Over the years, the Women's Union at all levels in Kim Boi district (Hoa Binh province) has actively coordinated with local authorities and socio-political organizations to strengthen propaganda and mobilization efforts aimed at enhancing the role and status of women in family life; Simultaneously, it aims to raise community awareness and responsibility regarding the prevention of child marriage and consanguineous marriage. After more than three years of implementing the National Target Program for socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas for the period 2021-2030 (National Target Program 1719), with the involvement of the entire political system, the appearance of ethnic minority and mountainous areas in Quang Nam province has gradually changed, with many localities on the path to prosperity. On November 11th, at the Party Central Headquarters, General Secretary To Lam worked with the Subcommittees on Documents and the Subcommittee on Party Charter of the 14th Party Congress, giving opinions on the draft Political Report and the draft Report summarizing Party building work and the implementation of the Party Charter to further refine them before submitting them to the Politburo for consideration. Dong Cay Dau is a small hamlet belonging to Nuoc Giap village, Ba Kham commune, Ba To district (Quang Ngai). Approximately 100 people of the Hrê ethnic group have lived here for decades, but they lack roads, electricity, and clean water. Their difficult lives continue day after day, month after month. The longing for roads, electricity, and unified management of household registration, land use, and other resources to stabilize their lives has been a practical aspiration of the people for many years, yet remains unfulfilled. The Central Office for New Rural Development Coordination announced that after the second meeting of the Central-level One Commune One Product (OCOP) evaluation and ranking council in 2024, the council recognized five more products as achieving national-level OCOP certification in the group of medicinal herbs and products derived from medicinal herbs. The Tha La fish market (Cay Cham hamlet, Vinh Te commune, Chau Doc city, An Giang province) is also known as the "underworld" market because it operates at night, with buyers and sellers bustling about but unable to clearly see each other's faces. We stumbled upon this unique market during our exploration of the waterways of the Mekong Delta. The practice of writing on palm leaves has a long history and is famous not only in the Bay Nui region of An Giang province but also throughout the Mekong Delta. This heritage is preserved and promoted by the Khmer people in An Giang. Currently, the only person in An Giang province who fully possesses the technique of writing on palm leaves is Venerable Chau Ty (82 years old, abbot of Soai So Pagoda, Nui To commune, Tri Ton district). Venerable Chau Ty, a respected figure, is the 9th generation successor of the head monk of Xvay Ton Pagoda. After more than 3 years of implementing the National Target Program for socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas for the period 2021-2030 (National Target Program 1719), with the involvement of the entire political system, the appearance of ethnic minority and mountainous areas in Quang Nam province has gradually changed, with many localities on the path to prosperity every day. The summary news of the Ethnic and Development Newspaper, November 8th, includes the following noteworthy information: Many attractive activities at the "Great Unity of Ethnic Groups - Vietnamese Cultural Heritage" Week. Enchanting highlands of Ky Son. The shining example of A Mlưn. Along with other current news in the ethnic minority and mountainous regions, following the directives from the Central and provincial authorities, the Vinh Phuc Ethnic Affairs Committee is continuing to promote the dissemination of key tasks for ethnic minority and mountainous areas in the remaining months of 2024. This contributes to raising awareness and responsibility among people in ethnic minority and mountainous areas regarding the implementation of the Party's guidelines, State policies and laws, promoting socio-economic development, and improving people's lives. In order to help people in provinces affected by Typhoon Yagi (Typhoon No. 3) restore production and stabilize their lives, the City Red Cross Society... Ho Chi Minh City donated 600 breeding cows to the people of four provinces: Lao Cai, Yen Bai , Cao Bang, and Thai Nguyen. Located at the northeastern gateway of the country, Lang Son possesses many advantages in terms of natural conditions, a rich cultural heritage, and a system of invaluable tangible and intangible cultural heritage of ethnic minorities. These strengths will propel Lang Son's tourism industry to a new level of development. However, for tourism in Lang Son to truly "take off," these potentials – these "treasures" – need to be exploited on a larger scale and in a more systematic way. The project supporting production development (Sub-project 1 – Project 3) under the National Target Program on sustainable poverty reduction, implemented in Thai Nguyen province, has been yielding positive results. Through the project's funding, many households have been able to develop production, increase income, and have more opportunities to escape poverty. In efforts to find solutions to minimize child marriage and consanguineous marriage among ethnic minority communities, the resources from the National Target Program for socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, Phase I (2021-2025), have enabled localities in Nghe An province to proactively develop and implement many innovative models and approaches, gradually pushing back child marriage and consanguineous marriage in their areas.
Responsibilities of each female member
Cau Hamlet in Hung Son Commune has 176 households, mainly of the Muong ethnic group. For many years, thanks to effective propaganda and mobilization efforts, no cases of child marriage have been detected in Cau Hamlet. However, in 2024, there was one case of a girl marrying at the young age of 16 while still attending school.
Ms. Bui Thi Mai Xuan, Head of the Women's Association and Population and Health Collaborator in Cau hamlet, said: "Over the years, the Women's Association has always strived to propagate and mobilize people and has achieved positive results, with no cases of child marriage for many consecutive years. However, this year, due to just one case of child marriage, the Association failed to achieve its set goal."
Ms. Mai Xuan also emphasized that the Women's Association of Cau Hamlet has 84 members. Upon learning about the child marriage case, the Association coordinated with the Front Committee and the Hamlet's Mediation Team to repeatedly visit and persuade the family, but to no avail. The family insisted on holding the wedding ceremony because they said it was according to the Dao people's custom of marrying on the afterlife. Although they were from the same hamlet, the members of the Hamlet Management Board unanimously agreed that no one would attend the wedding.
