The local people now trust in the Party’s guidelines, the State’s laws and policies, and coordinate with local border guards to defend territorial sovereignty, and uphold security and order in border areas.
Pro-actively disseminating laws to local people
Xin Cai Border Post is tasked with managing nearly 24km of border section and Xin Cai and Thuong Phung communes with nearly 2,000 households and 11,000 people from nine ethnic minority groups, namely H’mong, Xuong, Giay, Tay, Nung, Lo Lo, Dao, Thai and Hoa. Seventy percent of the two communes’ population are H’mong people, who live in 32 villages, 11 of which are close to the border.
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A dissemination session on human smuggling prevention launched by Xin Cai Border Post |
Although the localities’ rocky terrains and harsh weather conditions affect local border guards’ task performance, they have done their utmost to help improve the living standards of local people and at the same time consolidate defense-security posture there.
Colonel Nguyen Xuan Dong, Political Officer of Xin Cai Border Post, shared that Xin Cai is really a disadvantaged commune of Meo Vac district. It shares over 8km borderline with China. Locals’ life is still hard due to difficulty in terrains and shortage of production land. Over half of the local households are living in poverty and backward customs remain.
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Guiding locals on how to turn hilly land into arable land with high economic efficiency |
According to the official, bad people taking advantage of locals’ limited awareness to act; illegal border crossings to China; illegal trafficking of cattle across borders, and more have impacted the locality’s order and security and caused difficulties for the law dissemination work.
To effectively disseminate law to local people, border guards have to study their language and understand their culture. Captain Do Huu Lam, head of the Mass Mobilization Team of Xin Cai Border Post, said that they have tried to learn and understand part of locals’ language to facilitate communication. All dissemination contents for them are short, easy-to-understand, and suitable to their culture, and customs.
Participating in a dissemination session on the fight against drug trafficking and human smuggling, Mua Mi Cai from Lung Van Chai village, Xin Cai commune said, “border guards showed us the tricks of human traffickers and how they would deceive us through cellphones, seduction of flirting or love, or giving of tasty food and beautiful clothes. We, women, know them all. Now we have told each other not to be deceived anymore.” Meanwhile, over 50-year-old Mua Song De said that he would advise his children and grandchildren to stay away from drugs to lead a happy life.
A fulcrum for locals to develop economy
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Distributing leaflets on law to local people |
Xin Cai is seen as the poorest and coldest commune with the most difficult terrains, and complicated security situation of Ha Giang province and has 69% of poor households and over 30% of near-poor households. To lift this locality up, troops of Xin Cai Border Post has launched various movements, and good models.
Sung Sua Lu used to follow an evil religion and left home. He later acknowledged his wrongdoings and returned home. The local authorities and border guard force visited and guided him on how to develop economy. Now he is living in a spacious house and his family is raising seven cows. Lu is also one of the good dissemination activists to help raise locals’ awareness of bad people.
Another family having received effective support from Xin Cai Boder Post is the family of Giang Mi Po in Xin Phin Chu village, Thuong Phung commune. The post and other benefactors provided him with a breeding cow and over 200 pear trees. He hoped that he could harvest pears this year to raise the family’s income and escape poverty.
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Raising people’s awareness of law through these leaflets |
The two above families are among the 13 poor ones getting support from Xin Cai Border Post in collaboration with benefactors. Xin Cai border guards have also contributed hundreds of working days to build inter-village roads, canals and other civil facilities, helping positively change the life of ethnic minority people in this border area.
Visiting local people now, one can hear stories about local border guards and their helping hands. It is sure that with their great efforts, local troops with green badges will protect the firm people’s security and all people’s border disposition, contributing to local socio-economic development and safeguarding of national border.
Translated by Mai Huong