New life in high mountain villages

A special emotion invaded the group of reporters who went on a field trip to two mountainous districts of Quang Nam province, Nam Tra My and Tay Giang, organized by the Permanent Office on Human Rights in early August.

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The beautiful houses on the high mountains of the Co Tu people.

The peaceful villages with pretty houses hidden under the immense green of the majestic forest appear as beautiful as in a fairy tale. But what is more surprising is the awareness and determination of the ethnic people here to escape poverty - they have really changed.

New life is emerging after the disaster

After passing through winding mountain roads with many hairpin turns, the first place we stopped was Tra Leng commune, Nam Tra My district, a land that 3 years ago was mentioned for its unprecedented losses in the serious landslide in 2020, wiping out all the houses of 39 households, taking the lives of 24 people in the two villages of Bo De and Tak Pat of the Bh'noong people.

The Bang La Residential Area Gate, Tra Leng Commune, stands out firmly in the middle of a flat land embraced by the green cinnamon hills of the Bh'noong people. In the Bh'noong language, Bang La means a flat land with many bamboo trees. The place where the People's Committee of Nam Tra My District and the People's Committee of Tra Leng Commune have focused on surveying, selecting and collecting opinions from the people of the two villages just a few days after the historic flood and landslide in 2020 swept away and submerged all the houses of 39 households in both villages.

Only about 7 km from the old village, but the terrain is safer, with the local government and philanthropists contributing to invest in infrastructure and build houses, so the people in the two villages quickly agreed to leave the village they had been attached to for many years to move to a new place. Bang La village currently has 39 households from Tak Pat and Bo De villages.

New houses in Bang La Residential Area.

Welcoming us in his new, spacious 200 ^m2 house, built in the stilt house model based on the living habits of the Bh'noong people, Mr. Ho Van De (who built Bo De village on the Leng River 22 years ago and whose name was chosen to name the village), has ended the pain of losing his son, daughter-in-law, grandson and 5 other relatives in the family. He was one of the earliest households to receive a house, in February 2021, just under a year after the disaster in Tra Leng. He and his wife received the house worth 180 million VND, before Tet to soon stabilize their lives as well as worship their deceased relatives. The life of the village elder couple no longer feels lonely when the house was received close to the road to the new village, in a central location, so they also let a doctor in the commune set up a medicine cabinet to conveniently sell common medicines to the villagers.

The eyes of old man Ho Van De clearly showed his joy when the comrades of the Commune Police came to visit him every day like a son in the family. They still affectionately called him "Dad De". "Dad De" shared that he would never forget the gratitude to the Party, the State, the authorities of Nam Tra My district and Tra Leng commune for allowing them to have a peaceful and safe life like today: "Now we don't have to worry about hunger or death anymore".

Mr. De often advises the people of Bang La new village: Having a new house, and being supported with capital and plant seeds (Tra My cinnamon and areca), we must work hard to escape poverty and build a new, better life than before. He and his wife now work slowly and earn an income of 40 - 50 million VND/year.

There are Bh'noong households who lost their wooden stilt houses, worth 300 million VND, that were just built in Bo De village before, such as Ms. Tran Thi Lieu (born in 1983), whose husband was swept away by the whirlpool, and whose body was not found, but now their lives have stabilized. Her house is fully equipped with household appliances, a TV, a refrigerator, and even a speaker for entertainment. The house is more cheerful because of the babbling of children, her daughter's 1-year-old child, who is taking his first steps. And in the new village of Bang La, in the pretty, spacious, and neatly planned stilt houses, with rows of national flags in front of the house, there are always the figures of children, the next generation, chirping and playing.

“Now I am no longer afraid of storms. Right in front of my house is a large and beautiful kindergarten. My family also has a farm with more than 5,000 cinnamon trees that are about 20 years old; 2 acacia gardens are about to be harvested. This temporarily stable life is very good,” Ms. Lieu smiled happily.

The new generation is growing up in Bang La Residential Area.

Small grocery stores of households have also sprung up, making the Bang La residential area much more bustling. The store of Ms. Ho Thi Nan (1991) and Mr. Nguyen Minh Duc (1991) opens from 8am to sell candy, snacks, and soft drinks to earn extra income. Mr. Duc shared that recently, he and his wife have just received a loan of 50 million from the district policy bank to raise goats, grow crops, and do business. He hopes for favorable weather and smooth trade so that he can develop his family's economy .

When recalling the landslide that swept away 30 households in the two villages of Bo De and Tak Pat in Tra Leng commune 3 years ago, Lieutenant Colonel Mai Xuan Sang, Chief of Nam Tra My District Police, still had red eyes. Because that was an extremely difficult and stressful time for the forces participating in the rescue and support of the people. The floodwaters kept flowing, causing the entire mountainous district of Nam Tra My to have a power outage, paralyzing the entire communication and traffic system. To get to Tra Leng, the officers and soldiers of the district police had to walk through the forest for nearly a day. As the earliest force to arrive in Tra Leng, witnessing the extreme devastation, they endured for a whole week, eating only rice and a little dried fish, to gain strength to dig, search and move people to safety. According to Lieutenant Colonel Mai Xuan Sang, the current transformation of the ethnic people in Bang La residential area is truly a miracle. There is determination, decisiveness and consensus from local authorities, people and businesses, working together to rebuild, revive new life, and compensate for losses and pain caused by natural disasters.

