A devoted parishioner with 36 years as village chief

(Baonghean) - For more than 36 years as the head of a Catholic hamlet, Mr. Tran Van Kien in hamlet 7, Thach Son commune (Anh Son) has always been trusted and loved by the Party Committee, government and people.

“Simple, approachable, always listening and sharing with neighbors” are the comments of the people of hamlet 7, Thach Son commune for the devoted hamlet chief Tran Van Kien.

Mr. Nguyen Van Kien is exemplary in family economic development.

In 1980, after completing his military service and returning to his locality, Mr. Kien was elected as the hamlet chief at the age of 26. Hamlet 7, Thach Son commune is a Catholic hamlet. As the hamlet chief, what he always worried about most was how to find an effective economic development direction that was suitable for the local conditions.

Thanks to this concern, in the condition that the hamlet has little agricultural land, he has mobilized people to grow vegetables with short growing time and high economic value such as squash, pumpkin, cucumber but with income 3-5 times higher than growing rice and corn.

He also mobilized and encouraged households to participate in labor export, considering it a sustainable way to escape poverty. Up to now, more than 90% of young men in the village have gone to work abroad in countries such as Russia, Laos, France, etc.

Thanks to that, the lives of families have improved, the average income per capita reached over 29 million VND/year, the number of well-off households accounted for over 55%, the rate of poor households accounted for 7%, mainly elderly and single-parent families.

With his dedication and devotion, over the past 36 years, Mr. Kien has always been trusted by the people to be elected as the village chief. He confided: “I am 62 years old this year, I want to retire but the people still trust me. Therefore, I believe that if the people still trust me, I will continue to contribute as long as I am healthy.”

As the hamlet chief, Mr. Tran Van Kien and other organizations mobilized people to effectively carry out the movements "All people unite to build a cultural life in residential areas" and "live a good life and follow good religion".

Thanks to the close study and timely encouragement of families with especially difficult circumstances, sharing joys and sorrows, the village and neighborhood ties have become increasingly tight. It is also this consensus that has created internal strength for Hamlet 7 to always be the leading unit of the commune in implementing the policies of the superiors, especially the movement to build new rural areas.

Thanks to the drastic participation of Mr. Tran Van Kien and the collective of hamlet officials, in the construction of the new rural area, the people mobilized resources worth over 1.2 billion VND to build over 1.6 km of rural roads and over 20 million VND to build a lighting system. Now, up to hamlet 7, Thach Son commune, all rural roads have been paved with asphalt and concrete. At night, the street lights are bright thanks to the grid power system running along the roads of the village.

With the efforts and struggles of all cadres and people, including the great contribution of Hamlet Chief Tran Van Kien, from a poor hamlet, Hamlet 7, Thach Son commune was granted a Certificate of Cultural Village recognition by the People's Committee of Anh Son district, this is the first all-Catholic hamlet of the district to be honored to receive this title.

Le Na