Beautiful Gia Rai girl keeps the soul of bamboo, lights the fire of entrepreneurship

In 2022, from the typical bamboo products of her hometown, Ms. Ro Mah H'Dieu came up with the idea of establishing a youth craft village to weave baskets, trays, and backpacks.

This model targets 3 groups: young people who want to start a business in their hometown; unemployed young people and disabled young people without direction.

To turn the idea into reality, Ms. H'Dieu called on businesses, cooperatives, and cooperative groups to participate in vocational training; plan bamboo growing areas; build product display houses, and demonstration models of artisans' weaving processes combined with eco-tourism .

1 (4).jpg Ms. Ro Mah H'Dieu (left of photo) started her career with traditional weaving.

In addition to traditional woven products, the craft village will diversify product designs to meet social tastes such as: night lamps, flower baskets, decorative baskets...

To give young people practical experiences and arouse their love for weaving, helping them better understand traditional values and take responsibility for maintaining local cultural identity, on weekends, Ms. H'Dieu gathers young people at the community cultural house so that artisans and village elders can teach weaving techniques and perform gongs.

The commune has also established the T'rung Club, contributing to nurturing the love of traditional culture.

Not only attracting young people, Ms. H'Dieu also organizes traditional cultural experiences, introducing basket weaving to students. Art programs, field trips, games related to weaving and folk games are cleverly integrated, creating excitement for the children.

From 2022 to present, these activities have attracted the response and participation of a large number of young people in villages; more than 700 students in primary and secondary schools in the area.

Ms. H'Dieu learns and researches the woven products of the elder Hong (Hrang village, Duc Co commune) to introduce to young people.

Mr. Kpuih Thuan (Lung Prong village, Duc Co commune) shared: “I find the idea and model of the youth craft village very meaningful. The young people in the village and I are very happy to participate in the model, not only to have extra income but also to join hands in preserving the traditional weaving craft of the Gia Rai people.”

However, according to Ms. H'Dieu, the idea is in the early stages of implementation, so it is inevitable that there will be difficulties in human resources and finance. In particular, the current experiential activities are largely based on the support of local people, there is no source of investment support as well as professional advice for the project.

Along with that, the number of artisans participating in weaving is also getting older, so the number of products produced is decreasing and the designs are limited.

Therefore, the new model can be implemented on a small scale, focusing on producing baskets, winnowing baskets... mainly for sale to tourists. "In the future, I will focus on creating more applicable products, such as T'rung instruments, bamboo baskets, pen holders... to expand the customer base as well as the consumption market," said Ms. H'Dieu.

The idea of a youth weaving craft village helped Ms. Ro Mah H'Dieu win first prize in the 6th Creative Startup Ideas Competition in 2022, and enter the top 40 finalists of the 2023 rural youth startup project organized by the Central Youth Union.

With her contributions to the community, she is honored to be one of 100 outstanding Youth Union officials nationwide to receive the Ly Tu Trong Award in 2025.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/co-gai-gia-rai-giu-hon-tre-nua-thap-lua-khoi-nghiep-2443975.html