According to Bui Thi Mai Xuan, the head of the Women's Association in the hamlet, in recent years, the association has been very active in disseminating information on preventing and combating child marriage and consanguineous marriage, integrating this content into the association's meetings and activities. The association invites the commune's population work committee to conduct awareness campaigns; when there are articles promoting and combating child marriage and consanguineous marriage, they are posted on the hamlet's Zalo group and the Women's Association's Zalo group so that all women members and all hamlet members are aware of them.
To eliminate child marriage, Mai Xuan affirmed that, in the coming time, she will be even more resolute in her propaganda and mobilization efforts, especially in branch meetings and village gatherings.
Diverse forms of propaganda
According to Ms. Bui Thi Ha, Chairwoman of the Women's Union of Hung Son commune, Hung Son commune has 12 women's union branches with over 1300 members, and the percentage of ethnic minorities accounts for up to 95%, mainly the Muong and Dao people.
Over the years, the Women's Union of Hung Son commune has intensified its efforts to raise awareness among its female members about preventing child marriage through various methods, such as: disseminating information during group and union meetings; incorporating this content into emulation movements and annual branch-level emulation criteria to enhance the responsibility of each member in spreading the message to their relatives, families, and neighbors;... When cases of impending child marriage are detected, the women in the branch will directly visit the families to educate and persuade them. As a result, the awareness of the female members and the people has changed significantly.
In the coming time, the Women's Union of the commune will further strengthen its propaganda and mobilization work through more diverse content and forms, such as organizing theatrical exchanges and creating short plays on preventing and combating domestic violence, so that people can easily remember and understand them, and the effectiveness of the propaganda work will be higher.
In addition, the Association will continue to implement successful models in localities such as: the "5 No's and 3 Cleanliness" model; the "Happy Family Club" model, the "Muong Gong Club" model; the "Collection and Sorting of Recyclable Plastic Waste" model, the "Green House" model... to help protect the environment. Through these models, women can interact and learn from each other, creating a widespread emulation movement and thereby positively impacting the work of preventing and combating domestic violence in the branches.
Project 8's activities on preventing and combating HIV/AIDS and HIV/AIDS.
To prevent the problem of child marriage and consanguineous marriage, over the years, the Kim Boi District Women's Union has established various club models, such as: Happy Family Club, Women and the Law Club, Club against having a third child… in the hamlets. These clubs focus on disseminating legal policies to raise awareness and promote compliance with the law among members and women. In particular, members and women in remote areas are educated on population, marriage and family law, and issues related to child marriage and consanguineous marriage.
In 2022, to implement the targets of Project 8, which addresses urgent issues for ethnic minority women and children under the National Target Program for socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, the Kim Boi District Women's Union developed a plan and coordinated with the Women's Unions of 14 communes to implement the project, establishing 14 pilot Community Communication Teams (CCTs). Although newly operational, these teams have consistently strived to diversify their communication methods, selecting forms suitable for each content and target group; thereby achieving initial positive results.
According to Ms. Quach Thi Diem, Vice President of the Kim Boi District Women's Union, based on the district's pilot model, the Women's Unions of other districts have replicated the model to establish Community Self-Help Teams according to the allocated targets. To date, the entire district has established 73 Community Self-Help Team models (meeting the target set by the Provincial Women's Union for 2025) with 732 members participating, including Party Branch Secretaries, Village/Hamlet Heads, Police Officers, Village Health Workers, Women's Union Branch Leaders, Veterans, Youth Union members, and influential community leaders. Among them, the Party Branch Secretary/Village/Hamlet Head plays a core role as the team leader. These individuals are responsible and capable of connecting and assigning tasks to other members.
In 2023 alone, the district organized one competition and eleven exchange nights to learn about the Law on Prevention and Control of Domestic Violence and the Prevention of Childbirth and Childbirth, with nearly 13,000 participants. In addition, the District Women's Union strengthened training and guidance, consolidating the capacity of commune-level community communication teams and their members; guided digital communication on sharing and disseminating the activities of these communication teams; and monitored and provided technical support to communes to ensure the effective implementation of these communication teams.
The Women's Union branches at all levels in Kim Boi district are promoting and diversifying forms of propaganda on gender equality and the importance of family and children's rights to female members and the people. These forms of propaganda are implemented flexibly, creatively, and appropriately, such as: integrating it into branch meetings, distributing leaflets, creating documentaries, holding seminars, competitions, workshops, disseminating information on social media such as the Union's website, Fanpage, Zalo, and Facebook; and conducting policy dialogues at the commune and village cluster levels.
It can be seen that, through many practical solutions, the Women's Union at all levels in Kim Boi district has contributed to the efforts of the entire political system and all levels and sectors to significantly reduce the number of child marriages in the area, and currently there are no cases of child marriage.
In 2015, Hoa Binh province recorded 516 cases of child marriage, with Kim Boi district having the highest number at 125 cases; in 2017, the province had 399 cases, with Kim Boi district still having the highest number at 89 cases. Faced with this situation, the entire political system of Kim Boi district has taken action with various solutions to reduce child marriage. Currently, Kim Boi district no longer has any cases of consanguineous marriage, and the rate of child marriage has decreased significantly in recent years. Specifically, in 2021, Kim Boi district had 12 cases of child marriage; in 2022, 16 cases; in 2023, 16 cases; and in 2024, 7 cases.
Source: https://baodantoc.vn/giam-thieu-tao-hon-va-hon-nhan-can-huyet-thong-o-kim-boi-hoa-binh-phu-nu-chung-tay-day-lui-tao-hon-bai-cuoi-1731208539962.htm
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