Socialization - effective solution to build cultural houses in Dien Bien Dong

Lesson 1: In difficulty… “innovation emerges”

Many villages in Dien Bien Dong district have not invested in building village cultural houses, leading to difficulties in organization; the effectiveness of cultural and artistic activities, learning, and community activities is limited.

Cultural house "village chief"

At the beginning of 2020, Dien Bien Dong district only had 112/198 villages and residential groups with cultural houses. The lack of cultural houses makes organizing community activities difficult.

Arriving at Na Lai village (Luan Gioi commune), Village Chief Lo Van Dung introduced us to the “Na Lai village hall”. Mr. Dung pointed to a small living room of about 30 square ^meters , with a set of tables, chairs, a TV, and old shelves. For many years, Mr. Dung’s family’s living room has been considered the “cultural house” - where most of the activities of Na Lai village take place.

The space is small and has little capacity. Many times when there is a communal event in the village, Mr. Dung can only announce and invite representatives of the households. Mr. Dung uses all the chairs in the house, borrows some from his neighbors, but still has to spread out two large plastic mats for everyone to sit on.

Mr. Lo Van Dung said: “The village does not have a cultural house, so all activities from village meetings; Party cell meetings; implementation of the Party's policies and guidelines, the State's laws; performing arts practice to preliminary and final reviews and festivals... are all held at the village chief's house. The village has 55 households, many activities have hundreds of participants while the conditions and facilities of the families are not enough to meet the demand, organizing activities is indeed very difficult, from which the effectiveness of some activities is very limited".

Na Lai villagers unanimously contributed to building the village cultural house.

Mr. Lo Van Dung, a resident of Na Lai village, said: Many meetings have content related to the direct interests of each person, but the village only invites representatives. Not everyone is able to fully convey it to family members. Some content that people do not hear directly, so when implementing it, they encounter difficulties and confusion. For example, the content of policies and guidelines for planting macadamia trees; land and forest allocation; implementation of citizen identification cards, electronic identification, digital transformation... Or like some community activities such as the National Great Unity Day, people lack places to organize and participate in activities, so the activities are not organized systematically and fully.

Not only the highland villages with difficult conditions, but also the villages located in the center of communes and towns have not yet invested in building cultural houses.

Pa Nam - the central village of Chieng So commune has 95 households, 451 people, 100% of whom are Thai ethnic people. The number of households and people is large, but every time a village meeting or cultural and artistic activities are held, the whole village gathers at the village chief's house. There is no place for activities, so the effectiveness of the activities is only average.

Although Pa Nam is the center of Chieng So commune, for many years Pa Nam village has not invested in building a village cultural house. In the photo: A corner of the center of Pa Nam village.

Mr. Lo Van Thoa, Head of Pa Nam village, said: All activities of conference and meeting nature are held at the village chief's house. Many meetings have to be held under the floor and in the yard due to the large number of participants. The village has to mobilize people to contribute to buy some necessary equipment. The family also spends money to buy plastic chairs for people to attend the meetings. For cultural and artistic activities, the great solidarity festival on a village scale must be held at the school or the Chieng So commune cultural house. Each time like that, it is very difficult to move and transport things.

Determined to solve difficult "problems"

Based on practical needs, people in villages and residential groups are eager to invest in building cultural houses. However, to build cultural houses, Dien Bien Dong district has to face great difficulties, which are lack of land and funding. The estimated investment cost to build a village cultural house is about 150 - 200 million VND. With 86 villages without a cultural house, the total investment cost is about 20 billion VND. This is truly a "cornerstone" that Dien Bien Dong finds difficult to overcome. Faced with this situation, Dien Bien Dong district has agreed on the solution of socializing resources to build village cultural houses.

Since 2018, some communes have pioneered in registering to build 1-2 village cultural houses/year. The People's Committees of the communes mobilized enterprises with projects to implement construction in the area; called for support from departments and boards and mobilized philanthropists. However, this method has not really been effective, not creating an emulation movement. In the period of 2018 - 2020, the whole district only built 3-4 more village cultural houses/year; the program's progress was very slow.

Mr. Nguyen Van Tang, Vice Chairman of Dien Bien Dong District People's Committee, said: Realizing the limitations in the implementation methods of the commune-level government, the District People's Committee has studied new ways of doing things. Regarding land funds, the District People's Committee requested communes, villages, and residential groups to propagate and mobilize people to donate land. Regarding funding, the Dien Bien Dong District People's Committee agreed to use funding from the forest environmental service payment policy to invest in and build cultural houses. After that, the District People's Committee submitted and received the consent of the Standing Committee of the District Party Committee and the Standing Committee of the District Party Committee on the policy of using funding sources. At the same time, the District Party Committee included the content of eliminating "blank" cultural houses as one of the targets of the Resolution of the District Party Congress.

Having a "legal corridor", in 2021, Dien Bien Dong district included the content of socializing village cultural houses in the annual assigned targets for communes and towns. The district People's Committee assigned socialized expenditures to support the construction of village cultural houses to 8 agencies, departments and offices of the district, with a minimum of 2 cultural houses/unit/year. At the same time, it called on and mobilized cadres, civil servants, public employees and party members from the district to the commune level to set an example in supporting funds and contributing to the construction of village cultural houses.

The construction plan was specific but when implemented at the grassroots level, it also encountered many difficulties. Ms. Lo Thi Quyen, Chairwoman of the People's Committee of Luan Gioi Commune, said: At first, people did not agree to donate land and use money paid for forest environmental services to build a cultural house. In that situation, Luan Gioi Commune focused on propaganda and mobilizing people. Each village organized dozens of meetings and conferences, from centralized propaganda to individual mobilization. Gradually, people understood that the village cultural house brought many benefits, from which 100% of the village agreed to donate land, contribute funds and labor days for construction.

Na Lai village cultural house started construction in August 2023, inaugurated and put into use in January 2024.

Mr. Lo Van Yem, Secretary of the Na Lai Village Party Cell, Luan Gioi Commune, shared: In the first meetings, people opposed the policy proposed by the district. The village Party Cell organized meetings, assigned tasks to each Party member to propagate to each household, promoting the pioneering and exemplary spirit of Party members. Accordingly, the village chief volunteered to donate more than 200m2 of rice fields; Party members contributed an additional 400,000 VND/household to build a cultural house. Following suit, 100% of households agreed and joined hands to build the village cultural house.

Lesson 2: All people unite to build a village cultural house

Source