The story of Thao A Lo - the young man who inspired the desire to escape poverty on the 'dinosaur's back'

Thao A Lo takes care of her homestay

Not resigned to poverty

Coming to Chong Tra village, Hang Dong commune, Bac Yen district, asking about Thao A Lo, everyone knows and praises him as a hard-working, exemplary person who took the lead in economic development from scratch.

Thao A Lo said that nature has endowed his hometown Bac Yen with many beautiful landscapes, fresh climate, and cool weather all year round. In particular, Bac Yen has a "dinosaur spine" mountain, attracting tourists to "hunt clouds" because of the enchanting beauty of the famous clouds in the Northwest. Seizing the opportunity, Lo successfully started a business with a community tourism business model, raising salmon and sturgeon to develop the family economy.

“My parents lived in poverty all their lives, so when I grew up, I was determined to finish university to gain knowledge and find a way to help my family escape poverty. At first, I implemented a model of growing fruit trees on sloping land, but it failed because the soil was not suitable, making the products difficult to sell,” Lo shared.

Thao A Lo interacts with tourists staying at the homestay.

“The time when I failed with the model of planting trees on sloping land was also when the number of tourists coming to "hunt clouds" at the "dinosaur spine" mountain increased day by day. And I had the idea of ​​going to Moc Chau to learn how to run a homestay to apply when I come back,” Lo said.

After a period of learning how to do community tourism, in 2016, Lo returned to build a homestay Y Xoa, which is over 200 square meters wide, enough to accommodate about 40 people. Thao A Lo said that starting a business with limited capital, Lo took advantage of the house he and his wife were living in to make a homestay. The couple also put in the effort to build to reduce costs. After 6 months, the homestay with traditional Mong house architecture was completed to welcome tourists.

“The house uses all natural materials such as wood, bamboo, palm leaves... but is fully equipped, with clean, white bedding. The interior decoration is displayed with tools and brocade fabrics typical of the ethnic people here, so it has attracted many tourists,” said Lo.

Due to limited capital, Lo and his wife took care of all the construction of the homestay.

From the thoughtfulness in food and accommodation services, after 2 years, the couple saved up a fair amount of capital and borrowed money from the bank to build 2 more wooden houses, with 6 dormitory rooms and 9 double rooms with a total area of ​​nearly 400m², enough to accommodate more than 300 people. At the same time, Lo spent nearly 1,000m² to raise chickens, pigs, grow vegetables, and provide clean food for his homestay kitchen.

“The number of visitors to Bac Yen is increasing, I apply information technology to promote the beauty of my hometown; unique and attractive traditional cultural features on social networking sites, so the number of people booking rooms at my house is increasing day by day. Homestay Y Xoa creates regular jobs for 2 young people and generates a profit of about 200 million VND/year,” said Thao A Lo.

Success from the capital of the Union

After quite a success with community tourism, in 2021, knowing that Son La Provincial Youth Union organized the contest "Projects, startup ideas for youth and students in Son La province", Lo registered to participate in the startup idea "Developing salmon and sturgeon farming" and won first prize. His model was supported by the Central Youth Union with 200 million VND and the Provincial Social Policy Bank supported a loan of 100 million VND.

From the borrowed capital, in 2022, Lo invested in a pond system, fish fry and started the process of raising cold-water fish, on a scale of 400m². With 4,000 fish fry, the new farming process encountered unexpected situations that caused about half of the fish to die. Each time there was a loss, Lo learned a lesson in fish farming.

Thao A Lo (3rd from right) received first prize in the contest "Startup projects and ideas for youth and students in Son La province".

Currently, the amount of salmon and sturgeon of Thao A Lo is developing relatively stably, selling about 1 ton of fish each year, ensuring the supply of fish to serve tourists in the Hang Dong and Ta Xua communes. At times, Lo also sells fish to restaurants in Moc Chau town.

“From my family’s model, I mobilized households and members in the village to establish an Eco-tourism Agricultural Cooperative to share, guide, and exchange experiences in developing community tourism models and raising cold-water fish. People in the village unite to improve the quality of homestays to attract more tourists, determined to eliminate poverty,” Lo shared.

A Lo's salmon and sturgeon farming model is being replicated.

Ms. Hoang Thi Hue, Secretary of the Bac Yen District Youth Union, said that Thao A Lo's startup model has inspired young people who want to start a business to escape poverty; especially starting a business from tourism and agriculture. Currently, Thao A Lo's model is a destination for many youth union members to visit and learn from experience. In particular, when the locality established an Eco-tourism Agricultural Cooperative, Lo helped some young people in the commune start a homestay business.

Viet Ha

Source: https://tienphong.vn/chuyen-ve-thao-a-lo-chang-trai-khoi-nguon-khat-vong-thoat-ngheo-tren-song-lung-khung-long-post1743607.tpo