Border district in Lào Cai ‘fosters’ households out of poverty

A district official teaches a farmer how to grow oyster mushrooms in Bát Xát District, Lào Cai Province. — Photo vov.vn 

LÀO CAI — For the past year and a half, a project ‘fostering’ poor households has been implemented in Bát Xát District in northern Lào Cai Province, which aims to assist more than 900 poor households on their way out of poverty. 

As part of the initiative, these families are provided with seedlings and livestock for agricultural production, as well as opportunities to expand their knowledge.

One of the beneficiaries, Lý A Dềnh’s family in Bản Lầu Village, now has a healthy flock of 50 chickens, which were given to him as part of the support from the district’s People’s Committee.

Dềnh said: “Now that we have the chickens, we make efforts to raise them for meat, then we can have the money to cover our living expenses.”

The chickens were easy to raise as well Dềnh said, as the family just have to feed them a mixture of kernels and vegetables. 

According to Lý A Sùng, Secretary of the village’s Party Committee, the number of poor households in the village has decreased by six (out of a total 23) in the past year.

“After coming back from study trips to other communes the areas, the villagers here are also able to apply several science-technology methods to their production process,” said Sùng. 

Nguyễn Trung Hòa, a young official from the district’s office, said that a household in poverty often lacks motivation for development, therefore to help a family means to understand them and provide practical support from the most basic steps.

Hòa said: “Personally, I have gone door to door, trying to identify the root cause to help these people raise awareness and change their thinking in agricultural production, which will then free them from poverty.”

Free health examinations for underprivileged people in Bát Xát District, Lào Cai Province. — Photo vov.vn 

Following the meeting of the district’s Party Committee in August 2020, this ‘fostering’ project was introduced to realise two key projects – developing agricultural production while partially applying advanced technology, and building new rural areas with sustainable poverty reduction.

Nguyễn Trung Triều, Secretary of the district’s Party Committee, said that the beneficiary households are the measure of the officials’ and Party members’ capacity, especially in a mountainous area at the country’s border like Bát Xát District.

Triều said: “The perspective of Bát Xát is to enhance the Party members’ capacity. It is only when each person does their job well that people have trust in the Party, and the policies are realised, therefore improving people’s incomes.”

The goal is to make Bát Xát a developed district in the borderland of Lào Cai Province by 2025, Triều added.

According to the 2021 review, more than 400 households in the area have taken their first steps out of poverty, which reached approximately 50 per cent of the goal. — VnExpress News