Soldiers who "defeated the enemy in the past, now defeat poverty"

Ha Trung District Veterans Association visited the peanut candy production model of Yen Son commune members.

In 1981, when he had just turned 17, with his youth and desire to contribute, Mr. Nguyen Van Xuan in Hau Hien town (Thieu Hoa) declared his age to join the army as he wished. After 3 months of training, Mr. Xuan joined the army and was mobilized to help Cambodia fight against the Pol Pot Ieng Sary army. With the main task of reconnaissance, grasping the enemy situation and guiding our troops to fight the enemy, after 3 years of working in the neighboring country, during a mission, Mr. Xuan was injured and discharged and returned to his hometown.

Maintaining the enthusiasm of a returning soldier, Mr. Nguyen Van Xuan has gone through many different jobs. In 2007, implementing the land consolidation and plot exchange policy of Thieu Hoa district, he pioneered the conversion of 1.2 hectares of ineffective agricultural land into fish breeding, pig breeding and animal feed business. With 18 years of experience overcoming difficulties to pursue economic development, Mr. Nguyen Van Xuan said: “Raising fish breeding is a sure win. Raising pigs has risks but not much. Selling animal feed gives a stable income. With this right direction, on average each year my family earns a profit of 700 - 800 million VND, in some years it reaches up to a billion VND”.

Excitedly sharing with us, Mr. Le Gia Dam, Chairman of the Veterans Association of Thieu Hoa district, said: “In the period of 2019-2024, the movement "Veterans help each other reduce poverty, do good business" has increased rapidly in quantity and scale of economic types. As a locality with many advantages in agriculture, the District Veterans Association has closely followed the district's economic development program, the stimulus policies of the State and the locality to propagate cadres and members to boldly develop comprehensive economic models... Many Veterans Association members have clearly affirmed their exemplary pioneering role in production and business. Therefore, the number of poor Veterans Association members in Thieu Hoa district in 2024 has decreased to very little, only 0.01%, the number of well-off and rich Veterans Association households has increased to 71%, and the lives of members are increasingly improved".

Recalling the years of struggling to pave the way for the historic Ho Chi Minh Campaign, veteran Nguyen The Huong, Hoang Kim commune (Hoang Hoa) did not talk much about the difficulties, losses, and sacrifices. Living in peacetime, all the memories and reminiscences of the past have transformed into determination and motivation for him to constantly strive to improve. Clinging to the agricultural roots left by his father, veteran Nguyen The Huong chose to invest in agriculture and bought land preparation machines and rice threshing machines to serve farmers. In the beginning, business was quite stable, but gradually income decreased, so he switched to buying construction material mining machines. After 10 years of struggling in the economy, in 2002, veteran Nguyen The Huong decided to quit the construction material mining business and invested in barns to raise geese, chickens, ducks for breeding, and then pigeons. As a pioneer in economic development, Mr. Huong also boldly invested more than 2 billion VND to build a recreational fishing lake of more than 1.2 hectares. His dynamism and acumen in economic development have helped his family earn an income of 400 - 500 million VND/year after deducting expenses.

Mr. Dang Manh Hung, Chairman of the Association of War Veterans in Hoang Hoa district, shared: “Most of the members of the Association of War Veterans in Hoang Hoa district are attached to the fields. To help members develop the economy from the local land, the Association at all levels has organized for officials and members to visit and learn from experiences in many places. At the same time, advising the local Party Committee and government to create conditions for members to receive land contracts and contracts to develop farms and family farms. The Association of War Veterans in the district also signed a contract to receive a trust from the Social Policy Bank for 113 billion VND and maintained an internal fund source contributed by members for loans to develop the economy. To help each other in the process of production and consumption of products, communes and towns have established 37 clubs of good production and business of War Veterans. Thanks to that, in 5 years, the whole district has developed 31 enterprises, 20 traditional craft cooperatives, 81 farms, 387 family farms, 8 The production and business complex owned by CCB creates jobs for thousands of local workers.

Closing 5 years of implementing the emulation movement "Exemplary war veterans" in the period of 2019-2024, the whole province has 3,132 war veteran households escaping poverty, 2,746 war veteran households rising to be well-off and rich, bringing the rate of poor war veteran households in the whole province down to 1.88%, the rate of well-off and rich war veteran households increasing to 60.14%. To achieve this result, war veteran associations at all levels in the province have propagated and mobilized members to actively change crop seasons, bringing high-value crops and livestock into production and breeding. Along with organizing hundreds of training courses on transferring scientific and technical advances, associations at all levels have stood up to guarantee and accept entrustment with the Social Policy Bank and mobilized other capital sources of nearly 3,000 billion VND for members to borrow for economic development. Many localities have had new and creative ways of doing things such as establishing clubs such as "War veterans help each other develop the economy", "War veterans do good business at the grassroots level", "War veterans volunteer groups help each other with production capital"...

After 5 years of implementing the emulation movement "Exemplary war veterans", Thanh Hoa War Veterans Association was awarded the Emulation Flag for Excellent Unit by the Central Executive Committee of Vietnam War Veterans Association. This is a very encouraging achievement, proving the will, determination and bravery of Uncle Ho's soldiers. No matter what front they are on, they are always shining examples for future generations to learn and follow.

Article and photos: To Phuong

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/nhung-nguoi-linh-xua-thang-giac-nay-thang-ngheo-243692.htm