Sóc Trăng Province makes great strides in improving ethnic people’s lives

A Khmer household in Sóc Trăng Province’s Ngã Năm Town has been provided financial support to raise ducks. – VNA/VNS Photo Tuấn Phi

SÓC TRĂNG – Sóc Trăng Province has implemented effective programmes to improve the lives of ethnic minority peoples and reduce poverty rates among them.

The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province has nearly 1.2 million people, with ethnic minorities accounting for 35.4 per cent.

The Khmer account for 30.2 per cent of the minorities, Hoa for 5.2 per cent, and 25 other ethnic groups for the rest.

Its programmes to improve their lives include the national target programme for socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas in 2021-2025.

Trần Khắc Trung, deputy head of the province Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, said after three years of implementing the programme, the province had achieved 15 of its 24 targets and 16 of its 40 criteria.

It was expected to reach all of them by next year, he said.

The programme had received investments of more than VNĐ915 billion (US$36.5 million) from the central government and VNĐ97 billion ($3.9 million) from the province.

It had spent nearly VNĐ190 billion ($7.6 million) to help poor households acquire a house, farmlands and clean water for daily use.

In the first half of this year the programme provided housing land to four households, houses to 314 families and clean water to 86 others, and helped 152 switch livelihoods.

It also provided 261,663 free health insurance cards to ethnic people and health treatment costing more than VNĐ26.8 billion ($1 million) in the first half of this year.

Its project to sustainably develop agriculture and forestry, promote regional potential and strengthen production in value chains had provided more than VNĐ27 billion ($1.1 million) to create livelihoods for ethnic households and develop effective farming models such as growing fruits and breeding animals.

Kế Sách District’s Kế Thành Commune has 2,735 households of which more than half are Khmer.

Local authorities have provided financial support to poor households to ensure they have houses and stable livelihoods.

Võ Công Thắng, a carpenter in Kế Thành, was given financial support worth VNĐ10 million ($400) to buy equipment and machinery for doing carpentry and is now above the poverty line.

He has also been provided with financial support to build a new concrete house, he said.

“I now have a carpentry establishment at my house and a stable life,” he said.

Quách Thị Thuận, chairwoman of the Kế Thành People’s Committee, said the commune had gifted housing land to 47 households, provided financial support to 151 to build houses and helped 599 others switch livelihoods since 2021.

It had built five rural roads with a total length of five kilometres, organised literacy classes for 118 people and three others to teach farming households how to raise cows, chickens and eels, and provided medical treatment for 894 people, she said.

“The number of poor Khmer households in the commune has fallen by 3-5 percentage points a year thanks to the national target programme for socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.”

Under the programme the district has been allocated more than VNĐ120 billion ($4.8 million) in 2022-24 to subsidise the purchase of housing lands and houses, provide clean water and jobs, develop 12 models to promote agricultural production and diversify livelihoods for local households, build 32 rural transport works, and repair 12 infrastructure works.

The implementation of other programmes, including the Government’s Programme 135 to boost socio-economic development in extremely disadvantaged communes in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, helped many households climb out of poverty.

Sơn Thal, a Khmer in Mỹ Xuyên District’s Tham Đôn Commune, said he was given a cow for breeding calves under Programme 135 more than 10 years ago.

His family escaped poverty by breeding cows for beef, and he has built a new house.

The implementation of programmes and projects to support ethnic minority peoples helped reduce the poverty rate to 2.54 per cent, according to the province Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs.

Trần Đề District has a large number of Khmer and Hoa ethnic people, and it has focused on building cultural facilities for their use.

Their traditional festivals and cultural, artistic and sports activities are also organised every year.

Khmer pagodas and schools have organised classes to teach their language.

The average income per capita in the district increased from VNĐ38.4 million ($1,500) in 2019 to VNĐ68.6 million ($2,700) last year. – VNS