Living together with livelihood

Over the past year, all levels, sectors and localities in the province have been determined in eliminating temporary and dilapidated houses, along with effective poverty reduction work so that people can not only have a stable home but also have a stable life in the long term.

Districts and communes have been making efforts to eliminate temporary and dilapidated houses , not only relying on State resources but also on socialized resources.

A typical example is Khanh An commune, U Minh district. In 2024, the commune mobilized socialized funding to build 31 houses for poor, near-poor and disadvantaged households in hamlets, with a total amount of more than 1.5 billion VND; implemented the construction of 1 new house and repaired 8 houses under the program of eliminating temporary and dilapidated houses, with a total amount of 300 million VND. In addition, mobilized 5 wheelchairs for social protection beneficiaries, worth 10 million VND.

Mr. Le Tan Nhanh, Hamlet 14, Khanh An Commune, has been a poor household since 2022. He has decided to leave the poor household category in 2024 thanks to the wholehearted support from the Party Committee and People's Committee of Khanh An Commune. He received support of 50 million VND to build a new house sponsored by Ca Mau Trading Company. Mr. Nhanh shared: "This Tet, I will have a spacious house to celebrate Tet, so I am very happy. In addition, I also received additional capital support to grow crops and raise livestock at home. I am excited because I have a house and earn money for myself. Although I am old, but have suitable business conditions from the support and models guided by the commune, I am confident to escape poverty."

Simple models such as growing water spinach and water lilies on dry fields... have helped many families in Khanh An commune escape poverty sustainably.

In addition to eliminating temporary and dilapidated houses, Khanh An commune also strives to reduce poverty sustainably, finding solutions to eliminate poverty from the root. As a result, from 2023-2024, the commune reduced the number of poor households from 72 to 31, accounting for 0.6%, and the number of near-poor households from 34 to 29, accounting for 0.64%. The Party Committee and People's Committee of the commune strive to reduce 50% of poor and near-poor households by 2025.

Mr. Ngo Thanh Phong, Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, said: "The commune will review and classify poor households. For example, for households still of working age, the commune will contact local businesses to support them in applying for jobs locally, or support them in preparing labor profiles to send to the Provincial Employment Center to send to businesses outside the province. If there are relatives in Ho Chi Minh City, we will contact those relatives to ask them to find jobs in Binh Duong or Ho Chi Minh City to help workers. For poor households that are still able to invest in livestock farming and production, the commune will support them with loans from the Social Policy Bank for small-scale livestock farming. For those who are old and weak and cannot work, there is a separate solution of working at home such as raising fish and doing small-scale wholesale."

Farmers in Khanh An commune actively cultivate to improve their lives.

Khanh An Commune in particular, U Minh District in general, is a locality with many positive results in poverty reduction. In 2024, U Minh reduced the poverty rate to 2.7% (in 2023, there were 1,238 poor households, in 2024, there were 723 households). The District People's Committee has implemented many solutions, implemented the National Target Program on sustainable poverty reduction, along with launching a program to eliminate temporary and dilapidated houses. Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee Nguyen Thanh Liem said: "We are implementing the program to eliminate temporary and dilapidated houses in 2 phases. Phase 1 will complete 75 houses in 2024, the rest must be completed by August 2025. At the same time, we also carry out many solutions to help poor and near-poor households have jobs and stable livelihoods from farming and livestock models..., aiming at settling down and stabilizing their lives. Because if you have a house but do not have a job to create an economy , you cannot eliminate poverty sustainably."

Eliminating temporary and dilapidated houses is a major policy of the Party and the State. However, settling down must go hand in hand with finding a job and stabilizing life. As stated by Mr. Nguyen Quoc Thanh, Director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs at the 9-month summary meeting on poverty reduction: “Eliminating temporary and dilapidated houses so that people have a stable place to live is necessary, but knowing how to create a "fishing rod" for poor and near-poor households... to do business and have jobs right in the locality is even more important. Just giving them a decent house is not enough to eliminate poverty. Having a house but the average income does not increase is not called sustainable poverty eradication."

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Thanh also shared his excitement: "After inspecting many localities, I am happy that many places reported the actual situation. Although many districts and communes still have many poor and near-poor households, and even do not meet the set targets, the poor and near-poor households reported to have been eliminated have very stable lives and good incomes, meaning that they have actually eliminated poverty, not achieved any results."

As of mid-December 2024, the whole province still has 4,400 temporary and dilapidated houses, of which 3,463 need to be newly built and 937 need to be repaired, with a total estimated cost of 236 billion VND. Of these, 1,322 are for poor households and 1,566 are for near-poor households. Comrade Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the Provincial People's Council Nguyen Tien Hai affirmed that the elimination of temporary and dilapidated houses needs to be implemented according to the set plan, but it must also be flexible and have specific solutions to reduce poverty and create livelihoods for households with houses. At the same time, it is recommended that localities review and implement the construction and repair of houses for eligible households, ensuring completion before the Lunar New Year 2025./.

Lam Khanh

Source: https://baocamau.vn/an-cu-song-hanh-sinh-ke-a36459.html