The media... targeted the wrong audience!

(Baonghean) - This morning, I went to the tea shop at the end of the alley and immediately encountered a group of women chatting animatedly. I assumed they would only be busy with market chores and housework... but surprisingly, they knew everything. From traffic accidents and pension adjustments to the issue of Chinese traders squeezing out watermelons and onions, leading many organizations to call on the domestic market to "rescue" them...

After a while, the women started talking about neighborhood and ward issues. One woman sighed, "Yesterday's population communication was so good, but it was just officials and elderly people sitting together, how boring." So the women split into two factions: one sided with the woman who brought up the topic; the other, including the women's affairs officer, firmly maintained that the meeting was fine, that since they had attended, they had a responsibility to "communicate" the information to their children and grandchildren; moreover, the ward and neighborhood officials would "absorb" it and then disseminate it to the households...

One woman, a former Youth Volunteer who had fought against the Americans from beginning to end, sat listening. Seeing how heated the debate was, she spoke up: "I went last night and saw that it wasn't right. We're all in our 60s and 70s, busy with shopping and cooking for our husbands and children, so we only care about 'health and wellness' to prevent and control diseases, not about 'communicating' to our children. Besides, we go to meetings just to have a place to chat and relax; we hear it in one ear and out the other, catching bits and pieces, and remembering nothing. So, we need to suggest that future population control officials should communicate with the right audience..." When asked what the population control officials "communicated" about yesterday, the former Youth Volunteer said: "Oh dear, so much! From family planning, contraceptive methods, spacing between births; then the benefits of pre-marital health checkups, adolescent reproductive health care... I can't possibly remember it all."

I recounted the story to an acquaintance who was a recently retired official from the Population and Family Planning sector. He said: "For the Population and Family Planning sector, there are many target groups for communication work. At the grassroots level, there are also many people who need to be informed, but the main target group should be those of reproductive age. The way you're doing population communication in your neighborhood isn't right."

Actually, deep down I knew it wasn't right. But, I had to ask someone with "expertise" so I could "communicate" that information to the women's affairs officer later...

Ha Giang