Women in Nghe An: Many creative initiatives aimed at the community.

Confidence in economic development

For the past two years, farmers belonging to the THQ Agricultural Services Joint Stock Cooperative in Vinh Tien hamlet, Dien Phong commune (Dien Chau district) have been partners with Ms. Ho Thi Hop, owner of Lim-Farm & Food production and business facility. Their products are vegetables produced according to VietGAP safety standards, such as spinach, moringa, jute mallow, pumpkin, and celery, grown entirely on order. On average, several times a month, the farmers' produce is transported to Vinh, where it is freeze-dried and processed into various vegetables, roots, and herbs for use in meals for young children and the elderly, as well as in beverages.

Producing vegetable and fruit powder from agricultural products of Nghe An province. Photo: MH

Ms. Ho Thi Hop grew up in Tri Le commune (Que Phong district), graduated with a degree in primary education, and previously taught. Later, due to family circumstances, she married and moved to Vinh, forcing her to change careers. Before starting her business producing vegetable and fruit powders, Ms. Hop had worked in various other jobs, but she now believes she has a special connection with farmers and is satisfied with her current work. “My family originally comes from Quynh Thuan commune, Quynh Luu district, a traditional vegetable-growing area. More than two years ago, I returned to my hometown, right during a time of 'bumper harvests but low prices,' and dozens of hectares of vegetables had to be sold cheaply or thrown away because they couldn't be sold. At that time, I just wanted a technology to process vegetables into useful and easily usable products. Through research online and consumer demand, I invested nearly 1 billion VND to develop the production of freeze-dried vegetable and fruit powders to help farmers find a market for their vegetables and fruits from Nghe An province,” Ms. Hop shared.

Although it has only been operating for over two years, through various marketing channels, Ms. Hop's products have increasingly established themselves in the market with sales exceeding 5,000 boxes per month. From this facility, she also sells tens of tons of vegetables to farmers in Quynh Luu and Dien Chau districts each month, creating regular employment for dozens of workers, mainly women, with a fairly stable income.

Agricultural products from Nghe An are used to process into goods. Photo: MH

At just 30 years old, Ms. Tran Thi Thu Hang from Nghi My commune (Nghi Loc district) has already established a nutritional product manufacturing facility with 72 distributors and over 500 collaborators and sales staff, earning hundreds of millions of VND per month. Six years ago, when she started this business, she didn't think much about the success she has today because, simply, she wanted to create a safe and nutritious product for consumers, especially those with malnourished young children. Based on her own needs, she gradually researched and produced on a small scale, mainly for her family and acquaintances. Later, as the product gained more and more trust, she boldly expanded production with a processing plant of over 200 square meters and dozens of regular workers.

Sharing about her work, Ms. Hang added: “For a long time, the local agricultural produce has been abundant, but the market has been unstable. Besides that, diseases and the problem of bumper harvests leading to price drops have occurred repeatedly, causing more and more farmers to abandon their fields and land. Personally, when I switched to producing and selling these nutritional products, I wanted to utilize that agricultural resource to process into various products and become a stable market for farmers' produce. Currently, the project has contributed to creating jobs for hundreds of local workers, including on-site production workers, support workers (transportation, loading and unloading), workers in raw material supply, and workers in product distribution to bring products to market. The products also contribute to providing local farmers in areas that cooperate with the company in purchasing raw materials with a stable source of income on their own land.”

A startup model implemented by members of the Women's Union of Nghi Loc district. Photo: MH

Two projects by Ms. Ho Thi Hop and Ms. Tran Thi Thu Hang also made it into the top 10 of the competition."Innovative and creative entrepreneurship"Organized by the Provincial People's Committee and highly appreciated, especially in the application of e-commerce platforms to boost product consumption, Ms. Le Thi Thanh Hai - Head of the Women's Economic Development Support Committee, Provincial Women's Union, said: "The women's entrepreneurship movement has been embraced by women throughout the province in recent years and has created livelihoods and jobs for thousands of members at the grassroots level. Over the past 5 years, this movement has been very successful."women entrepreneurs"The association has attracted 1,946 participating ideas, including 186 ideas that participated in competitions organized at the provincial and national levels. The association has also received and supported 1,355 startup and business ideas."

Working together for the community

Besides focusing on economic development, women are also pioneers and leaders in local movements with many practical and meaningful activities. In Thanh Chuong district, the "Turning scrap into livestock" model has been implemented by various branches with many effective results. In Thanh Chuong town, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh, a member of Branch 6A, is in difficult circumstances, classified as a poor household, and is also a single mother raising young children. She was fortunate to receive donations of scrap materials from her branch to buy her two piglets for breeding and economic development during Vietnamese Women's Day. From the money collected from the scrap materials, the women in the town have used it to build flower-lined roads, share meals in quarantine areas, and exchange it for instant noodles, rice vermicelli, fish sauce, cooking oil, and various vegetables for many needy members during the pandemic. In Hanh Lam commune, knowing the circumstances of Ms. Gian Thi Hue and Ms. Gian Thi Hoa, who are congenitally hearing impaired, the association transferred and guided them on the process of growing clean mushrooms so that they would have a "fishing rod" to support their families.

Women in Thanh Chuong district provide livelihood support to members in difficult circumstances. Photo: MH

The Women's Union of Nghi Loc District visited and presented gifts to the children they have adopted and are supporting. Photo: MH

Effective and meaningful activities focused on the grassroots level and reaching out to female members are also a new direction for all levels.Nghe An Women's AssociationTo make the programs increasingly practical, specific, and suitable for each target group, locality, region, and area, meeting practical needs.

“Improving the quality of organization and activities at the grassroots level, diversifying forms of women's mobilization, and promoting the ownership rights of members and women” is one of the breakthroughs of the Nghe An Women's Union in recent years. To do this well, we have focused on improving the quality of grassroots-level activities; promoting the role of core members, effectively implementing membership development and management in the new situation; and paying attention to building models for mobilizing women according to age, interests, occupation, ethnicity, and religion. As a result, the women's movement has grown stronger, attracting a large number of members and achieving many positive results in economic development, poverty reduction, and improving the cultural and spiritual lives of members at all levels.”

Ms. Nguyen Thi Quynh Hoa – President of the Provincial Women's Union.