Krong Ana District: Diversifying forms of communication to reduce child marriage

The Painting Contest to propagate the law on early marriage and consanguineous marriage organized by the Department of Ethnic Minorities and Religions of Krong Ana district at the Krong Ana district Boarding Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities is one of the communication activities to implement Sub-project 2, Project 9, National Target Program on Socio -economic Development in Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas (Program 1719) on reducing early marriage and consanguineous marriage in ethnic minority areas by 2025.

The contest had 12 groups of ethnic minority students from grades 6, 7, 8, and 9 participating. Each group consisted of 4 students, together creating a picture on A3 paper and a presentation on the theme of the picture. With only a pencil, students sketched and shaped the picture according to the chosen theme; students completed the presentation. After that, the whole group colored and completed the picture together. Students who did not participate in the contest were also present to cheer and encourage their class group. The atmosphere of the contest was exciting. Knowledge about early marriage and consanguineous marriage, adolescent reproductive health care, marriage, and family was vividly expressed by the students through each picture.

Head of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Department of Krong Ana district H'Ban Nie Kam and elder Ama H'Oanh guide the children to complete the painting contest.

After 120 minutes, 4 paintings of 4 groups of grades 6, 7, 8, 9 with the following themes: "Early marriage, incestuous marriage - blocking the future", "Say no to early marriage - early marriage", "Wrong marriage - Blind future", "Say no to early marriage, incestuous marriage" were awarded First Prize by the Jury and selected to participate in the presentation. With a confident style and inspiring voice, representatives of each group spread and conveyed the message of the contest.

The diverse forms of propaganda, suitable for each target group, especially the role and voice of 27 prestigious people and grassroots cadres have contributed to bringing the Law on Marriage and Family into life, reducing and eventually eliminating the situation of early marriage and incestuous marriage in Krong Ana district.

Head of Ethnic and Religious Affairs Department of Krong Ana district H'Ban Nie Kdam .

As a representative of the excellent grade 7 group that won the best presentation award, H'Mic Hđơk shared: "I understand that early marriage and incestuous marriage are bad customs that need to be eliminated because children will no longer have the opportunity to study properly, will not be able to have stable jobs, and their lives will be very miserable. Whenever I have the opportunity to return to the village, I often remind my friends not to drop out of school early, not to get married early, and not to marry someone who is related within three generations."

To effectively implement Sub-project 2, Project 9, the Department of Ethnic Minorities and Religions of Krong Ana district also coordinated to organize mobile film screenings in villages, open legal knowledge training classes, distribute leaflets on marriage and family to promote the role of village and hamlet chiefs, and prestigious people in propaganda and mobilization work to reduce early marriage and incestuous marriage.

Buon E Cam has 449 households with 2,200 people, more than 1/3 of the population are Ede people. As a prestigious person in the village, in recent years, village elder Y Om Knul (commonly known as Ama H'Oanh) in Buon E Cam, Buon Trap town, Krong Ana district has skillfully applied customary laws and equipped legal knowledge to propagate, mobilize, and adjudicate cases.

Head of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Department of Krong Ana district H'Ban Niê Kăm (right cover) and the head of Dur 1 village, Dur Kmal commune, propagate and mobilize families in the village not to have early marriages or incestuous marriages.

Whenever there is a conflict or disagreement between a couple in the village, or a dispute or quarrel between neighbors related to land, Ama H'Oanh, together with the reconciliation, self-management, and mass organizations of the village, goes to the place to propagate. Each case, she thoroughly and meticulously studies the terms and regulations of the law and the customary laws of the community and locality to speak "reasonably and emotionally" so that people gradually understand and listen... In community activities or when people and children gather in large numbers, Ama H'Oanh incorporates propaganda and reminders about the Law on Marriage and Family, analyzes the consequences of early marriage and incestuous marriage, encourages families not to let their children drop out of school early, reminds children not to fall in love, get married early, and not to marry someone in the family.

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/xa-hoi/202506/huyen-krong-ana-da-dang-hinh-thuc-truyen-thong-giam-thieu-tao-hon-bd50c5e/