Quynh Luu women raise funds from abandoned fields
From long-abandoned fields, women's associations in Quynh Luu district plow together, the harvested products are contributed to a common fund to help poor households with livestock and help poor students have more funds to study well.
The 2024 spring rice crop has just ended. Ms. Tran Thi Hoa - Head of the Women's Union of Thuan Yen village, Quynh Ngoc commune, said that the women's fund has just been supplemented with 3 tons of rice, converting this amount of rice into money to help and support members in difficult circumstances, and encourage poor students to strive to study well.
Ms. Hoa also said that Thuan Yen village is a purely agricultural village, merged from 3 villages including villages 3, 4, 5 before. Currently, Thuan Yen village has 320 households with 1,410 people, the main occupations are agricultural production, construction and small-scale trading, there are still 10 poor households and many households in difficult circumstances, illness, and misfortune.
Realizing that the regular operation fund of the women's association cannot rely on the monthly contribution of 20,000 VND from members as prescribed, the women in the association's executive committee boldly proposed to the Party cell, the Women's Union of the commune and the local government to lend more abandoned land and land in difficult-to-produce locations to implement the model of "Fallow fields to raise funds". On these areas of land, the women grow rice and seasonal crops to raise operating funds.
The "Fallow fields to raise funds" model has been effectively applied by the Women's Union of Thuan Yen village with 8.5 sao of deep-rooted fields and 7.5 sao of land belonging to elderly households and families living far away from the area. Every year, the union harvests rice to raise funds of tens of millions of dong to create a source of loans for women to develop their economy. Specifically, in the first half of 2024, with the funds collected from selling rice grown on fallow land, the Women's Union of Thuan Yen village gave 16 members each a livelihood model worth 4.8 million dong; gave 8 orphans 500,000 dong each. Supported and encouraged 1 child to join the army, 12 children passed university and college entrance exams, 4 children achieved excellent students at all levels with more than 4 million dong.
Ms. Tran Thi Dung - President of the Women's Union of Quynh Ngoc commune said: In recent years, the fundraising movement to serve the regular activities of the Women's Union of Quynh Ngoc commune in general and the Women's Union of Thuan Yen village in particular has become increasingly effective. From 2020 up to now, the model has grown stronger and stronger in Quynh Ngoc, attracting many branches and members to participate.
Up to now, the total area of the model in the whole commune is nearly 2 hectares, the average annual rice yield is about 3.5 quintals/sao. Ms. Dung added that, realizing the effectiveness of the abandoned field production model to raise funds, in 2023, the branches enthusiastically expanded the fundraising method by taking on additional irrigation work in the fields, 100% of the members participated with 400 working days, earning more than 40 million VND.
From receiving abandoned fields to increase annual production, up to now, 3/5 Women's Unions of Quynh Ngoc commune have implemented this model, creating a fund of about 100 million VND. In addition to visiting and encouraging sick cases and encouraging education, the "abandoned field fund" also supports 35 members of poor and disadvantaged households with interest-free loans to buy breeding chickens and pigs for economic development and sustainable poverty reduction.
In addition to Quynh Ngoc commune, many other communes of Quynh Luu also effectively implemented the model of "Fallow fields for fundraising". The land reclaimed by women's associations is mainly used to grow rice, and some hamlets also grow vegetables, such as in Quynh Bang commune.
“With a reclaimed vegetable garden of about 0.1 ha, planting according to each season, plus installing automatic irrigation taps, vegetables are guaranteed to grow well. Each season from the women's shared vegetable field also brings in more than 10 million VND. In addition, our association also collects waste to sell for money, combines fundraising sources, and every year the Women's Association of Quynh Bang commune has sponsored nearly 20 orphans with especially difficult circumstances so that they have the opportunity to continue their studies", said Ms. Nguyen Thi Hai - President of the Women's Association of Quynh Bang commune.
Or like in Quynh Hung commune, the model "Fallow fields for fundraising" has been implemented for more than 5 years, bringing in a large fund of about 15 million VND per rice crop, effectively helping activities to support members in economic development, charity, and promoting education and talent.
Chairwoman of the Women's Union of Quynh Luu district Tran Thi Ha said that the model of "Fallow fields raising funds" is being implemented by branches in communes with large areas of wasteland, such as in the communes of Quynh Hung, Quynh Giang, Quynh My, Quynh Ba, Quynh Bang, etc., creating a valuable source of funding to help the branches do many meaningful things, creating a spread of the movement at the grassroots level. In 2024 alone, since the beginning of the year, the branches implementing "Fallow fields raising funds" have collected more than 150 million VND from the spring rice harvest on an area of nearly 10 hectares. In addition, the women of the branches also raised funds from the source of harvesting vegetables on poor, wasteland fields and from the source of undertaking to dredge irrigation canals within the fields, worth tens of millions of VND.
