Dynamic poverty escape

Nearly 10 years ago, Nguyen Thi Phuong's family was one of the poor households in Dong Trang village. With no job or sideline, she and her husband had to work as factory workers in the industrial park of Phu Tho province. After several years of struggling with life away from home, with little savings, in 2017, the couple returned to their hometown. With two young children, the family struggled to make ends meet due to the cost of education and living expenses.

Ms. Phuong shared: "Back then, when I went to the village meeting and heard people talking about escaping poverty, I felt very sad. I really wanted to, but I didn't know where to start, I had no capital, no experience, and I just kept going around in a vicious circle of lack and lack."

But then that thought changed when she attended a training course organized by the Women's Union of Bao Dap Commune in collaboration with the VocationalEducation - Continuing Education Center of Tran Yen District. She realized that to escape poverty, she must first change her way of thinking and dare to do new things. She began to learn about the free-range chicken farming model and realized that this was a suitable direction for her family's hilly land and large garden.

In 2018, in addition to her savings, she boldly borrowed 30 million VND from the Social Policy Bank to invest in barns and buy 300 breeding chickens. Initially, she had no experience, so she worked and learned from successful models in other communes, through books and newspapers, and attended short-term training courses on veterinary work organized by the commune.

"Many nights when the chickens were sick and I couldn't sleep, I had to stay up to watch them and find a way to treat them. It was hard but I didn't get discouraged, because I believed I could do it," she said. After the first batch of chickens, she earned 10 million VND in profit. Although the amount was not much, it was a big turning point for her. Just like that, the next successful batches of chickens brought a stable source of income for the family.

Not stopping there, seeing the economic forest planting movement among the people developing strongly, with the available area of her family's mixed garden, she converted it into a nursery, each year she sells 300,000 seedlings of all kinds, earning about 100 million VND. The garden area in front of her house bought citrus fruit trees to plant, creating shade and generating additional income.

In 2020, Yen Bai Mulberry Joint Stock Company started construction in Bao Dap commune. Realizing that this was a favorable condition for changing the direction of family economic development, she converted more than 3 sao of land and ineffective rice fields to mulberry cultivation for silkworms. Although she was a latecomer to silkworm farming, thanks to her calculation and diligence in learning, she was successful.

Realizing that growing mulberry and raising silkworms was not as hard as before, and that the economic efficiency was 4-5 times higher than growing rice and vegetables, she bought more land and inefficient rice fields from households in the village to grow mulberry and raise silkworms. When her family's mulberry area increased to 1.5 hectares, she participated in the commune's mulberry and silkworm farming chain linkage project, and borrowed an additional 100 million VND from the Tran Yen District Social Policy Bank to invest in a sliding tray system to focus on raising silkworms.

On average, each year, she collects more than 1 ton of cocoons, bringing in nearly 200 million VND in revenue. Not only that, she also acts as a focal point for purchasing cocoons from households in the village, commune and neighboring localities for Yen Bai Mulberry and Silk Joint Stock Company, and also provides freight transport services. Thanks to her ability to combine diverse livelihoods, her household economic model is increasingly effective, becoming a well-off household in the village.

Not only taking care of her family's economic development, Ms. Phuong is also an enthusiastic member of the Association. Realizing that many women in the village are still hesitant about borrowing money and do not know where to start, she has proactively shared her experience in silkworm farming and supported capital and seeds for the women in the village.

Ms. Lam Thi Yen - President of Bao Dap Commune Women's Union said: "Ms. Phuong is a typical example in the movement of women doing good business. Not only did she escape poverty with her family, she also contributed to changing perceptions, giving more motivation for many other women to rise up. Her spirit of solidarity and sharing is very valuable."

Ms. Phuong also actively participates in the emulation movements of the Association such as "Women save, help each other sustainably reduce poverty", "Women join hands to build new countryside, civilized urban areas"..., contributing to enhancing the role and position of women in building a new life.

Her desire to rise up, her diligence, dynamism and sharing have helped Ms. Phuong not only change her life but also spread positive energy to the community, contributing to creating a new, prosperous and happy rural appearance.

Thanh Tan

Source: https://baoyenbai.com.vn/12/350897/Nang-dong-thoat-ngheo.aspx