Changes in the Catholic commune of Hung Yen Nam

The power of the people

Taking us to visit the newly built cultural house with a total area of ​​1,500 m2 with synchronous facilities worth more than 800 million VND, inaugurated in August 2021, Mr. Dang Van Hieu - Head of Hamlet 2, Hung Yen Nam Commune proudly said: "It's like a miracle, ma'am! Before, the hamlet did not have a cultural house, every time there was a need to hold a meeting, we had to borrow a resident's house or live at the hamlet chief's house, which was very difficult. Therefore, when there was a policy and support from superiors to build a cultural house, the people were very excited!"

Cultural houses of hamlets in Hung Yen Nam are built spaciously with synchronous facilities. Photo: GH

The dynamic hamlet chief added: The hamlet has 236 households, 855 people, of which 80 households are religious, the Catholic and non-Catholic people are very united. In addition to the 300 million VND budget supported by the district and commune, the people unanimously contributed 2 million VND each to join hands in building the communal activity place of the whole hamlet. Some households contributed 10 - 20 million VND, some people voluntarily contributed 4 shade trees worth tens of millions of VND to plant in the cultural house grounds. Some contributed labor and money after just over 3 months, the hamlet cultural house project was completed in the joy and excitement of the people.

During the construction process, there was still a lack of funds to build a wall around the campus. The hamlet asked for people's opinions and in just one meeting, 24 million VND in donations were collected. Currently, our hamlet is planning to build a toilet in the South and a stage in the North. The appearance of the hamlet has completely changed, 100% of the roads are concrete, making it convenient to travel," said Mr. Hieu.

Villagers of Hamlet 7 play sports in the courtyard of the village's cultural house; Leaders of Hung Yen Nam commune discuss with villagers of Hamlet 7 about building new rural areas. Photo: GH

Not only in hamlet 2, but previously, almost all hamlets in Hung Yen Nam commune did not have a cultural house or had one but it was degraded and dilapidated. A typical example is hamlet 7 - a Catholic hamlet with 235 households and more than 1,000 people. The hamlet's old cultural house was built 23 years ago, old, dilapidated, and had no tables and chairs. Therefore, according to Mr. Nguyen Huu Cuong - a veteran of hamlet cadres since 1982: When the commune and district called for resources to support the construction of a new cultural house, the hamlet promoted and mobilized people to join hands to implement it. In addition to contributing to the dismantling and construction, each household contributed 2 million VND to complete the new spacious cultural house on a total area of ​​about 600 m2, with a total value of more than 2 million VND.

“With a spacious campus, bright lights, children and adults play sports until late at night. The cultural house is located right next to Dong Son Parish Church. Religion and life are in harmony. On holidays, the hamlet opens its doors so that people can park their vehicles conveniently and neatly,” Hamlet Chief Nguyen Huu Cuong happily said. Thanks to the propaganda and mobilization of Party committees and authorities at all levels, and the support of the church, people have understood that the construction of new rural areas is carried out by the people themselves, the people do it, the people benefit. Currently, the roads in the hamlet have almost been concreted, the flag road is 2.5 km long connecting hamlets 7 and 6, the national flag is hung all year round.

A corner of the flag-shaped street connecting hamlets in Hung Yen Nam. Photo: GH

The parish also mobilized people to install lighting to create a highlight for the landscape and facilitate travel. The lives of people in the hamlet have gradually improved. Men work in construction (there are about 40 construction contractors in the hamlet), women run the market, and their children mainly go abroad to work. However, no one leaves their fields fallow.

Being a semi-mountainous commune, with both mountains and hills, highlands and lowlands, the whole commune has 2,157 households, 8,185 people distributed in 8 hamlets, with the proportion of Catholics accounting for nearly 80% of the population, there are 3 parishes (Dong Son, Trang Nua, Yen Thinh), 7 parishes, 6/8 hamlets have Catholics. Limited budget revenue, and capital was separated from the old Hung Yen commune, so the initial infrastructure was extremely difficult: The commune People's Committee headquarters used the infrastructure of the old commune People's Committee hall to work; there was no kindergarten; the secondary school and primary school were seriously degraded; the medical station was shared; most of the rural roads were still un-upgraded dirt roads, causing difficulties for people from production to travel and trade.

