(HBO) - The women in Mai Chau have been promoting the role in conserving and preserving the national cultural identity, contributing to diversify forms of gathering and attracting members. Thereby, improving the quality of the union’s staff is one of the practical and effective solutions that Mai Chau District’s Women's Union has paid attention to in recent years.


The female members in Na Phon commune (Mai Chau) are holding a thematic activity on the subject "The role of women in conserving and preserving the cultural values of the nation”. 

The thematic activity "The role of women in conserving and preserving the cultural values of the nation” at the Women's Union in Xam Pa hamlet, Na Phon commune, the artists were invited to teach Khap (one of the folk singing) written and spoken language of Thai ethnic people; learning about poetry, folk songs, proverbs of some ethnic minorities and folk games; discussing and exchanging about maintaining the traditionla embroidery and brocade weavin, especially consolidating and maintaining the activities of the club "Preserving and promoting the traditional cultural values” at the branch... This is a practical activity to encourage and motivate the officials and the female members to participate in preserving the traditional cultural values of the ethnic minorities of the Women's Union in Mai Chau district. The event attracted the attention and the participation of the officials and the female members, arousing the pride and the national self-respect in the officials and the female members, gradually developing it into a tourism product, contributing to the successful implementation of Resolution No. 15, on January 10, 2020 of the Board of Directors of Mai Chau District’s Party Committee on preserving the ethnic cultural identities associated with tourism development in the district in the period of 2020 - 2025 and vision to 2030. 

Mr. Ha Minh Huan, the Chairman of the district’s Women's Union said: Mai Chau district’s Women's Union currently has 17 associations, with 139 branches, including 2 branches belonging the the office block with over 11,000 members. As a district with many ethnic minorities living together, making the district become one of the localities where ethnic cultures converge. This is also a favorable condition for the Women's Unions at the district’s levels to promote the role of women as masters to preserve the national cultural identity, and at the same time it has been chosen as the key content to deploy the diverse solutions of forms of gathering, attracting the members. 

Mr. Ha Minh Huan added: Mai Chau is a locality determined to be built into a national tourism destination by the province. Implementing the resolutions of the Provincial Party Committee, the District’s Party Committee, the project of the Provincial People's Committee, the plan of the District’s People's Committee, the District’s Women's Union has actively developed a plan to coordinate with the specialized departments of the district to mobilize the resources and integrate the programs and projects supporting the female members; strengthening the coordination with the relevant sectors and organizations to deploy activities to the groups and the target groups of women; strengthening the socialization, exploiting resources to focus on supporting grassroots, especially those in the remote and isolated areas, the groups of women having difficulties. In 5 years, the Union at all levels has coordinated to organize 250 short-term vocational training classes for 1,444 turns of female members to learn cooking, the spoken and written language, learn English, and train to improve the capacity of community tourism activities and collective economic management. Thanks to that, the female members have boldly started the business of community tourism, participating in the management in the cooperatives and craft villages. Typical examples are Thuan Hoa social protection facility, Chieng Chau brocade cooperative (Chieng Chau commune), the brocade craft village of Na Phon commune; the manual sewing establishment in Tong Dau commune, a traditional brocade weaving village of Mong ethnic group, maintaining beeswax painting in Pa Co commune. 

The women are dynamic, creative, actively connecting with the domestic travel companies to build tours and travel services; they have been researching, designing and creating a variety of brocade products to serve the domestic needs and export to Europe, Australia, America and Southeast Asia. Thereby, it has been creating stable jobs for 300 female members with an income of 4 - 4.5 million VND a month. Especially, Thuan Hoa Social Protection Facility has taken care of, trained and created jobs for 40 disabled women. In addition, it helps thousands of female members throughout the district to embroider, weave in their spare time, participating in the cultural performances to increase their income, improving their lives, and helping 194 women get out of poverty.

 

In addition, the Union at all levels has propagated and mobilized the female members to actively participate in the program "One Commune One Product”, maintaining embroidery, brocade weaving, and tourism service activities, contributing to the successful construction of OCOP, which has been evaluated and classified: hand-woven brocade; homestay tourism services in Lac village, Lau Sieu wine... Especially, to contribute to the development of community tourism in the district, the district’s Women's Union has launched a movement to wear traditional costumes. The goal is to develop the traditional costumes into a tourism product, bringing benefits and income for the women themselves. Up to now, in addition to female members, the women, the female employees - workers voluntarily wear the traditional costumes on holidays, Tet and important events of the locality and at the establishments; women still wear the traditional clothes to the office every Monday or Thursday… By the end of the term, the membership growth rate of the Association reached over 6.7%; the membership attraction rate was over 67%, there was no branch with the member attraction rate of below 50%.


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