About New Year

Coming to Huoi Moi, Tri Le commune (Que Phong), we can see all the hardships and deprivations of the Mong people here. From Kim Son town to Huoi Moi takes 2 journeys. Cars only go to the center of Tri Le commune. To get to Huoi Moi, it takes nearly 20 km of winding and dangerous mountain roads. In the rainy season, the roads are slippery, so people mainly travel on foot. Therefore, each time the population collaborators go to propagate and mobilize people to have planned births, it is very difficult.

Chairman of Tri Le commune - Lo Xuan Thu said: Huoi Moi is mainly inhabited by Mong people whose main income comes from raising livestock and growing upland rice. The fields are half a day's walk from home, so people only return home once a week, and stay at the fields during the harvest season until the harvest is finished.

Before 2005, children dropped out of school to follow their parents to the fields, but in recent years, all children have been able to go to school. Because of this special feature, the "Reproductive Health Care Communication Campaign" in Huoi Moi in particular and Mong Tri Le villages in general have been fraught with difficulties. Many times, while on the way to propagate and provide services, it rained, and the population health workers of Que Phong district had to walk to the place to examine and give medicine to the people.

During harvest season, in Huoi Moi only children stay at home.

The Party Committee and authorities of Tri Le commune, especially the village elders, village chiefs and population collaborators, overcome this by always staying close to the grassroots, contributing to changing the behavior and awareness of the Mong people. Many new forms of propaganda are combined: group activities, propaganda by billboards, posters, distributing leaflets, helping people with farming, while simultaneously integrating propaganda and mobilization so that people understand that having many children is poverty and know how to take care of their own health.

The biggest difficulty in population communication work in Huoi Moi is the limited level of education of the people. The percentage of Huoi Moi women who can read and write the common language can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Besides, transportation is difficult, mainly high mountains and many streams.

Every time they go to do propaganda, the population collaborators have to sleep in the hut to provide media consultation at night and leave the next morning. Many days they go without food to do propaganda and are hungry until the next evening, but they still love their job and silently contribute. Despite the difficulties, the Mong Huoi Moi people have not yet escaped the mindset of "having many children and grandchildren, needing someone to work the fields", so the propaganda work is even more difficult and takes a lot of time.

Tri Le commune has also mobilized departments and branches such as women, youth, farmers... to propagate population work to households, but because many people's awareness is not high, collaborators are enthusiastic but their qualifications are still limited. After finding out, it is known that Huoi Moi population collaborators have never received any professional training. The reason also stems from the difficulty of transportation, the monthly subsidy is not enough to pay for a single trip to Tri Le commune center.

In order for the population/family planning work in Tri Le commune in general and the Mong people in Huoi Moi in particular to have a change and be sustainable, the joint efforts of departments and branches in the district are needed, because this is a difficult area of ​​the mountainous district of Que Phong.

Thu Huong