Livelihood support helps people escape poverty

From a locality with a high rate of poor households, with synchronous solutions, especially support in terms of capital and livelihood, hundreds of poor households in Tran Yen district (Yen Bai province) have been created with conditions to develop production, improve income, and escape poverty.

Giving a livelihood model

Mr. Than Van Bac's family is a poor household lacking capital for production and labor resources in Cay Sy village, Van Hoi commune. In June 2022, the Yen Bai Provincial Fatherland Front supported building a livelihood model for Mr. Bac's family. From the Fund for the Poor, the province supported his family with VND 20 million to implement a model of commercial apple snail farming.

Mr. Bac said that from the capital support, the family bought apple snail seeds, took advantage of the old water pipeline, and built pond banks to raise snails on an area of over 1,300 m². The rate of snails harvested reached over 80%. By September 2023, Mr. Bac's family had sold nearly 500kg of snail meat at a price of VND 80,000–100,000/kg, gaining an income of about VND 40 million. "This is a good opportunity to help my family escape poverty in the long term," Mr. Bac happily said.

Mr. Tran Dinh Kien, Chairman of the Van Hoi Commune People's Committee, said that "The model of commercial apple snail farming has low initial investment costs, so poor households can access and apply it, contributing to economic development and poverty eradication. Van Hoi commune currently has more than 40 households raising apple snails on an area of more than 5 hectares. The government is mobilizing people to establish cooperatives, providing technical training, replicating the model, and sustainably linking product consumption markets to help households escape poverty sustainably."

Supporting production materials

Mr. Hoang Van Luong's family, a poor household in Ban Ben village, Viet Hong commune, also received VND 20 million from the Fund for the Poor of Yen Bai province to implement a mud-free eel farming model. After receiving support, Mr. Luong built an eel farming tank 20 m² wide to raise 4,000 eel seeds. According to Mr. Luong, raising eels in tanks does not require too much care and does not take up space. The first batch of eels helped Mr. Luong's family harvest more than 800kg, with the price of eel meat ranging from VND 160,000 to VND 180,000/kg. After deducting the costs of seeds and feed, the family had an income of more than VND 70 million. This is truly the family's largest income ever.

Mr. Trieu Khanh Thien, Chairman of the Viet Hong Commune People's Committee, said that the whole commune now has 37 poor households and 36 near-poor households; the poverty rate is 5.31%. In order for poverty reduction to be effective and sustainable, the government has developed a specific, detailed plan for each household to see which indicators they are lacking in order to find support solutions. In particular, to help people escape poverty sustainably, the commune has coordinated with functional sectors to support people with production materials such as livestock, crops, and some types of agricultural machinery and tools to create long-term livelihoods.

Helping with fishing rods, not fish

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Le, Vice Chairman of the Tran Yen District People's Committee, said that increasing people's income and creating stable livelihoods is the district's goal of sustainable poverty reduction. Since then, Tran Yen district has focused on implementing support policies to develop production, create livelihoods, and provide vocational training associated with job creation to increase income for poor and near-poor households. Effectively implement preferential credit policies in the area, linking the provision of preferential credit with economic guidance, vocational training, agricultural and industrial extension, and the transfer of scientific and technological advances into production for poor and near-poor households.

Poverty reduction is an important political task, so every year Tran Yen district develops a plan to assign agencies and units to directly support and help one household escape poverty. In 2023, 20 poor and near-poor households were supported by district agencies with livestock and crops such as chicken breeds, pig breeds, Ardisia silvestris Pitard trees, mulberry trees, etc. Besides, training and technical guidance will be organized so that households directly participate in production and gradually rise.

Escaping poverty is difficult, and escaping poverty sustainably is even more difficult. Therefore, supporting the livelihoods of poor households is considered the key to helping households escape poverty sustainably. At the same time, promote the solidarity tradition to mobilize the participation of the entire society in order to create resources for caring for and helping the poor improve their lives.

Mr. Nguyen Canh Hieu, Chairman of the District Fatherland Front Committee, said: "By many forms of campaigning and mobilizing social resources, we join hands to support housing for poor households, helping them feel secure about their housing to gradually strive to stabilize life. In 2023, from the Fund for the Poor and Socialization, Tran Yen district renewed and upgraded 71 houses for poor households. Especially in livelihood support, agreeing on the viewpoint of "helping the poor with fishing rods, not fish", in 2022 and 2023 alone, through the Fatherland Front, the district and grassroots have supported 46 livelihood models to develop production, helping people escape poverty sustainably.