Settling down and protecting the borderlands.

Motivation to overcome difficulties

From a dilapidated old stilt house where they had to seek shelter during heavy rains and where the biting cold of the east wind blew through, the family of Mr. Lo Van Quan, in Nom village, Chieng Dong commune, Tuan Giao district, now lives comfortably in a warm and spacious home. Without the Solidarity Housing Project, that warm home would have remained an unattainable dream for his family.

Mr. and Mrs. Quan are both 60 years old this year. Due to their children's difficult family circumstances , they have been raising their two grandchildren since they were young. Currently, one is in the second grade and the other in the third grade. They shoulder all the responsibilities of caring for, educating, and covering the children's school expenses, as well as providing for them when they are sick. To support their grandchildren, despite their poor health, they still work diligently in the fields and in the forest every day, gathering bamboo shoots and firewood to sell.

On July 23rd, with support from the Dien Bien Province's housing assistance program for poor households, in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu Victory, Mr. Quan's family began construction of their house. Exactly two months later, on September 23rd, Mr. Quan and his wife moved into their new stilt house amidst the congratulations of their fellow villagers. Mr. Quan shared: "I never dared to dream of having a house like this in my life. When the commune announced that my family would receive 50 million VND in support for building a house under the housing assistance program, I was overjoyed beyond words."

The villagers came to help the couple dismantle their old house. Along with the wood they had accumulated over the years, Mr. Quan boldly borrowed more money from relatives and the Social Policy Bank to complete the house, paving the floor with concrete, cleaning the yard, and installing a slightly wider corrugated iron roof in front of the door to store corn and rice... the total cost was nearly 90 million dong. “Now we can rest assured during rainy and windy weather, and focus on earning money to pay off the debt and raise our two grandchildren well, hoping they won’t suffer like their grandparents did,” Mr. Quan happily added.

Chieng Dong is an important historical site of the Dien Bien Phu Campaign, with Tham Pua Cave, where the forward command post of the General Military Commission was located and the first stop of the Campaign Command Post. Today, Chieng Dong still has 37.24% of households living in poverty , and many houses are not sturdy or safe . Benefiting from the Project, 54 poor households in the commune have received support to build houses under the Solidarity Program.

Mr. Lo Van Hoan, Chairman of the People's Committee of the commune, said: "Each household receiving support this time has its own unique circumstances, but they are all families facing extreme difficulties, unfortunate individuals, single parents, or victims of social evils... With support for housing construction, they have the conditions to stabilize their lives, and many households have shown determination and commitment to improve their lives and escape poverty soon. Among them, some households have proactively submitted applications to be removed from the list of poor households, contributing to a reduction of more than 8% in the number of poor households this year."

With sturdy houses, each family has more motivation to strive for a better life; each commune gradually reduces the rate of poor and near-poor households; the entire district will soon escape from being a poor district, building a more prosperous and developed homeland.

"Pink bricks" hold firm on the border.

Just five months after the simultaneous commencement of the "Great Solidarity" housing program for impoverished households, from lowland villages to remote, isolated areas across Dien Bien province, countless new, sturdy houses have sprung up. These houses brighten up the desolate high mountains, not only boosting the will to strive and motivate people to escape poverty, but also serving as proof of the strong solidarity between ethnic groups, further strengthening the bond between the Party and the people.

The beneficiaries of the Solidarity Housing Project are poor and near-poor households, those living in dilapidated houses, regardless of ethnicity or religion. Of the 5,000 disadvantaged families receiving housing support this time, a significant proportion are religious communities, including many households who previously followed cults, and households of free migrants...

For example, the family of Mr. Vu Nhia Dia, in Huoi Meo village, Muong Muon commune, Muong Cha district. Driven by a desire for a better life, in 2018, Mr. Dia's family, along with 18 other households in the village, naively followed the "Jesus" cult, but their dreams were soon shattered. In 2019, the families abandoned the cult and returned to the mainstream religion. Currently, Mr. Dia's family is a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church of Vietnam.

At 65, Mr. Dia and his wife and children still lived in a makeshift wooden shack with a dilapidated thatched roof. But that was just over three months ago. Today, he beamed as he welcomed us into his new three-room house, with a steel frame, corrugated iron walls, a heat-resistant corrugated iron roof, and a spacious, cement-paved porch with a roof.

Mr. Dia explained: "Before, I didn't understand and followed a false doctrine, but now that I understand, I only listen to and trust the Party and the State. The Party and the State have helped me a lot. This house received 50 million dong in support, I only borrowed an additional 8.5 million dong, the neighbors helped demolish the house, level the ground, and the workers finished the job in a few days."

Then he pointed to the pile of wood in front of the house and added, "My family has saved up nearly 20 logs over the years, intending to use them to repair or build a new house when we have the means. But I still have to support my 16-year-old son and 14-year-old grandson in school, and the rice fields yield little grain. Some years, rats destroy the crop, and we lack food, so I don't know when I'll be able to build a house myself."

Most people in Huoi Meo are religious. Along with Mr. Dia's house, the appearance of Huoi Meo has completely changed, thanks to the newly completed houses with green and red corrugated iron roofs and "three solid" structures. The entire village has 15 houses supported under the Solidarity Housing Project, all of which have been built.

Each house built under the Solidarity Housing Support Project for poor households in Dien Bien province, in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu Victory, was constructed through solidarity and sharing, realizing the dream of a stable home and livelihood for the poor people.

At the same time, it lays solid foundations for national unity, further strengthening the bond between the Party's will and the people's aspirations. This is the basis for successfully completing socio -economic development tasks and ensuring local defense and security. And it opens up a new future for a steadfast western border, as truly reflected in the meaning of the name "Dien Bien".

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