“Extended arm” of the population sector

Staff of the Population and Family Planning Department (Ba Che District Health Center) communicates population and family planning work to ethnic minorities in the area.

Success through understanding

As a San Chi ethnic person, born and raised in the mountainous district of Ba Che, Ms. La Thi Thuong (born in 1991), a population collaborator in Khe Lo village, Thanh Son commune, always understands the difficulties and hardships of ethnic minorities here. Because people mainly practice agriculture, slash-and-burn farming, their thinking is still backward, they do not have the conditions to care for their health, and have many children, leading to a poor and difficult life.

With the advantage of being a local, having been involved in population work for 11 years, and participating in village and hamlet health work, Ms. Thuong went to each household to propagate and mobilize people to change their thinking about having children.

Ms. La Thi Thuong promotes ways to care for and improve nutrition for mothers and children in the area.

Ms. Thuong shared: Because the people still hold the backward concept that having many children means having more wealth, having children to work in the fields, working on the fields, they are afraid and often avoid when population collaborators come to their homes to mobilize. Moreover, people work from early morning until late at night in the fields, so it is difficult for population workers to approach. Many times I had to travel a long way to the fields where people work to propagate. I thought, if I gave up, people would remain poor and hungry, children would not be able to go to school. So I persevered, not afraid of difficulties, wherever I met, I encouraged everyone to go to the commune health station for health check-ups and to implement contraceptive measures. As for contraceptive measures, I brought them to their homes and gave detailed instructions on how to use them.

Thanks to Ms. Thuong's dedication and enthusiasm, now the ethnic minorities in Khe Lo village, Thanh Son commune have progressive thinking, do not have too many children, and know how to use safe contraceptive methods. In the process of supporting the people, Ms. Thuong also made a list to monitor how each person uses contraceptive methods. For families with only one child, or those with the idea of ​​​​discriminating between boys and girls, she often goes to propagate so that everyone understands and avoids unwanted pregnancies. In addition, she also takes advantage of the weekend to go to each family to disseminate the new policies of the Party and State on population policy; expanded vaccination schedule, regular prenatal check-ups for pregnant women; ways to take care of children to ensure health and nutrition...

Ethnic minorities in Ba Che district enthusiastically participate in propaganda sessions on reproductive health and family planning.

Ms. Thuong added: Thanks to the development of technology, people now have a better understanding of population and family planning. Many couples through the media and information have had progressive awareness, so it is easier for us to propagate. They realize that having too many children, having children close together is not good for both mother and child, especially it will make it more difficult for the family's economic development, so they come to me for guidance, ask for birth control pills, or register for reproductive health check-ups to protect their health.

Ms. Pham Thi Tam, a population collaborator, promotes gender imbalance at birth for ethnic minority women in the area.

In Binh Son village (Dong Ngu commune, Tien Yen district), Ms. Pham Thi Tam (born in 1969) has been a population collaborator since 2000, for 25 years now. Being close to the area, understanding each family, and understanding each situation has helped Ms. Tam gain more experience so that people can trust her more and more. Ms. Tam said that at first, she also encountered many difficulties because she had no experience, especially traveling through muddy roads which was very difficult. People's awareness of population and family planning is still very limited, the idea of ​​"having a son to continue the family line" still exists, so she has to find many ways to propagate appropriately to each target group.

Taking advantage of the afternoon or evening, Ms. Tam visits each family in difficult circumstances due to having many children, or couples who have only one child, to talk, consult, and encourage them not to have many children, not to choose the gender of the fetus at birth to ensure good care and upbringing of their children. "Slow and steady wins the race", gradually, the couples understand and change their perception.

Ms. Tam said: To do a good job, first of all, I have to understand and grasp the work I do. In addition to participating in training sessions of the district, I also regularly research and learn about population knowledge through newspapers, especially the Internet. Propaganda does not happen overnight, many families do not agree right away. But when people trust me, every time the propaganda is effective, I am happy because my efforts have been rewarded properly, so I love my job even more.

Ms. Pham Thi Tam promotes improved nutrition for mothers and children.

Although the workload is high and the allowance for collaborators is low, Ms. Tam does not neglect her work. Having experienced many joys and sorrows of the job of "carrying prison and communal goods", Ms. Tam now has a firm grasp of the population situation, as well as the family circumstances of each household in the area under her responsibility. She updates population data completely, accurately and regularly.

Ms. Ni Tai Mui (Binh Son village) shared: Ms. Tam is very enthusiastic, whenever we need her, she comes right away. My husband and I already have 2 sons, and we also wanted to have another daughter to have both a son and a daughter, but Ms. Tam came to persuade us, saying that our economic life was not stable yet, so we should raise our 2 children well first, and then think about having more children later. So now I have no intention of having more children, I want to have a few children so that we can work and develop the family economy.

With the experience accumulated over a long period of time, Ms. Tam believes that the propaganda about population work must be done with heart and soul, skillfully and delicately, so that not only women understand, but also men understand, and have the responsibility to implement. The propaganda work on knowledge about reproductive health care - family planning is carried out not only at conferences, meetings, through loudspeakers, but also "propagate wherever you meet". The most important thing is to love the job, be passionate about the job to be able to stick with it for a long time.

Dedicated to the community

Mr. Nguyen Cong Than, Head of the Population and Family Planning Department (Ba Che District Health Center) said: Population collaborators are the ones who propagate and mobilize people from ignorance to understanding, then having a positive attitude in protecting their own and their families' health. It can be seen that population collaborators in the district have made an important contribution to changing the population and family planning behavior of target groups in each residential area. Although the work is hard and the allowance is limited, they are not discouraged or give up. Without them, the local population targets would be difficult to achieve.

Provincial Family Planning Association conducts mobile communication on gender equality - family planning in Don Dac commune (Ba Che district).

To complete the task well, in each communication campaign, the team of collaborators must "go to every alley, knock on every door, check every target" to propagate and mobilize people to implement population policies and apply family planning measures. For the propaganda to be effective, each collaborator has to spend a lot of time and effort. In many areas with sparse population and difficult transportation, population collaborators have to work hard to go to the homes of the subjects who need propaganda. In many cases, collaborators have to travel many times to meet, explain, mobilize, and convince the subjects.

Ms. Ta Thi Tam, a population officer of Dong Ngu commune (Tien Yen district) said: Without the close coordination of the population collaborators, I myself would have difficulty completing all the work. The silent contributions of the population collaborators make people's lives better and better, and their quality of life is increasingly improved. They have been attached to population work with dedication, responsibility and a spirit of volunteering to contribute to the community.

Population collaborators of Yen Son village, Duc Yen commune (Dam Ha district) propagate population policy to local people.

According to the provincial Department of Population, the province currently has more than 1,400 population collaborators. Acting as the “extended arms” of the population sector, this team carries out propaganda, mobilization, and consultation on family planning, population and development, provides contraceptives to each household, guides on disease prevention and hygiene, primary health care; collects data, prepares monthly reports on population according to regulations, etc.

Van Anh

Source: https://baoquangninh.vn/canh-tay-noi-dai-cua-nganh-dan-so-3357311.html