The Dao girl and her love for Shan Tuyet tea trees on the Tay Con Linh range

11:47, 09/08/2024

BHG - The Dao village of Na Mau, Phuong Tien commune (Vi Xuyen) nestles at the foot of the majestic Tay Con Linh mountain range, where there are hundreds of years old Shan Tuyet tea trees, the essence of heaven and earth crystallized in the snow-covered Shan tea buds that have raised many generations of villagers, including the girl Ban Thi Hom. Growing up, Hom went to university, returned to her hometown, started a successful business and brought Shan Tuyet tea to consumers nationwide.

Ban Thi Hom, born in 1996, spent her childhood picking Shan Tuyet tea in the forest with her mother, then selling it at the market. The tea was delicious, but staying in the local area did not bring much income, making her family's life difficult. Unlike her peers, Hom did not accept poverty. Since childhood, she always tried hard to study, dreaming of one day becoming rich from her hometown's Shan Tuyet tea trees. Hom crossed mountain peaks, overcame the prejudice that girls should not study much, passed the entrance exam to the Vietnam Youth Academy; and was the only person in the three highland villages of Phuong Tien commune to have a regular university degree.

Ms. Ban Thi Hom (far right) and Dao ethnic women pick Shan Tuyet tea on Tay Con Linh mountain range.

In 2019, after graduating from university, she returned to her hometown to work and was appointed to the position of Deputy Secretary of the Phuong Tien Commune Youth Union and Head of the Na Mau Village Women's Association. As a young party member, leader of the Youth Union, and "locomotive" of Dao women at the foot of the Tay Con Linh range, she is always exemplary, upholding a sense of responsibility, constantly studying, practicing, cultivating qualities, ethics, and lifestyle, promoting learning and following Uncle Ho through practical and meaningful actions every day, developing the Youth Union and the youth and children's movement of the commune; promoting the movement to build "5 no, 3 clean" families among women's union members, actively participating in supporting the community and building the New Rural Area.

In addition to doing a good job, Ms. Hom has a love for Shan Tuyet tea. To have capital to start a business, she and her husband borrowed 100 million VND from the Social Policy Bank to open a production workshop, purchase equipment, and cooperate with 10 households with Shan Tuyet tea areas in the village to purchase all fresh tea buds and process them into tea products before selling them to the market such as: 1 bud 1 leaf tea, 1 bud 2 leaves tea, Peony tea, Lam tube tea, Pu'er, White tea, White fairy, Dragon claw. The tea is picked and processed by hand in the core area of Shan Tuyet tea according to the traditional experience of the Dao ethnic group. In the process of creating tea products, each stage is important and must follow the technique to ensure that when brewed, the tea will have a golden color, a bitter taste on the tip of the tongue, a sweet aftertaste, and a light, attractive aroma. Ms. Hom's tea factory creates regular jobs and stable income for 2 union members in the village and seasonal jobs for many other workers.

Ms. Ban Thi Hom (far left) shares her start-up experience with union members and young people.

After processing, the journey to bring products to consumers is indeed arduous when the market is fiercely competitive. Difficult but not without solutions, in addition to traditional markets, delivering to traders and acquaintances, Ms. Hom is an ethnic minority woman who pioneered digital transformation when bringing Shan Tuyet tea products to e-commerce platforms Shopee, Lazada; building professional Facebook, Zalo, Tiktok pages, regularly livestreaming to sell products, sharing interesting stories about Shan Tuyet tea trees, her family's tea production process. With a close, sincere, humorous, charming way of speaking, her quality tea products conquer the hearts of consumers, especially tea lovers. Orders of ancient Shan Tuyet tea just keep going over the high mountains to reach consumers in the lowlands. Every year, after deducting investment costs, her family always earns over 100 million VND, is a typical economic development model of the commune, and is visited by union members, youth, and women in the district to learn from their experiences.

In 2023, Ms. Hom brought Shan Tuyet tea products to participate in the "Startup Ideas and Products" Contest at the Women's Startup Day organized by the Provincial Women's Union. The idea focuses on promoting and exploiting local resources in the direction of applying technology and forming a linkage chain, having a positive impact on the community, contributing to bringing Ha Giang 's typical strengths to new heights, serving the socio-economic development of the locality. The excellent idea won the first prize of the contest and entered the semi-finals of the Women's Startup in the Northern region. Currently, Ms. Hom is working hard to expand production scale, perfect products, build brands, and aim for provincial-level OCOP products to enhance the value of ancient Shan Tuyet tea products.

Ms. Ban Thi Hom livestreams to sell products, bringing Shan Tuyet tea products to e-commerce platforms.

Secretary of the Party Committee of Phuong Tien commune, Phan Thi Thom said: "Comrade Ban Thi Hom is an exemplary young party member, an enthusiastic and creative union cadre, a successful entrepreneur, and a dynamic female cadre. In any role, Comrade Hom always completes her tasks excellently, making an important contribution to the work of Party building and socio-economic development of the locality."

With her successes in work, start-up movement and self-training efforts, Ms. Hom has been recognized and rewarded by the local Party Committee, government, Women's Union and Youth Union, and is a typical example of women and youth in Vi Xuyen district. In particular, in May 2024, Ms. Hom was one of two outstanding individuals in the province to receive a Certificate of Merit from the Prime Minister for her outstanding achievements in studying and following Ho Chi Minh's ideology, morality and style.

Ms. Hom shared: “During his lifetime, President Ho Chi Minh once taught: “Nothing is difficult, only fear of not being persistent, digging mountains and filling seas, determination will make it happen”, as a young person with the life philosophy of “3 responsibilities” (responsibility to the community, to work, to myself), I always try to work hard, persistently devote my best, promote emulation movements and support the community. Society will be happy when the lives of people around us are always good, so I want to spread positive values and energy to union members, women's association members, share experiences, support market search, help everyone get rich with their hands and minds. During the process of starting a business, there were times when I failed, but I did not give up but always had faith and love for Shan Tuyet tea, tried to do it again, overcome limitations, and accumulate experience to create the highest quality tea products. The award from the Prime Minister is truly "It is a great honor that motivates me to continue to strive."

Sipping hot tea in the early morning sun amidst the vast space of Tay Con Linh mountains and forests, watching the nimble, diligent hands of a small Dao girl drying tea, listening to beautiful stories in everyday life about Ms. Ban Thi Hom, brings everyone a feeling of refreshment, peace and positive life energy every day.

Article and photos: DISCUSSION

Source: https://baohagiang.vn/kinh-te/202408/co-gai-nguoi-dao-va-tinh-yeu-cay-che-shan-tuyet-tren-day-tay-con-linh-d16140d/