(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 emulation movement "Hoa Binh joining hands to build new-style rural areas” has been widely spreading, becoming a driving force that motivates the localities to renew rural landscapes and improve the material and spiritual lives of the residents. In this movement, the people play a central role-both as the main implementers and direct beneficiaries of its outcomes.
In response to the global digital revolution, Hoa Binh Newspaper is transforming itself into a modern and multi-platform media hub, blending cutting-edge technology with a restructured newsroom and a new generation of tech-savvy journalists.
Hoa Binh province’s Association of the Elderly recently held a conference to review the project on expanding the inter-generation self-help club model until 2025.
In a move to implement Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW, issued on December 22, 2024 by the Politburo, which targets breakthroughs in science-technology development, innovation, and digital transformation, the Hoa Binh provincial Department of Health has issued a plan to roll out the "Digital Literacy for All” campaign within the local health sector.
An Nghia Commune (Lạc Sơn District) is one of the communes that achieved the tha standard of the national new rural area in 2018. Entering a new development phase, the commune is now trying to meet the criteria for the advanced new rural development. With the strong political will and the public consensus, the commune is gradually overcoming the challenges to reach this goal, aiming for the sustainable development.
