Coastal commune in Nghe An uses social networks to propagate the law to fishermen

Peace "on the dock, on the boat"

Returning from a half-month long sea trip, Mr. Truong Quang Vinh, residing in Dong Tam village, Quynh Lap commune - owner of fishing boat NA.93968 and 12 crew members were visited by leaders of the Commune Farmers' Association and Quynh Phuong Border Guard Station on the boat to inquire about the exploitation situation, propagate compliance with the Fisheries Law and forecast fishing grounds for trawl fishing, areas with high exploitation potential in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin, Central Vietnam and Hoang Sa archipelago...

Officials of the Farmers' Association of Quynh Lap Commune and the Quynh Phuong Border Guard Station disseminate regulations on fishing at sea to fishermen. Photo: GH

Talking to us, Mr. Vinh happily said: "Although I often have to go to sea far from home, the crew members and I still update the news through the commune's electronic information page, the Facebook and YouTube pages of the Party Committee, People's Council, People's Committee of the commune, and organizations and unions such as the Farmers' Association, Fisheries Association....".

Mr. Vinh's boat is also one of the first to comply with the installation of voyage monitoring equipment. Mr. Le Ba Ky - Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Quynh Lap commune said: "Currently, the whole commune has more than 150 fishing boats of all kinds, of which 140 have a capacity from 90 CV to 1,000 CV. Thanks to the good propaganda work, Quynh Lap has 37 boats installed with voyage monitoring equipment, and 7 are preparing to install; 17 joint groups at sea have been established, each group has 6 - 10 boats to support each other in business. In general, fishermen comply well with the Fisheries Law and regulations on fishing at sea.

Fishermen in Quynh Lap read leaflets about the law right on the boat. Photo: GH

Not only paying attention to updating legal policies for fishermen, from the reality that there are limitations in the area related to environmental pollution, gambling, child marriage, encroachment on traffic safety corridors... Quynh Lap commune also pays attention to direct mobile propaganda work in key areas. This is one of the solutions to concretize Project 06/DA-DU of the Commune Party Committee on innovation and improvement of the quality of political and ideological education, propaganda, and dissemination of laws in conjunction with mass mobilization work.

Mr. Vuong Dai Tuong - Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Quynh Lap commune said: "Direct, outdoor mobile propaganda activities using PowerPoint presentations, concise content, with images and videos for people to easily understand and remember, integrating games, questions related to traffic safety, the Law on Fisheries, social evils, environmental sanitation... carried out in Tan Minh, Dong Minh, Dong Thanh villages (Dong Hoi Industrial Park) always attract a large number of people to participate".

Quynh Lap Commune Party Committee officials update new information on the local website (photo above); Quynh Lap fishermen follow the news via social networks right on the boat (photo below). Photo: GH

In addition, the commune also promotes propaganda on its own local electronic information page with full sections from Party building to administrative reform, security bulletins, event news...; the amount of news and articles is updated regularly, comprehensively reflecting the issues taking place in the area. Thereby helping people to promptly update new policies, documents as well as issues taking place in daily life. For example, when property theft crimes in the fishing port area in the town in general, Quynh Lap commune in particular, have complicated developments.

Typically, on June 20, 2019, thieves broke into a fishing boat anchored at the fishing port in Dong Tien village and stole 42 ballasts, 20 kg of lead and 3 batteries worth about 45,000,000 VND. Quynh Lap Commune Police announced the situation on the commune's website and asked the public, especially boat owners, to raise their vigilance.

Quynh Lap Commune Party Committee and Hoang Mai Town Police jointly organized training on cyberspace interaction and social network participation for cadres and party members. Photo: document

The Party Committee and the government of Quynh Lap commune have also paid attention to propagating and fighting against bad and toxic information on cyberspace through Facebook of associations and organizations such as the Youth Union, Farmers' Association, Women's Association, Veterans Association and personal Facebook pages of officials and party members.

Project 06 clearly states: “The Party Committee encourages each cadre and party member to be responsible for participating in ideological work on social networks, contributing to encouraging and promoting good things, fighting against and criticizing negative behavior and refuting information that defames the Party and the State, information that is violent and vulgar and goes against the cultural and ethical traditions of the Vietnamese people...”, and at the same time “strictly handling cadres and party members who use personal networks to go against the Party's policies and guidelines and the interests of the people”.

A peaceful corner at Quynh Lap fishing port. Photo: GH

The "battle" to repel child marriage

One of the most pressing issues that the Party Committee and the authorities of Quynh Lap commune are most concerned about is child marriage. The commune has more than 1,700 out of 2,707 households living on fishing and seafood exploitation. People always want their sons to work at sea, so after finishing junior high school, male students often drop out of school to go to sea, and female students are only 16-17 years old and get married early. For example, in 2017, the whole commune had 357 new births, of which 30 cases had mothers aged 16-17, accounting for 8.3%. This is quite an alarming number.

Early marriage leads to many consequences such as poverty, illiteracy, family conflicts, especially seriously affecting the health of mothers and children. However, many families are still not aware of the harmful effects of early marriage, often letting their children live together, have children and then wait until they are old enough to register their marriage. Like the case of NTT from Dong Minh village (born in 2000), but in 2017 she gave birth to a child. In 2018, when she turned 18, the couple registered their marriage to register the birth of their child. OrTr.T.Ng in Quyet Tam village, was born in 1999 but already has 3 children. Because she is so young, she always gives birth prematurely. All 3 babies were born weighing less than 2 kg and had to be cared for and raised with special care.

Through group work, the women's association has participated in effective propaganda on preventing and combating child marriage. Illustrative photo

To prevent and repel this situation, the People's Committee of Quynh Lap commune has issued a separate plan to propagate the prevention and fight against child marriage in the area. Responsibility is assigned to socio-political organizations, especially the women's union and schools to take advantage of social networks to have articles, images with practical examples to propagate and mobilize union members, members and students to strictly comply with the Law on Marriage and Family. Information on legal regulations on penalties for individuals and families organizing child marriages or that emulation titles will not be considered for households with child marriages is also posted on the local website, Facebook page of the union branch in the commune...

The seafaring industry is always in need of labor and that is one of the reasons leading to child marriage. Illustrative photo

Thanks to that, it has contributed to gradually reducing the situation of child marriage in the area. If in 2017 the whole commune had about 30 cases of child marriage, then by 2018 it had decreased to 16 cases and from 2019 to the present time it has decreased to 5 cases. However, according to the leaders of Quynh Lap commune, this is still considered a long-term battle, requiring regular participation and close coordination of the entire political system, especially propaganda work (directly and through social networks) to create a change in awareness for people, especially households with a tradition of going to sea about the consequences of child marriage for family and society...