(HBO) – As an agriculture-based commune, Toan Son (Da Bac district) has no part-time jobs so local residents has faced difficulties in their livelihoods. As part of efforts to help poor and near-poor households get access to soft loans to develop production, the board for hunger alleviation and poverty reduction has joined hands with the local Bank for Social Policies to mobilise and use the capital effectively. Thanks to the preferential loans, hundreds of ethnic groups are able to develop production and farming to sustainably escape poverty.
Photo:
The soft loan provided by the Bank for Social Policies helps Ly Trung Binh’s
household in Ranh hamlet, Toan Son commune develop production and stabilize the
life.
Earlier, the family of Duong Thi Quyet and Ly Trung Binh in Ranh hamlet, Toan
Son commune, was a poor household and they did not have sufficient capital for
production development. Poverty clung to the family like a leech when all five
members relied on a sugarcane field and a small grove of arrowroots. The family
once lived in a low-roofed cottage. The couple then decided to borrow 30
million VND in 2013 to plant wattle and purchase two cows. They bought
materials and fertilisers to take care of the sugarcane field and arrowroot grove.
In 2016, the family was enabled to borrow an additional 25 million VND from a housing
programme. Together with support from relatives, they built a
100 square metrehouse with a total cost of 120 million VND.
Binh said "My family is grateful to the Bank for Social Policies for the loans.
When settling down to married life, we faced a series of difficulties. Thanks
to the preferential loans, we gradually overcame challenges. In the next two
years when we harvest the wattle forest, we will pay the bank debts and escape
poverty sustainably”.
Trieu Thi Thuy, an official of the board for hunger alleviation and poverty
reduction, said that Toan Son commune is currently home to over 600 households
with 2,439 people, 50 percent of them are Dao ethnic minorities. The commune’s
nine saving and lending groups have implemented 11 preferential credit
programmes for over 400 households with total outstanding debts of 15 billion
VND. The loans have been used to expand production, build houses and construct
waterworks.
Soft loans, agricultural encouragement activities, training workshops and
science and technology transfer have helped hundreds of households in the
commune get rid of poverty. To date, the
poverty and near-poor rates in the commune drop to 48 percent and 20 percent,
respectively, with per capita income reaches 21 million VND./.
The National Science and Engineering Fair for secondary and high school students was held at Ton Duc Thang University in Ho Chi Minh City from March 19-21 by the Ministry of Education and Training.
As women's participation in key leadership positions of Hoa Binh province is still modest while some women in rural and mountainous areas or from ethnic minorities face limited access to policies, the provincial Party Committee's Organisation Board has advised the provincial Party Committee's Standing Board to direct Party committees at all levels and localities to pay more attention to training female personnel and creating favourable conditions for women to take over leadership and management roles, thus addressing a shortage in the number of female cadres.
The Department of Education and Training of Hoa Binh province held a conference on March 18 to review the performance of the "Safe and Happy School" Project and set out tasks for 2025. The project, funded by the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families (TFCF), aims to create a safe, inclusive, and supportive learning environment for students. The event saw the attendance of representatives from the TFCF and 26 beneficiary schools.
With over 70% of their workers being women, trade unions across industrial parks (IPs) in Hoa Binh have been actively safeguarding their legal rights and interests while implementing initiatives to improve their income and well-being.
In recent years, the Hoa Binh provincial General Hospital has continuously innovated itself and improved the quality of medical services to meet the increasing needs of local people. With substantial investments in infrastructure and modern equipment, along with a team of highly qualified doctors and nurses, the hospital has gradually established itself as one of the leading medical units in the Northwestern region and a trusted destination for healthcare for people inside and outside the province.
From mastering the fundamentals of programming to achieving national recognition, the Programming Club of the Le Van Tam Primary School (STAR LVT28) in Hoa Binh city has made remarkable strides in the field of robotics.