However, the biggest difficulty is that the trust of a part of the people in the government is still limited when within 4 years, 3-4 chairmen have been replaced, and some commune and hamlet officials have been disciplined. The mentality of waiting and relying on people in some hamlets and even cadres and party members still exists.

Hung Yen Nam people build rural roads. Photo: GH

Entering the implementation of the policy of building new rural areas with a low starting point, the Party Committee and government of Hung Yen Nam commune, headed by two pillars who were strengthened by the district to become Secretary and Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, mobilized the participation of the entire political system to proactively coordinate with the Pastoral Council of parishes to propagate to people to understand that in building new rural areas, the State plays a supporting role, and the people are the main subjects (people know, people discuss, people do, people check, people supervise, people benefit).

All policies and strategies are made public and transparent to every block and hamlet, and people's opinions are sought, arousing and promoting solidarity between religions and non-religious people to join hands in building new rural areas. There are meetings that are held once but people do not fully understand, so many meetings are held with the motto "slow and steady wins the race" to create consensus.

Leaders of Hung Yen Nam commune discussed with village officials about the situation of building new rural areas. Photo: GH

The Commune Party Committee also proactively worked with the Priest and the Pastoral Council of the parishes to clearly explain the Party and State's policies and guidelines in building new rural areas, which are similar to the idea that the church is aiming for, which is to make people's lives better. At the same time, the hamlets were assigned to hold expanded meetings including the hamlet executive committee, the Front Working Committee, and organizations, inviting the entire Pastoral Council to participate to gain consensus and unity, and then hold a meeting with the people. Based on the new rural indicators, the secretary and hamlet chief of each hamlet reviewed each task, determined which contents the hamlet implemented, which contents the people carried out, and did not wait or rely on superiors.

The cultural house of hamlet 1, Hung Yen Nam commune is completing the grounds and surrounding walls. Photo courtesy of Mai Hoa

In addition, according to the leader of Hung Yen Nam commune: The important thing is to regain the people's trust in the Party Committee and the government. Only when people have trust can there be consensus. Therefore, in addition to building internal solidarity, it is necessary to breathe "new air" into the thinking, methods and working style of the team of cadres and civil servants of the commune; promulgate regulations on the functions and tasks of each job position; assign and delegate work, monitor the level and progress of specific completion. The Party Committee of the commune builds a thematic Resolution focusing on leading and directing the construction of new rural areas. In particular, it requires exemplary implementation by cadres and party members.

Officers and people of Hung Yen Nam plant flowers to create landscape. Photo: GH

“It is a hundred times easier to endure without the people, and a thousand times harder to complete with the people”. When the trust in the Party Committee and the government was lit, in just a short time, the whole commune had positive changes. A series of cultural houses were started to be built, more than 48 km of village roads, dozens of km of canals were concreted. The roads were equipped with lighting, flowers and ornamental plants were blooming, weaving through every alley. Flagpoles were erected on the main roads, the national flag and church flags were fluttering. People agreed to contribute labor, money, and land to build new rural areas. Typically, in hamlet 8, people voluntarily donated 1.6 km of rice fields, 2m wide, to expand and build the hamlet's model road.

Following the commune officials to visit hamlet 8, meeting Ms. Phan Thi Ly weeding rice in a lush green field next to the newly widened road, she simply said: "I have 5 sao of rice fields from my ancestors, growing rice twice a year right next to the road. When the hamlet had a policy to upgrade and build a road, my family voluntarily donated land to widen the road with the hope of contributing a little effort to beautify the hamlet and village. Moreover, a wide road is not only more convenient for traveling, but also makes it convenient for us to transport and harvest crops."

Residents of hamlet 8, Hung Yen Nam, voluntarily donated land to expand rural roads. Photo: GH

In hamlet 8, there are also typical examples such as Mr. Nguyen Kim Doan, who donated more than 3 square meters of land to build a road, and also voluntarily contributed bamboo and small trees worth nearly 80 million VND to plant on both sides of the hamlet's main road.

