Anh Thu and Arat Buoc plant fruit trees on the hill - Photo: LE TRUNG
Thanh My, a youth village in the western mountainous region of Quang Nam , is located on a hill with 60 households, all of whom are young people determined to change their lives.
Sowing green seeds on rocky mountains
A grapefruit garden with 300 trees in fruiting season is located on a hill. It is the effort of Mr. Thu and many young people here - Photo: LE TRUNG
The concrete road leading to Thanh My Youth Village (Thanh My Town, Nam Giang District, Quang Nam) goes through a steep slope, with rows of houses lined up on both sides of the road. The houses are clean and spacious, with national flags hanging in front of the gates, and fruit trees in the gardens...
Young people come to settle here like a journey of sowing green seeds on the rock, when the hoe hits it is limestone. It has been abandoned, letting the forest grow whatever it wants.
"When the village was first established, the land here was barren, so we didn't think we could grow fruit trees. Now, when I go around the village, every house has a garden full of fruit trees," Nguyen Ngoc Thu, an officer of the Quang Nam Youth Volunteer Corps, the unit assigned to manage and develop the village, boasted.
A 37-year-old Co Tu man, Arat Buoc, a resident of the village, is busy taking care of his garden with all kinds of fruit trees. Seven years ago, the young man had no stable job, when he got married, had a child, and lived with his parents.
Hearing that the youth settlement village was being built, Buoc and other Co Tu men in the village registered. "At that time, we were given land to live on, supported with tens of millions to build houses, and then given chickens, pigs, and six months of rice. Having the initial capital, we were very happy," Buoc said.
Being instructed in farming techniques by the Youth Volunteer Corps cadres, the young man became enthusiastic about business.
The fields are planted with acacia, rice, corn, and the farm raises cows and pigs. The garden is covered with fruit trees.
Every year, from his garden and fields, Buoc also earns hundreds of millions, plus a contract salary of 3 million with the Youth Volunteers and a few million from his wife's cooking job, Buoc's family does not have to worry about hunger like before, and can rest assured to raise three children to study.
"Since moving to the village to start a business, my life has changed a lot and is more stable than before," he said.
No vacant land
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thu, an officer of the Quang Nam Youth Volunteer Corps, has been living alone in the village for the past 8 years, providing technical support for farming and animal husbandry to young households to develop their economy - Photo: LE TRUNG
During the day, going from the beginning of the village to the end of the hamlet, every house has its door locked and is quiet. Thu laughed: "Strange! Everyone is working in the fields and farms, where can we find people? Here, if you want to meet people, you can only do it in the evening."
No bare land is given, that is what is seen in the village. Wherever there is land, green shoots appear.
Crouching over a 1-hectare field, a woman is tending to her family's vegetable and fruit tree field.
Ms. Hoi Thi Avi said that since her family moved here to start a business, with land granted, she and her husband have chosen suitable crops depending on the season. This season, she grows beans, mustard greens, pennywort, and sweet potato leaves combined with fruit trees such as bananas, grapefruit, and guava. The entire vast hillside area is covered in green.
Why do you plant so much? In response, Aví smiled: "If you want to be rich, you must first take care of yourself. During the pandemic years, even though we were locked down, thanks to this garden, my family never lacked food."
Near Avi’s house is Ho Xuan Binh’s house, a retired soldier. Walking around the garden combined with the pig and chicken farm, one cannot help but be surprised at the way young people develop the economy here. His seedless lemon garden is full of fruit.
Interspersed with lemon trees are rows of guava and jackfruit trees. Hundreds of chickens are raised in the lush green garden. His combined farming and livestock model is a model for economic development in the village. The way young people do business here is completely different, methodical, calculating and persistent.
The silent contributor
Hien Chuu, a young household in the village of enthusiastic and diligent youth entrepreneurs - Photo: LE TRUNG
The green-skinned grapefruit garden at the village entrance with more than 300 trees has produced its first crop of fruit this season. "We have been planting that garden on a trial basis for four years now. Planting grapefruit trees in this land, growing, developing, and bearing fruit, has taken a lot of sweat," said Nguyen Ngoc Thu.
Eight years ago, when Thanh My Youth Village was built, a cadre of the Youth Volunteer Corps received orders to go up the mountain and into the village to both manage the village and be the right-hand man of the Corps to guide young households in farming and animal husbandry techniques.
He made a model for people to see and follow. "Learning from the experience of other failed villages, Thanh My Youth Entrepreneurship Village must have a long-term plan, outline a strategy, and develop households according to its model. If we can do it, everyone should try to follow," said Mr. Thu.
"What to plant, what to raise?", that question kept lingering in the young cadre's mind, then experimented, grapefruit was the tree he chose to plant. And the chicken farm, combined with raising local pigs, was also carried out in parallel.
Initially, the model was effective, so he deployed it for the villagers to do together. He guided the techniques and experiences he had accumulated so that the villagers could do the same. "The villagers and I have a symbiotic relationship. I am responsible for taking care of them, guiding them in their business and living, and monitoring their development every day," said Mr. Thu.
All 60 young households who came here to start a business gradually had a solid foundation with gardens and barns. The young people in the village were all enthusiastic about their work, and no one had to leave the village. In return, for as many years as the village was old, Mr. Thu had been away from his wife and children in the plains, living alone in the headquarters' administrative building to help the people with their economic activities.
Working hard, many young people have become members of the Youth Volunteer Team, signed contracts, and assigned tasks to participate in farming and raising livestock for the village. Arat Buoc and Hien Chuu have now become Thu's effective assistants. In addition to taking care of farming and raising livestock models, these two people also instruct the villagers in techniques. Each month, they receive a subsidy of about 3 million VND.
The young people of this village now return to help the new young people to do business and develop the economy, an interesting highlight that truly lives up to the name of the village of young entrepreneurs.
There, the rocks have blossomed with the changing lives of young people.
Standing in the vast garden of grapefruit, guava, and mangosteen on the hill, Mr. Thu envisions a dream in the future that Thanh My will become a community tourism village combined with economic development, benefiting the people.
He went out to the garden to pick a grapefruit to offer to his guest. The taste was sour and sweet, like the result of a journey filled with sweat and youthful desire.
Hien Chuu, an enthusiastic and diligent young man in Thanh My youth village - Photo: LE TRUNG
Ten years ago, Quang Nam Provincial Youth Union started construction of Thanh My Youth Village, and this is the first village to be started among 15 villages approved by the Prime Minister for the period 2013 - 2020.
Thanh My is one of 15 villages invested by the Central Youth Union to implement the Government's program of population dispersion on the Ho Chi Minh road, promoting the pioneering and voluntary role of young people to establish their own careers. By 2017, the first young residents were brought to the village to build houses, each household was given 600m2 of residential land, garden and about 3,000m2 of farmland.
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