Law propagated to women in A Luoi border communes

The first time I "met" on Facebook a photo of a woman in a border guard (BG)uniform giving gifts to disadvantaged women and children of A Luoi District left an impression on me, especially her bright, simple smiles.

There was a lot of warmth in the eyes of the woman - a soldier with a green military rank and the trust on the suntanned face of honest women in the forests and mountain fields.

Major Tran Thi Nam Phuong (Staff Department, Provincial BG Command and Chairman of the Provincial BG Women's Union) said that there are only 12 female members. However, besides them, many comrades, agencies, organizations and sponsors are pooling efforts to do good things on the borderland – the outpost land of the Fatherland.

Dry food made to send to the South during the fight against COVID-19

Six years back, the Provincial BG Women's Union launched the program to support breed goats to the disadvantaged women in border communes of A Luoi District. Major Tran Thi Nam Phuong suddenly smiled, recalling that she and her comrades had tramped from one hamlet to another in remote mountain villages to learn about, “screen”, select the families belonging to poor households but desiring and determining to rise out of poverty so that livelihood provision could be really effective and significant.

The breed goats were bought out of pocket by the Provincial BG Women's Union members and supported in care and multiplication by the comrades at border posts in A Luoi District. Initially, the women raised goats at A Dot Border Gate Post and Hong Van Border Gate Post. Afterwards, in order to make the most of the abundant food in nature, the flock of goats was brought to Huong Nguyen Border Post adjacent to Quang Nam Province.

From the breed goats "extracted" from the flock of goats of the Provincial BG Women's Union, the poor women households in Huong Nguyen Commune have taken care of, multiplied, and sold many litters. “There were two poverty-stricken but hardworking households. Thanks to the capital accumulated from goats, they raised more pigs, chickens, and grew bananas. Only in two years were they lifted out of poverty.

In later years, every time we took a business trip to A Luoi, we visited them and saw that their lives got more and more stable and much better off, we felt reassured and overjoyed,” confided Major Tran Thi Nam Phuong.

Breed goats selected to provide livelihood for the poor women households

Gathering love from "little" things to send to the disadvantaged women and children in border areas, the Provincial BG Women's Union launched and implemented the program "Warm winter". From the money saved from raising piggy banks, on the occasion of the Lunar New Year, they donated the necessities and essential items such as warm blankets, rice, cooking oil, jams, cakes... for poor stoves in remote mountain villages to fire at all times.

Countless times has that warmth been brought to the mothers, sisters and children by Major Nguyen Thi Hien, an officer of the Drugs and Crime Prevention Department, and an officer of the Executive Committee of the Provincial BG Women's Union in A Luoi.

With personal and family money plus connection with friends the "Green Border" charity group, Major Nguyen Thi Hien brought thousands of notebooks, hundreds of warm blankets, foam pads (for preschool children) ... worth VND 70 million, to the people of Hong Thuong Commune, Quang Nham after the natural disasters, storms and floods.

When sending gifts, new clothes, and school supplies to the poor children in Hong Van and Trung Son border communes, Major Nguyen Thi Hien and her comrades at the Hong Van Border Gate Post did not forget the children of a female subject arrested for illegal possession of drugs. Along with love, the soldiers always have responsibility. Really bettering those who err, accompanying and helping them to revert to an honest life are how the female members and their comrades build and protect the peace of the border land.

In the “love shelter” houses, livelihood models, sanitation facilities for poor households, spacious concrete roads overflowing with electric light by night, there are “footprints” of The Provincial BG Women's Union members. Alongside the time and comrades, they tramped up and down to act as a bridge with agencies, organizations, sponsors in order to help the border residents develop their economy and build a better life.

Also as women, they empathize with the hardship and "burden" of mothers, sisters, and children on the remote borderland with many material and spiritual difficulties and limitations. How to improve the living environment and ensure the people’s health here in general, especially for women and children is their preoccupation.

Therefore, as a bridge, they are willing to contribute their heart, effort and very careful during the field survey so that many of the women households that are really poor can enjoy the support in construction of auxiliary works, sanitation works.

"Never alone" is the word Major Tran Thi Nam Phuong has repeatedly affirmed upon talking about the activities the Provincial BG Women's Union has carried out independently, or in the role of connection and coordination. The women members are always grateful for any support, from a few million dongs to several billion dongs, and cherish the sweat and effort that their comrades stationed in the area have contributed, built roads, houses of great solidarity, border shelters, and houses of affection… That is the immeasurable love.

Story: Quynh Anh - Photos: the Provincial Border Guard