80-year-old landlord spends 40 million VND to host year-end party, give gifts to workers

On a weekend afternoon near the Lunar New Year of Giap Thin, workers in the boarding house in the alley of Vo Thi Nho Street (Tan Thuan Dong Ward, District 7, Ho Chi Minh City) divided up their work and busily prepared the year-end party table. A year full of hardships seemed to be lightened in the reunion party in the poor boarding house.

With little work, Ms. Do Thi Anh Dao (45 years old, from Ben Tre) and her sister did not have to go to the factory to work, so they spent the whole day helping other workers prepare the year-end party.

Ms. Dao and her sister help prepare for the year-end party of the whole boarding house (Photo: Nguyen Vy).

Ms. Dao works at a company that specializes in manufacturing medical equipment. Recently, the factory has had fewer orders, so she can no longer work overtime. Normally, she earns 9 million VND/month, but now there is little work, her salary is only about 7 million VND, just enough to cover her living expenses in the city.

"I have been in Ho Chi Minh City for more than 10 years and have lived in this boarding house for 5 years. In difficult times like this, workers like me are grateful for the kind landlord who cares about workers. Not only the year-end party, he also regularly visits, supports and organizes many activities to care for workers in the boarding house. For poor workers, those things make us feel comforted," said Ms. Dao.

Busy among the group of female workers, Mr. Dang Van Huong (also known as Mr. Muoi Huong, 79 years old), the owner of the boarding house, was bent over preparing food and gifts.

Despite his old age, Mr. Huong still prepares food and gifts with the workers in the boarding house to celebrate Tet (Photo: Nguyen Vy).

In addition to the food, he specially prepared 72 gifts (including food and groceries worth more than 300,000 VND) from his own pocket, plus a portion of local support for workers renting accommodation.

"The year-end party had 6 tables, more than 40 people attended because at this time the workers in the boarding house were still busy working outside, not having time to come back to gather. But I prepared enough gifts, each room had a portion to hand out," said Mr. Huong.

He has been running the boarding house since 2003 and has organized year-end parties for the workers there more than 10 times. The boarding house has 72 rooms, but only 10 people registered to stay in the city for Tet. Therefore, he decided to prepare the party early so that all the workers could attend.

The dishes were cooked and prepared by Mr. Huong's family and workers in the boarding house (Photo: Nguyen Vy).

"The total cost of organizing the party and gifts is about 35-40 million VND. Even though the economy is difficult this year, I still try to arrange everything properly, bringing a little warmth and joy to the workers in the dormitory, so that people far from home feel comforted after a hard year," Mr. Huong confided.

At 79 years old, unable to do heavy work, the landlord has been slowly preparing since October, planning to work and choose gifts for the workers. In the new year, Mr. Huong hopes to expand the low-cost accommodation area, so that more workers have a place to live and work with peace of mind.

The year-end party was held on the evening of January 21, close to the full moon of December (Photo: Nguyen Vy).

"Having opened a boarding house for more than 20 years, I have many happy and sad memories. In the beginning, many people came to stay but secretly skipped out on rent, left or caused trouble, disturbing public order and security. My family was very worried.

Later, thanks to our sincere support and sharing with the tenants, the boarding house gradually became more stable and orderly, and many worker families chose to stay longer," said Mr. Huong.

Mr. Huong and Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong Sen, Permanent Vice President of District 7 Labor Federation, presented gifts to workers at the boarding house (Photo: Nguyen Vy).

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong Sen, Permanent Vice President of the Labor Federation of District 7, said that the area currently has 28 boarding houses under the management of the district. Recently, due to the difficult economic situation, the lives of workers, especially those in the Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone, have faced many fluctuations and difficulties.

In that context, the District 7 Labor Federation tries to organize more activities to support and care for the lives of workers in the area. On the occasion of Tet alone, the unit spent 2.5 billion VND to give 5,000 gifts (each worth 500,000 VND) to workers.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/an-sinh/chu-tro-tuoi-80-chi-40-trieu-dong-dai-tiec-tat-nien-tang-qua-cong-nhan-20240121194105122.htm