Battle of hearts and minds in border areas

Officers of Bat Mot Border Guard Station (Thuong Xuan) closely follow the area and propagate the law to local people.

Thanh Hoa has 213.6km of land border adjacent to Hua Phan province (Lao PDR), including 146 villages, hamlets, and neighborhoods in 16 communes and towns in 5 border districts. As the core force in managing and protecting territorial sovereignty and national border security, the Party Committee and the Provincial Border Guard Command have issued resolutions and plans to lead and direct units to effectively implement propaganda and mobilize people to participate in building and protecting the border. Thereby, promoting the role of the entire political system and all classes of people in building a strong national border defense.

With the motto of "3 sticking, 4 together" (sticking to the unit, sticking to the area, sticking to the policy; eating, living, working together, speaking the same language as the people), the provincial border guard force has done a good job of building and consolidating a strong and comprehensive grassroots political system; promptly rescuing and helping people overcome the consequences of natural disasters; deploying plans to ensure security and order, effectively fighting against all types of crimes. Along with that, the movement "All people participate in protecting territorial sovereignty and national border security in the new situation" has been launched. In addition, the provincial Border Guard has also effectively implemented programs and projects on socio-economic development, hunger eradication and poverty reduction, thereby contributing to improving the material and spiritual life of people in the stationed areas.

By staying in the village, taking charge of households, being flexible in the methods and methods of propaganda and mobilization of border guards, many households have boldly changed the structure of crops and livestock to have higher income, helping their lives gradually become stable. For example, Mr. Ha Van Du's family, in Lat village, Tam Chung commune (Muong Lat), was supported by Tam Chung Border Guard Station in the "hands-on" method to develop a livestock and crop farming model on an area of ​​1.5 hectares of hilly forest land. Tam Chung Border Guard Station also supported breeding cows, native ducks, mobilized working days to renovate mixed gardens, dig ponds to raise fish, and combine raising chickens and ducks... Up to now, Mr. Du's family has escaped poverty, their lives are increasingly stable, the economic model brings in an annual income of 70 to 80 million VND...

The above is just one of many economic models of the people supported by the Border Guard, thereby helping people change their thinking and ways of working to stabilize their lives. In addition to supporting people to apply economic models, the Provincial Border Guard also implements many emulation movements and campaigns launched by the Central, the Province, and the Vietnam Fatherland Front. Typical examples include the movement "Border Guard joins hands to build new rural areas, civilized urban areas"; the program "Helping children go to school - Adopted children of border guards"; "Accompanying women in the border areas"; "Border guards warm the hearts of the villagers"; "Shelter to help the poor in the border areas"; the program "Supporting breeding animals for the poor in the border areas"; the model "Growing high-yield cassava", "Raising concentrated breeding cows"; "Border lessons", "Warm porridge of love", "Eliminating illiteracy", "Border Guard joins hands for the poor - Leaving no one behind"...

The meaningful and practical work of the provincial Border Guard has multiplied the trust of all classes of people in the leadership of the Party, promoted the strength of national solidarity to join hands to protect territorial sovereignty, border security and build a solid border area. Through that, many good models and effective ways have appeared in people's lives. These are the models of "Border gong", "Border loudspeaker"; "Youth volunteers to protect the border"; "Border construction self-management team"; "Mass participation in self-management of border lines, border markers and maintaining security and order in hamlets and villages in border areas"... Also through the self-management model, there has been 1 collective, 54 households, 104 individuals participating in self-management of 213.6km of border line, 90 border markers; 497 village-level security and order self-management teams/1,625 members... From 2024 to present, the people have provided the provincial border guards with nearly 2,000 sources of information, including hundreds of valuable information serving the work of border protection, crime prevention and handling of law violations. Organizations and individuals self-managing border lines and landmarks have organized the clearing of 2,110km of sight lines, patrol roads and roads to national border markers serving the work of border management and protection...

Colonel Hoang Van Hung, Political Commissar of the Thanh Hoa Provincial Border Guard, said: Practice has proven that the "people's heart position" is an important factor in forming political, military, defense and security strength to firmly protect national border sovereignty and security. And to build a solid "people's heart position", one of the decisive factors is to promote socio-economic development, constantly improve the material and spiritual life of the people in the border areas, ensuring that the people have an increasingly prosperous and happy life. Only then will the people in the border areas have absolute confidence in the leadership of the Party and the management of the authorities at all levels, creating a solid foundation for the cause of protecting the Fatherland.

Article and photos: Xuan Minh

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/the-tran-long-dan-khu-vuc-bien-gioi-247928.htm