(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./.
With an allocation of 44 billion VND (1.72 million USD) under the national target programme on socio-economic development in the ethnic minority-inhabited and mountainous areas for the 2021-2025 period, Hoa Binh city has invested in the target areas, creating many changes in the living conditions of local ethnic minority communities.
The social security system at all levels in Hoa Binh province has been making concerted efforts to ensure benefits of citizens and workers when they participate in social insurance and health insurance.
With the motto "for the interests of the union members and employees”, in 2024, Tan Lac District’sLabor Federation has implemented many activities towards the grassroots. They have been paying attention and protecting the legitimate and the legal rights of the union members, employees, the civil servants, and laborers, which has been contributing to motivating and encouraging the spirit of the union members and the laborers to enthusiastically compete in labor production, actively contributing to the development of the agencies, units and enterprises.
On December 23, the Department of Education and Training held a meeting to encourage the selected team participating in the national high school excellent student competition for the school year of 2024-2025. There was the attendance of Mr. Nguyen Van Chuong, the Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.
