Caring for the lives of ethnic minorities

Re-enactment of Pang A Festival of La Ha ethnic group, Muong La commune.

According to Decision No. 1227/QD-TTg dated July 14, 2021 of the Prime Minister approving the list of ethnic groups facing many difficulties and specific difficulties in the period 2021 - 2025, Son La province has the La Ha ethnic group belonging to the ethnic minority group (EM) that benefits from the policies of Project 9 of the National Target Program on Socio -Economic Development of Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas (Program 1719).

Mr. Sung A Giao, Deputy Director of the Department of Ethnic Minorities and Religions, informed: The La Ha ethnic group in the province currently has nearly 10,000 people, belonging to a very small group. In recent years, the Party and the State have paid attention to investing and supporting development to narrow the gap with other ethnic groups. However, the La Ha people are still a special ethnic minority, facing many difficulties and a high poverty rate. Resources from the 1719 Program have contributed to solving essential needs, helping the people stabilize their lives and gradually develop.

La Ha ethnic people in Chieng La commune received capital support to renovate fish ponds.

Muong La commune has more than 1,000 La Ha ethnic households. The commune People's Committee has focused on reviewing the economic and infrastructure development needs to develop support plans; specialized agencies have propagated and implemented policies for the La Ha people. Notable among them are the La Ha ethnic socio-economic development project for the 2017-2025 period and Program 1719. Thanks to infrastructure investment policies, agricultural and forestry support, preferential loans, policies for prestigious people and free provision of press publications, the material and spiritual life of the La Ha ethnic people has been increasingly improved.

From 2021 to now, with capital from the Central and the province, Muong La commune has supported over 10 billion VND to buy breeding animals, agricultural machinery and equipment and funds to build livestock barns for over 800 households; organized 24 training courses, 4 field trips, and learned experiences in communes in the province on applying technical advances in production, building effective economic models... Thereby, improving knowledge and production capacity for La Ha ethnic household owners. Along with that, the commune focuses on opening training courses for La Ha ethnic cadres on management, cultural expertise, grassroots information, organizing the teaching of La Ha language and maintaining the Pang A Festival...

La Ha ethnic people in Chieng La commune preserve traditional dances.

As one of the prestigious people of Muong La commune, Mr. Lo Van Phuong, La Ha ethnic group is also a pioneer in economic development and escaping poverty. Mr. Phuong shared: With the support of cows, goats and fruit trees from the State, I registered to attend technical training courses, plant and animal care, bringing results higher than expected. Currently, with more than 1 hectare of Taiwanese mango and 30 cows and goats, the family's annual income is more than 150 million VND.

In Chieng La commune, with nearly 600 La Ha households living, to help people improve their lives, the commune has implemented many support policies. Ms. Quang Thi Phuong, Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, said: From 2021 to now, the commune has supported 100% of La Ha ethnic households to move livestock barns away from their residences and build new barns with a total amount of more than 2.2 billion VND; supported more than 1.8 billion VND for 460 households to renovate aquaculture ponds, raise breeding cows; opened training classes, transferred science and technology to nearly 600 people on tree planting techniques, grafting, composting organic fertilizers... From this support, people have applied scientific and technical advances to production, many models of cultivation and livestock have been formed, bringing economic efficiency.

La Ha ethnic people in Ngoc Chien commune participate in the New Rice Festival.

From the capital of Program 1719, Chieng La commune has also invested in building a concrete road to Song village, 3.3 km long, with a total cost of 7.7 billion VND, meeting the needs of people traveling and exchanging goods. Ms. Lo Thi Loan, Song village, Chieng La commune, said: Since the road was concreted and widened to 4 m, traveling has been more convenient, agricultural products have been sold at a higher price; traveling at night or during the rainy season has been safer.

Currently, the La Ha ethnic group lives in 42 villages in 9 communes in the province. To gradually help the La Ha ethnic group escape poverty and improve their material and spiritual life, the province has issued many policies to support the socio-economic development of the La Ha ethnic group. In particular, implementing Program 1719, the province has allocated over 60 billion VND, of which over 29 billion VND is public capital, to support the La Ha ethnic group in developing production and livestock; supporting La Ha ethnic group students; training to improve production capacity. Along with that, preserving and promoting traditional cultural values, maintaining La Ha language classes for the ethnic group...

Thanks to appropriate support policies and the promotion of people's internal strength, the material and spiritual life of the La Ha people in Son La has improved significantly. People have gradually changed their production mindset, united, preserved and promoted cultural identity, contributing to narrowing the development gap between ethnic groups in the province.

Source: https://baosonla.vn/xa-hoi/cham-lo-doi-song-dong-bao-dan-toc-thieu-so-it-nguoi-lgPYrNzvR.html