Thanks to the synchronous participation of the entire political system, the accompaniment of the church and the strength of the people, in June 2021, Hung Yen Nam commune only achieved 11 criteria (8 criteria were not met including planning, traffic, facilities, culture, schools, health, environment, political system), and by December 2021, the basic criteria were completed. The new rural construction committee of the hamlets mobilized internal resources from the people, encouraged farmers to donate land, widened the roadside from 4 - 7m, and built drainage ditches. Each household contributed an average of 10 - 15 million VND to upgrade village and hamlet roads, some households invested 70 - 80 million VND/household to concretize traffic. As a result, 100% of commune roads and roads from the commune center, inter-commune roads with a length of 5 km have been asphalted or concreted to meet the technical standards of the Ministry of Transport. Implementing the hardening of 129 intra-field traffic routes with a total length of 39.96 km, convenient for motor vehicles to travel, ensuring good service for production, reaching 100%.

A corner of Hung Yen Nam commune. Photo: GH

According to Mr. Hoang Duc An - Party Secretary of Hung Yen Nam commune: Besides receiving the attention and support of the District Party Committee and the District People's Committee with "stimulus" policies (For example, building each cultural house costs an average of 800 - 900 million VND, the commune and district issue a support mechanism of 1/3), the biggest gain in building new rural areas is "people's hearts", the trust of the people in the Party Committee and government.

Thanks to that, not only the strength of the local people was mobilized, but also the generosity of the children who had succeeded far from home was mobilized. For example, a business in Da Nang city, who is a son of the homeland, supported more than 4 billion VND to install a clean water system for the hamlets, or citizens like Mr. Thuc and Mr. Thien in the Dong Son Parish area supported more than 300 million VND for the commune to fill the land to widen the traffic roads. Or like in front of the commune People's Committee headquarters, there used to be a deep trench of 10m wide, the government mobilized children with motorbikes in the commune to transport more than 1,200 m2 of land to fill, then the women's association and the farmers' association planted flowers to create a green - clean - beautiful administrative center landscape...

The picture of innovation

In addition to the change in infrastructure, what is easily seen when coming to Hung Yen Nam commune is the strong change in the economic development thinking of the Party Committee, the government and the people. The Party Committee, the Government, the Fatherland Front and the mass organizations regularly pay attention and focus on directing the people to promote economic development, mobilizing people to exploit the advantages of the semi-mountainous land, focusing on converting the crop structure towards commodity production, increasing income for the people. Many hamlets have proactively built many models of combined agriculture and forestry with high economic efficiency. Promote the development of hill garden economy, farm economy with the model of raising semi-grazed hill chickens, raising hybrid goats, raising soft-shell turtles, and raising snails.

Hung Yen Nam commune has formed a lemon production area with a total area of ​​nearly 200 hectares. Photo courtesy of Quang An

In particular, the formation of a lemon production area with a total area of ​​nearly 200 hectares, converting some traditional lemon growing areas to seedless lemon growing, forming a specialized peach growing area of ​​more than 30 hectares, a model of intensive custard apple growing, building many model gardens and model fields to create large commodity production areas; bringing Xa Doai oranges, pear guavas, Thai jackfruits to grow on hilly garden land with high efficiency; converting some high-quality rice fields to grow high-quality sweet potatoes... Thanks to that, the poverty rate in the whole commune in 2016 was 13.37% and by 2021 it was 2.09%.

People come to transact at the one-stop shop of Hung Yen Nam commune. Photo: GH

Coming to Hung Yen Nam commune today, we can see the appearance of the new rural area starting to take shape. Meeting Mr. Le Ngoc Phuc (75 years old), residing in Hamlet 3, Hung Yen Nam commune, going to do paperwork at the One-Stop Department of the Commune People's Committee, he excitedly said: "Just a few years ago, my hometown had many difficulties, livelihoods depended on fields and hills, only hoping to have enough to eat, enough to wear, not thinking about beautifying or getting rich. Now the appearance of my hometown has changed unexpectedly.

The lives of people in Hung Yen Nam have improved both materially and spiritually. Photo: CSCC

The commune headquarters and the hamlet cultural house were built spaciously, the muddy dirt roads in the rainy season and dusty in the dry season were replaced by wide concrete roads connecting the hamlets, with electricity at night. People are more conscious of maintaining environmental hygiene, security and order. The working style of officials and civil servants is also more civilized and polite, the one-stop shop enthusiastically guides the people, the people are very excited.

Gia Huy