“Kind people, kind deeds” in the fishing village

In Yen Dinh block, Nghi Thuy ward (Cua Lo town), people are familiar with the image of the "prisoner" Phung Ba Huynh (born in 1963), silently and diligently doing volunteer work for the community, especially environmental sanitation work.

His house is right next to the market and Nghi Thuy fishing wharf. Whenever he has free time, early in the morning or late in the afternoon, he works hard to collect trash, pick up trash, and keep the environment green, clean, and beautiful. Especially when the water is high and trash from all over flows in, the "trash carriers" of Yen Dinh block often row a boat along the river to collect trash and bring it to shore.

His beautiful images and kind deeds were recorded by officials and people and posted many times on the Nghi Thuy Fishing Village and Nghi Thuy Propaganda pages, creating a spread in the community, attracting many comments expressing admiration such as "the official speaks with his hands", "truly an exemplary official, a son of Nghi Thuy fishing village, truly wonderful...".

Born and raised in the coastal area downstream of the Cam River, Yen Dinh Block Chief Phung Ba Huynh has a stocky build, brown skin, and a hearty voice. Talking about his work, he humbly shared, “These are just normal, small actions with the desire to contribute to making the streets and residential areas cleaner and more beautiful.”

Previously, the Nghi Thuy market and fishing wharf area was a place where a lot of garbage was concentrated, especially after trading activities. Since 2017, when he was still the Head of the Yen Dinh Farmers' Association, Mr. Huynh has been interested in environmental sanitation issues.

He volunteered to work as a security guard for the block to coordinate with the executive committee and other forces to propagate and remind, and combine with punishment for littering and littering. Thanks to that, people's awareness is increasingly raised.

When he was elected as the block leader by the people, Mr. Phung Ba Huynh paid more attention to the work of preserving the common landscape. He and the block executive committee and the Youth Union at all levels called on and mobilized people to clean up and renovate the garbage dumps that caused pollution, turning them into playgrounds and training grounds; called for funding to build volleyball courts and badminton courts; installed electric lighting, designed swings and slides for children to play.

Currently, this area has become a place for physical activities, sports and entertainment for local people. Taking us around Yen Dinh block, Mr. Phung Ba Huynh happily added that the row of trees (estimated at more than 50 trees) along the fishing wharf road and in the block's cultural house area were planted and cared for by Mr. Huynh and Mr. Phung Ba Trung, also a citizen in the block, who spent their own money and called on some households to support them. They are now green and lush, providing shade and contributing to beautifying the landscape.

Not only devoted to the people and the block, Mr. Phung Ba Huynh is also a typical example of good economic performance with a model of processing, trading and selling seafood products. His family has a fish sauce making profession that has been passed down through 3-4 generations, creating jobs for 2 regular workers and many seasonal workers with an income of 5-7 million VND.

The "prisoner" of Yen Dinh block shared: A stable economy also helps me have the conditions to support common movement activities, closely associated with people's work and block work.

In 2024, Mr. Phung Ba Huynh and the Yen Dinh Bloc Executive Committee propagated and mobilized people to implement the project of building a closed ditch and pouring concrete on a 270m long road.

In addition to the money for cement, sand, and gravel from the ward's source, each household in Yen Dinh block contributed 4 million VND. Block leader Phung Ba Huynh took the lead in donating land, retreating more than 7m.²at the old house left by my grandparents, now being used as a church to widen the road. Since then, many people in Yen Dinh block have voluntarily moved back the fence to make the road clear and the sidewalk airy.

Typically, Mr. Phung Ba Trung's family voluntarily donated land for 2 houses (1 house donated 7m²Land and 1 house are being used by son and wife, donating 9m²) to widen the road.

Mr. Trung is currently a security guard at Nghi Thuy Ward Credit Fund and has been recognized many times on Nghi Thuy Ward's propaganda channels for his environmental actions. There were times when, at 4am, when it was still dark, people got up to exercise and caught him alone quietly cutting grass, cleaning up trash, and picking up scattered rocks in public areas.

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Everyone wants to do something big, but I think life is made up of small things. Joining hands for a green - clean - beautiful environment is a small but meaningful act, contributing to a cleaner and more beautiful homeland and village.

Mr. Phung Ba Trung

Keeping the environment clean for people like Mr. Phung Ba Trung seems to not only be ingrained in their consciousness but also become a natural reflex. Many people jokingly call him “the nemesis of trash”. At first, some people thought he was crazy, but over time, many people understood, respected and supported the community work of people like him.

Mr. Hoang Van Hai - Secretary of Nghi Thuy Ward Party Committee shared: During his lifetime, President Ho Chi Minh paid great attention to setting an example. He said, "A living example is worth more than a hundred propaganda speeches."

Therefore, simple examples of "doing good work, living a good life" like Mr. Phung Ba Huynh and Mr. Phung Ba Trung are very valuable and need to be replicated.

If everyone voluntarily keeps the environment clean and has the awareness to join hands to beautify the streets like you, Nghi Thuy ward will soon become an attractive tourist destination, a green - clean - beautiful - civilized urban area".

Nghi Thuy Ward is located in the North of Cua Lo town, with an area of ​​180.75 hectares, divided into 6 residential areas; population of more than 9,500 people, is a ward with diverse economic sectors: Trade, tourism services, small-scale industry, seafood exploitation and processing...

