Youth Union gives livelihood to young people doing business

Means of livelihood as unexpected and meaningful gifts have been supported by many Youth Unions in Ho Chi Minh City, providing additional resources to help young people stabilize their lives.

With the donated photocopier, Quang Nhat has a stable source of income to spend more time studying - Photo: KA

Not only helping young people in difficulty, many means also reach reformed people, after drug rehabilitation, to reintegrate into the community after months of mistakes.

A meaningful gift for you

The photocopier was given to Quang Nhat's family by the People's Committee of District 10 and Ward 9. Due to difficult circumstances, Nhat dropped out of school in 10th grade to work to help his family, so now at the age of 20, he is taking a 12th grade cultural supplementary course.

Nhat said he worked as a waiter at restaurants but always thought about going back to school. After more than two years of working, he chose to study at a supplementary program at night and work at a restaurant during the day. The members of the Vietnam Youth Union of the ward and district, knowing his situation, found a way to support Nhat with a photocopy machine, creating conditions to place it right at the Ward 9 People's Committee headquarters to help him work extra.

"Since I started working as a photocopier, I don't have to work as a restaurant assistant, so I have more time to study. I plan to continue my studies at college to graduate quickly and find a job to support myself and my family," Nhat confided.

To raise funds to donate the machine and help Japan operate it, Ms. Dang Thi Kim Ngan - Secretary of the Ward Youth Union, President of the Vietnam Youth Union of Ward 9 - said that the survey showed that there was a high demand for people to photocopy documents when they came to the Ward People's Committee for notarization, so they decided to donate this machine.

"The budget was mobilized by the District Youth Union and Association from the ward's proposal. We want to share the difficulties with Nhat, because he has to work extra to have money to go to school and cover living expenses. Luckily, the ward leaders have created many favorable conditions for Nhat to be able to install the machine right at the ward People's Committee headquarters," said Ms. Ngan.

Introducing startup products of young people at Phu Nhuan Startup Space - Photo: KA

Back to the bright path

One of the programs that the Vietnam Youth Union at all levels has maintained for many years is the "Journey of Faith" program. With this journey, the youth go to schools, rehabilitation centers, and prisons to meet and advise young people who have made mistakes in choosing a path after rehabilitation or serving their prison terms.

Ms. NTM (District 8) is one of the young people who have completed their sentence and returned to their locality and have been supported by the Vietnam Youth Union of the ward and district with means of livelihood. Ms. M. sells snacks and needs a sugarcane juice cart to have money to send her two children to school, so the Vietnam Youth Union of the district and the ward together mobilized funds to give her a sugarcane juice cart.

She was released from prison after more than 5 years of serving her sentence, returned home to raise her two children alone and periodically visit her husband in prison, so with the additional sugarcane juice cart she was given, Ms. M. said she also earned a little extra to cover her living expenses and send her children to school. The couple went to prison when their children were still young, and had to send them to relatives to help raise them.

"I'll go home first because my husband still has a dozen years left, so I'll try to work hard to take care of my child. Being away from him for more than 5 years is really haunting. The days in prison really made me feel like I was nothing to my child. Now, at any cost, I have to be a decent person so my child can look up to me," Ms. M. expressed.

Helping young people who have made mistakes reintegrate into the community

Summarizing the 2019 - 2024 term, the Youth Union of districts, towns and Thu Duc City has diversified activities in the program "Journey of Faith". At the same time, it has commended exemplary groups and clubs supporting reformed youth and post-addiction drug rehabilitation to reintegrate into the community.

To date, more than 2,200 young people have been supported to reintegrate into the community, 264 progressive young people have been honored, and 3,790 progressive young people have been recognized. Of these, 941 progressive young people have been admitted to the Vietnam Youth Union.

Find more funds to help young people start and establish businesses

Supporting young people to start a business and establish a career is also an activity that the City Association has invested heavily in and achieved many results.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Dieu Hang - Director of the Youth Startup Support Center (BSSC) under the Vietnam Youth Union of Ho Chi Minh City - said:

- In the last term, the activities to support young entrepreneurs in Ho Chi Minh City were quite strong and effective. BSSC continued to improve the quality and implement key, annual programs such as the Youth Entrepreneurship Support Fund and the international Start-up Wheel competition with the participation of contestants from more than 30 countries.

* The need for start-up capital is quite large but the current funding sources cannot fully meet it?

- The Youth Startup Support Fund is one of the useful and timely tools to support young people in economic activities. More than 300 billion VND has been disbursed for over 1,500 projects. However, with current regulations, increasing the scale of the fund cannot be implemented in the old way and must be returned to the City People's Committee on schedule.

Therefore, this fund is currently suspending new loans, focusing only on recovering the fund for repayment. This creates many difficulties for young people starting a business, especially during the economic recovery period after the COVID-19 pandemic. While waiting for guidance from the City and relevant agencies, BSSC has proactively worked with credit institutions and banks to coordinate and provide timely support for those who want to start a business.

* What can young people in the city expect from the familiar startup and career support activities?

- BSSC continues its role as a companion to young people in starting up and innovating through maintaining activities that have become a brand and have had many good results in recent times. In addition, BSSC will research, improve the quality and improve the implementation method so that the activities are always new, attractive and effective.

It can be said that the "delicious dishes" typical of BSSC such as Start-up Wheel, InnoEx, Youth Startup Support Fund... are still being promoted, but in the coming time, "new flavors" will be added to truly suit the trends of young people, while promoting the role of BSSC as well as the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Union in building Ho Chi Minh City into a creative startup city.

BSSC has launched Phu Nhuan Startup Space (PNIC) - a new creative startup space. PNIC is a typical cooperation model between city and district level units with the goal of incubating startup projects in the fields of healthcare, education and social impact.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/hoi-lien-hiep-thanh-nien-trao-sinh-ke-cung-ban-tre-lam-an-20241102222455483.htm