Village heads and elders have a strong voice in ethnic communities. Photo nhandan.vn

THỪA THIÊN-HUẾ — Village heads and elders from ethnic groups in Thừa Thiên-Huế Province are being used as role models to help the community.

Authorities in the central province are encouraging these prestigious figures to guide poor people in the region to lift themselves out of poverty.

The province’s Standing Party Committee last month launched a campaign “Parentage, village without poor families” in which village heads and elderly are given key roles in promoting poverty reduction activities.

Hồ Văn Hạnh, a village head in Lê Triêng Village, Hồng Trung Commune, A Lưới District said that he is honoured to be considered one of the most prestigious people in the Pa Cô Community.

He was also the first person who successfully grew rice and then instructed other villagers to do the same.

“To convince villagers, I have to exercise what I tell them first,” Hạnh said, adding that villagers would trust and follow only when they saw practical and effective results.

Hạnh visited every single household in the village, telling people about the campaign, giving them guidance and learn about their desires and difficulties.

Hồ Thị Hợp, a resident in A Ngo Commune, A Lưới District said that almost all households in her neighbourhood had farming land but they did not know which crops to grow and which animal to raise.

They just raise few chickens and pigs, Hợp said, adding that some villagers even believed that if they grew rice or rubber, they would be punished by God.

Other villagers preferred to do nothing and relied on Government support, Hợp said.

Commune authorities and agriculture promotion officials had in the past tried to instruct them about proper farming techniques but failed.

Changes in their thinking and actions are crucial and the authorities discovered the local people will be more likely to change their ways if they are advised by the village elders

Secretary of the A Lưới District Party Committee, Huỳnh Công Quảng, said the local government regularly met and listened to village elders, village leaders, and prestigious people.

They participated and contributed to socio-economic development and poverty reduction in the locality, Quảng said.

About 77 per cent of the population in A Lưới District are from ethnic groups. The district has the highest poverty rate in Thừa Thiên-Huế Province and among the poorest districts in Việt Nam.

The aim is to reduce the rate of poor households according to the multidimensional poverty line to less than 12 per cent by 2025.

Quảng is confident that with the support of village heads, poverty reduction efforts would produce fruitful results.

He said these people help bridge the gap between the authorities and the community, contributing to socio-economic development and building a clean and strong Party and political system, he said.

Phan Ngọc Thọ, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, head of the province’s Steering Committee for Sustainable Poverty Reduction said that through the campaign, the Provincial Party Committee wanted the authorities and people of the mountainous border district of A Lưới to unite and raise awareness of sustainable poverty reduction in a more active and effective way.

The campaign was expected to spread to all areas of the province, contributing to promoting the movement of hunger eradication and poverty reduction to achieve remarkable progress, Thọ said.

The Provincial Party Committee directed the Party committees, local authorities and the political system in the province, especially in the two mountainous districts of Nam Đồng and A Lưới, to strengthen community supervision through the elderly and village heads that have great prestige in ethnic groups.

The village elders, village chiefs and reputable people must set an example in each specific job, propagating, encouraging and reminding descendants of the clans and villages to thrive and improve their lives, Thọ said.

“Mechanisms, policies and resources are available, the matter is how to implement and how to change people's awareness in sustainable poverty reduction,” he added.  VNS