Mr. Phan Quoc Cuong - Chairman of Tra Leng Commune People's Committee shared: People affected by the landslide were supported with houses, essential infrastructure such as electricity, roads, schools, medical stations... In addition, the locality also mobilized benefactors to support people with initial living expenses. Regarding livelihoods, after resettlement, people continued to cultivate on the previous land by growing cinnamon, areca nut, fruit trees... Currently, on average, each household has 1 to 2 workers, with an income of 40-50 million VND/year. People have basically stabilized their lives, but the province and district continue to support them in vocational training, production conditions, job creation, and arranging for their children to go to school... "Currently, 1 child of a local who has just graduated from university has been accepted to work in the commune and 5 children are going to school", Mr. Cuong added.

Bang La residential area currently has 624 households with 2,890 people. The infrastructure has ensured daily life. Old wounds have healed. Children - new life has blossomed on the newly built land. Cinnamon, acacia, jackfruit forests... have come to harvest season. People here want to forget the old story, want to be supported with more livelihoods such as breeds, seedlings and output for products. Hopefully, there will soon be trucks picking up goods from Bang La residential area...

Co Tu people learn to grow medicinal plants to escape poverty

Coming to A Roh village, Lang commune, Tay Giang district, a mountainous district with many difficulties in Quang Nam province, we encountered the orderly and disciplined lifestyle of the Co Tu ethnic people. Along with the attention of the local government, the district police force, and the commune police, the Co Tu people here are very well organized and disciplined; there is no theft and no social evils. The only thing that must be done for the people here is how to develop the family economy, to consider "poverty as an enemy, as suffering, as humiliation" is the story of the village elder, excellent artisan Bh ^' riu Po (born in 1949) - the person who inspired the people of Lang commune to value time, learn the techniques of growing medicinal plants, especially Ba Kich tree, dig ponds to raise fish to escape poverty.

Village elder and artisan Bh'riu Po regularly coordinates with the local police force to inspire the people of Lang commune to rise above poverty.

As a fully educated son of the Co Tu people, he graduated from Thai Nguyen University of Education and returned to his hometown to work at the district's Education Department. Later, he held the position of Secretary and Chairman of Lang commune from 1989 to 2005. During his 16 years of working in the commune, he understood every household and every person in the commune. His biggest concern was to find a truly correct economic model to serve as an example for the people to learn and follow. Because only when they see the reality will they believe, and only when they hear will they listen and follow. To realize that wish, he applied for early retirement, without salary for 2 years, to explore the forest to find medicinal plants. With the knowledge he learned and through practice, he learned that in his hometown there are many precious medicinal plants, including the native Ba Kich plant, growing deep in the forest. He has experimented to find a way to grow Ba Kich using natural methods, without using fertilizers, keeping the same value as wild Ba Kich.

In 2017, he tried to plant the first 100 Ba Kich trees. Many people in the village and commune said he was crazy, "how can you plant a tree of Heaven and Earth?" But just 3 months later, the Ba Kich trees in Mr. Bh'riu Po's garden were green, bearing roots and fruits. Just like that, he and his wife continued to work hard in the forest to dig up Ba Kich trees to propagate and plant. Currently, he has 1.3 hectares of Ba Kich trees. Every year, he digs 1,000 trees to get roots to sell, earning 100 million VND/year. In addition, he digs ponds to raise carp and grass carp, earning 210 million VND/year.

Seeing the effectiveness of the family economic model of artisan Bh'riu Po, the Co Tu people in A Rot village and 4 other villages in Lang commune visited his Ba Kich plantation to learn. Mr. Bh'riu Po also enthusiastically instructed the people on how to plant and care for them to have more income to escape poverty. Tay Giang district also supported the people in Lang commune with seedlings and provided additional support money to care for the plants. Since diligently planting Ba Kich and other medicinal plants, 65-70% of households in Lang commune have gradually escaped poverty.

Mr. ^Bh'riu Tich from A village also learned from Mr. Bh'riu Po to plant 2,500 Ba kích trees, in addition to planting rubber trees, acacia trees... He said that planting Ba kích trees does not require fertilizer, only weeding and occasionally tilling the soil, so it does not cost anything. Since planting this tree, his income has improved, from a poor household to a near-poor household.

The Co Tu people in Lang commune, Tay Giang district, Quang Nam have a sense of community cohesion and happiness in a picturesque village in the highlands.

Mr. Bhling Mia, Secretary of the District Party Committee and Chairman of the People's Council of Tay Giang District, said that Tay Giang is a mountainous district in the Northwest of Quang Nam Province, where the ethnic minority Co Tu people account for 98%. The people have a healthy lifestyle, no theft, no human trafficking, no drugs, no social evils, 100% of the people trust the leadership of the Party and the legal policies of the State.

With that advantage along with the potential of forests, medicinal herbs, cultural potential, the Party Committee and the district government focus on developing a harmonious relationship between conservation and exploitation, between tourism and forest protection and development to exploit the maximum potential of some forests that have been recognized as heritage areas such as ancient Pơ mu forests, lim forests, etc., with revolutionary and historical sites and landscapes to develop community tourism associated with tangible and intangible cultural potential.

The Secretary of the Tay Giang District Party Committee said: “The most important thing is to change the way of thinking and working of ethnic minorities, create jobs to change their lives to reduce poverty sustainably”. That goal requires great efforts so that the highest and most sparsely populated mountainous district of Quang Nam province can truly transform itself, as the determined slogan we saw at the entrance gate to the district reads: “Tay Giang is determined to build a new countryside”.

On August 5, Tay Giang district was bustling with activities to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the district's re-establishment (2003-2023). From a district with 5 no's: no roads, no electricity, no offices, no schools, no medical stations, now all of them exist quite fully and synchronously, contributing to the development of the lives of ethnic minorities and maintaining national defense and security.

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