Story in Pha Den "birthplace"

(Baothanhhoa.vn) - Pha Den village, Pu Nhi commune (Muong Lat) was once called the "birth village" because the birth rate was too high, while the standard of living was too low. However, thanks to the spread of good models and creative ways of doing population and family planning (DS-KHHGĐ), the life of the Mong people in Pha Den village is increasingly stable and developing.

Staff from Muong Lat District Medical Center provide health check-ups for women and children in Pha Den village, Pu Nhi commune. Photo: Tang Thuy

In the past, when mentioning Pha Den village, many people would think of the land of bad customs in weddings, funerals, incestuous marriages, early marriages and the concept of having many children, especially sons to "continue the family line". In addition, the Mong ethnic people here live a self-sufficient life, completely dependent on the forest and slash-and-burn farming. Therefore, every year, people in Pha Den village go hungry for several months. Poverty causes children here to be born stunted, malnourished, and not receive adequate physical and mental care; many children do not go to school.

Faced with that situation, Pha Den village has included population indicators in the village's conventions and regulations and used them as criteria to evaluate and judge the titles of cultural families. Population collaborators in charge of the village "go to every alley, knock on every door" to propagate the Party's policies and the State's laws on population work. Thanks to that, people's awareness of population and family planning has been increasingly raised. Up to now, the village no longer has early marriage and incestuous marriage, 100% of school-age children go to school, many bad customs have been eliminated and implemented according to the new cultural lifestyle.

Ms. Lau Thi Xia is the pioneer in eliminating the concept of having many children and giving birth to boys in Pha Den village. Over 40 years old, she only gave birth to 2 daughters. Most women of the same age as her try to give birth to boys, some even have 5-6 children and still want to give birth again. According to Ms. Xia, her husband always wanted to have a son in the family to "continue the family line". However, with the propaganda of medical staff and the Women's Union of the commune, Ms. Xia and her husband changed their thinking, focusing on economic development and taking care of their children's future. Currently, her children are all studying at secondary and high schools in Muong Lat district. "I saw that my parents had many children, but no matter how much rice they had, it was not enough to eat or wear. So I only had two children, even though they were girls. Thanks to that, family life was less difficult, and my husband and I had the conditions to take better care of our children," said Ms. Xia.

Currently, in Pha Den village, there are about 30 women of childbearing age, of which more than 20 are married and more than 50% of them have implemented the population and family planning policy well. Ms. Ho Thi De, a medical staff at Pu Nhi Commune Health Station, said: "The staff of the Commune Health Station and the Women's Union of Pu Nhi Commune regularly coordinate with village staff to propagate to each household about the population and family planning policy. In the past, women were often afraid of going to get IUDs, asking for condoms and birth control pills, but now they are no longer afraid and know how to plan for themselves."

Mr. Lau Van Dua, head of Pha Den village, shared: “Not only have we eliminated bad customs and backward concepts, but the villagers have also known how to change the crop structure and apply scientific and technological advances to production. Thanks to that, from before 2010, the whole village was poor, now 56 households have escaped poverty. The village no longer has makeshift, dilapidated houses; the rate of cultural families has reached 90%; school-age children all go to school and are not involved in social evils...”.

Staff of Muong Lat District Medical Center promote reproductive health for ethnic minority women.

Pu Nhi is a highland border commune of Muong Lat district. This is where the Mong and Dao ethnic groups live. The idea of ​​having a son to "continue the family line" has always existed in many households. Therefore, changing people's views is not a matter of a day or two. Along with incorporating the content of the population and family planning policy into the village conventions and regulations, Pu Nhi commune has also applied many new effective communication activities, such as establishing clubs: pre-marital clubs, reproductive health care clubs... to propagate the consequences of consanguineous marriage, gender imbalance, gender equality, and encourage couples of childbearing age to apply modern contraceptive methods, regardless of whether they are girls or boys... The clubs have created a good effect and have been enthusiastically participated by the people.

Having many children and having to have a son is a custom and concept of the people in the highlands, but it is a burden for the family and society, affecting the gender imbalance and the socio-economic development of the locality. For Pu Nhi commune, population and family planning work is still a long way off, taking a lot of time and effort. Therefore, there will need to be more active coordination between agencies, departments, branches and local authorities in changing people's awareness to carry out well the two difficult tasks of population and family planning and socio-economic development, improving the quality of people's lives.

Tang Thuy

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/chuyen-o-ban-de-pha-den-252852.htm