In order to gradually form and develop the urban area to meet the needs of diversifying tourism and service types, the Party Committee, government and political system of Nghi Thuy ward pay great attention to the work of "people's mobilization", creating consensus between "Party's will - people's heart" but not implementing it in a general, scattered manner, but focusing on specific works and tasks that are close to actual conditions, bringing benefits to the community.

For example, recently (June 11), the Party Committee and the government of Nghi Thuy ward started to build and renovate the ownerless graves of local people. According to research since 1999, during the construction of Cua Lo port, Nghi Thuy Secondary School and other infrastructures, the People's Committee of Nghi Thuy ward has collected nearly 500 ownerless graves in the ward and brought them to Cua Lo town cemetery. Up to now, this area has been buried by sand and weeds.

The graves have sunk, tilted, covered with moss, rotten and broken... looking very pitiful. Therefore, the Party Committee, the government and the Fatherland Front Committee of the ward call for the cooperation and support of all people and kind-hearted people to restore the graves to be more spacious and clean so that they can rest in peace in eternity.

Before starting the implementation, the Steering Committee for Restoring Unclaimed Graves held an open meeting to publicly solicit opinions on the plan, planning, design, and construction budget estimate for unified implementation.

According to the ward leaders, this is a "project of the people's hearts and strength", because right after the appeal of the Fatherland Front of the ward, many groups and individuals donated and supported this meaningful work. To date, the Campaign Committee has received 776 million VND in donations/estimated at nearly 850 million VND.

Typically, the family of Mr. and Mrs. Hoang Nhat An, Trinh Thi Hien and their children donated 55 million VND. Or the Bodhisattva Guanyin Charity Club of Nghi Tan ward, Cua Lo town connected with donors to donate and support 71 million VND given right at the groundbreaking ceremony to renovate an ownerless grave in Nghi Thuy ward.

Promoting the advantages of the area with fishing villages, ancient village wells, markets, fishing ports, many historical relics and festivals such as the Yen Luong Temple Traditional Festival which has just been announced as a National Intangible Heritage; Mai Bang Temple Festival...

To realize the dream of turning Nghi Thuy ward into a destination for sightseeing, experiencing and discovering the cultural features of coastal people, officials in the Nghi Thuy ward political system have "gone to every alley, knocked on every door, checked every route" to launch a campaign to seal open ditches, patch up rough roads, and build synchronous, open, clean and beautiful traffic.

Many blocks have mobilized people to build concrete roads, electric lighting lines, flag lines, electric lighting lines, house number plates, etc., creating a vibrant urban beautification emulation movement at the grassroots level.

Typically, the Dong Tien block mobilized people to build and decorate a 429m long, 3.8m wide road with a total budget of 188 million VND contributed by 40 households. This block was also chosen to implement a smart mass mobilization model at the town level, building a model residential area in alley 4A, Pham Huy street with a length of 270m, 29 households participated.

Binh Minh Bloc mobilized people to build and install 24 lighting poles, flags, and 4 decorative clusters on Le Thi Bach Cat Street with a length of 510m, a width of over 6m, and a cost of over 40 million VND. In addition, the Bloc also completed the construction of a closed sanitary facility, a stage, poured concrete for the yard, painted and repaired the fence, and decorated the gate of the cultural house with a total cost of over 95 million VND...

With great determination, the entire political system in Nghi Thuy ward has joined hands to organize the clearance of traffic safety corridors, urban beautification, propaganda, and mobilization of people on Binh Minh, Pham Huy, Nguyen Xi, Cao Huy Tuan streets... to install lighting, decorative lights, standard and hygienic trash cans, trim trees, and paint fences.

At the same time, clean up the environment of residential areas, public areas, beach areas, coordinate to plant 1,000 pots of sea daisies, plant rows of Bauhinia flowers in front of the primary school gate; mobilize people in the ward, children of Nghi Thuy ward who are working in the country and abroad to contribute to the construction and restoration of historical and cultural relics to serve spiritual and cultural activities, build check-in points... create landscape highlights with a total value of over 1.5 billion VND.

Many families have proactively repaired fences, widened gates, and donated land to make roads wider and more open. Many blocks have proactively sealed off ditches, turning abandoned and polluted areas into playgrounds for sports and community cultural activities.

Promoting the role of setting an example, organizations and unions in the political system also chose to implement specific and practical tasks such as the Fatherland Front with a model of mobilizing people to buy nearly 100 trash cans with lids, install 285 house number plates, 15 security cameras on the main roads; build 6 beautiful and civilized road sections and alleys.

Fisheries Association with the model of collecting solid waste from the sea to the shore" and the movement "Keep scrap, do not discharge into the sea, exchange it on shore for money, support the poor".

The Farmers’ Association has a model of giving national flags and life jackets to fishing boats with high productivity to encourage fishermen to actively go out to sea and stick to the sea. Each fishing boat going out to sea flies the red flag with yellow star as a “living milestone” to affirm the sovereignty of the sacred sea and islands of the Fatherland.

The above meaningful works and projects are regularly and promptly commended and promoted by Party committees, authorities and organizations in the political system on social media channels, thereby spreading and multiplying the examples of "kind people, kind deeds" in the community.

Gia Huy