region of Nghe An.

Since becoming the Commune Youth Union Secretary, Luong Nga's work has become much busier with Youth Union activities, but she still strives to harmonize union work with production and business and manages everything well. In addition, Luong Nga also participates in writing articles for newspapers such as Nghe An Newspaper, Tien Phong Newspaper... to convey and spread local information to readers near and far. Luong Nga shared that she considers writing for newspapers one of the great joys in life./.