Ethnic minority female youth inspires entrepreneurship

Overcoming gender stereotypes, not accepting fate, studying hard and constantly striving, many young ethnic minority women in Lao Cai have successfully started their own businesses. The process of overcoming themselves has become an inspirational story for young people struggling to start their own businesses.

In Ban Pho village, Muong Hoa commune (Sa Pa town), there are more than 70 tourism businesses, most of which are owned by young people, but the homestay model of the young Mong woman Giang Thi Ly is the most impressive. The homestay is located next to a small slope with a beautiful view overlooking Muong Hoa valley. The homestay is built entirely of wood, including 8 private rooms and 4 dormitory rooms. Around the homestay, Giang Thi Ly and her husband grow many flowers. The homestay mainly welcomes foreign guests. In addition, Giang Thi Ly also organizes trekking tours and works as a tour guide.

Previously, Giang Thi Ly often followed women in the village to sell goods on the street, clinging to tourists, selling a few bags and bracelets all day, hard work and uncivilized. In 2018, Giang Thi Ly discussed with her husband to renovate the house into a homestay with the money the couple had saved and sold 3 buffaloes of the family. In 2019, the homestay had not been put into use for long when the Covid-19 epidemic hit, causing the business to completely freeze. Difficulties did not discourage her, in 2022, when the epidemic passed, Giang Thi Ly's homestay resumed operation, with the dynamic and creative management of the young owner, the homestay quickly attracted many domestic and foreign tourists. Currently, Giang Thi Ly's homestay creates stable jobs for 6-7 local workers.

To run a homestay, in addition to management skills, Giang Thi Ly is also very good at English. She shared that her English learning process was all due to perseverance. "I often looked for free classes opened by volunteer organizations in Sa Pa, studied via the internet and talked to and got to know foreigners. Gradually, I became confident in communicating with foreigners in English" - Giang Thi Ly confided.

Lo Din Sui is a young woman of the Bo Y ethnic group living in Lao Chai village, Muong Khuong town (Muong Khuong district). Since childhood, in addition to studying at school, Lo Din Sui also helped her parents with housework. When she grew up, Lo Din Sui followed the villagers to China to trade and work. Along the way, she saw tangerine gardens with fruit laden with branches. Lo Din Sui thought of the empty plot of land in her family's field, and dreamed of owning such a large tangerine garden in the future.

In 2013, Lo Din Sui imported 3,000 tangerine seedlings from China to try planting in her home garden. While planting, she learned about care, pest control, and disease prevention from people who had successfully grown tangerines in the village. While waiting for the tangerines to grow, Lo Din Sui asked to work in the tangerine gardens of Chinese owners. Sui's job was to prune branches, fertilize, and water. She tried hard to participate in all the processes from care to harvesting. While working, she asked the Chinese people about the "secrets" of tangerine trees, and gradually Lo Din Sui mastered all the techniques for growing this type of tree. When she had enough knowledge, Lo Din Sui boldly bought 3,000 more seedlings to expand the area.

In 2017, the tangerine garden yielded its first harvest with delicious, sweet fruit. The tangerine garden brought Lo Din Sui's family a stable income of more than 100 million VND/year. Sharing his experience in growing and caring for tangerines, Lo Din Sui said: Red spiders often appear on tangerine trees, so growers need to pay special attention to thoroughly exterminating this type of insect.

Lo Din Sui's tangerine garden is in a beautiful location. She also invested in a small concrete road along the tangerine garden and built a tangerine picking experience model in the garden. The tangerine growing model of the Bo Y female youth has spread the entrepreneurial spirit of many other young people in the village. To date, Lao Chai has more than 20 young people growing tangerines...

Starting a business has never been easy, especially for young ethnic minority women. Despite many failures, with determination, perseverance, and hard work, young ethnic minority women such as Lo Din Sui and Giang Thi Ly have gradually achieved success. What they have in common is that they are creative young people who dare to think, dare to do, and dare to take challenges. The economic development model of young ethnic minority women has been spreading the entrepreneurial spirit of young people in the highlands, contributing to building a rich and beautiful homeland.

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