Bach Thong (Bac Kan) – Effective from a livelihood project for people

The project "Improving livelihoods for poor communities, continuation” is implemented from August 2023 in 22 villages of Bach Thong district with the donor from Bread for the World, implemented by the Center for Promoting Development for Women and Children (DWC). Although it is only halfway through, the effectiveness of the project has contributed significantly to improving the livelihood of the community, especially the poor and women.

"Improving the livelihood of poor communities in Bach Thong has brought practical effects to the people"

In Don Phong commune, the support of the project has contributed to helping the people of Don Phong commune, a poor commune of Bach Thong district, have significant changes. The bridge over the stream in Na Pan village, Don Phong commune, although only more than 1m wide and more than 5m long, has been a dream of the people for many years. With a budget of only 80 million VND from the Project, people have joined hands to build this dream bridge. Mr. Trieu Sun Son, Na Pan village, Don Phong commune said: " In the past, it was very difficult for our people to travel, in the rainy season, children often miss school because the spring water rose high, they could not walk. Since there was a project to support the village, we were able to build a bridge, the people were very happy."

As soon as the project on Improving livelihoods for poor communities continued to be implemented, there were 5 meetings to appraise sub-projects in the commune, through which 25 sub-projects were approved for implementation, with a total budget of more than 2.6 billion VND, of which more than 914 million VND was contributed by the people.  The project supports more than 1.7 billion VND. More than 1,870m of concrete roads of all kinds have been built, 2,000m of dirt roads have been opened to the production area, more than 1,000m of concrete irrigation canals have been constructed for irrigation, small bridge to cross stream, and community playground has also been built... serving the interests of the community.

When implementing sub-projects, especially erosion proofing embankments, water canals, etc. have obvious effectiveness. During the recent rainstorms, the Na Lien embankment in Ban Dan village, Don Phong commune was stable against floods, protecting the entire rice area of the people here. This is one of the practical effects that the project brings to the people. Ms. Trieu Thuy Van, Head of Ban Dan village, Don Phong commune, said: "It must be said that the Banh Mi project has helped the people of my village as well as other villages in the commune many practical projects. For example, works such as canals and embankments. Previously, we were worried every year because when the rainy season comes, the fields are swept away by floodwaters, and the trees and crops of the people are damaged. The livelihood project has been helping us feel more secure." The innovation of this year's project is the establishment of farmers’ interest groups, FIGs, there have been 22 meetings to establish 22 FIGs in 22 villages, of which 141 are women. FIGs have implemented green agriculture projects such as planting cucumbers in My Thanh commune, planting peanuts, clean vegetables in Nguyen Phuc, planting sticky rice and producing Cốm, tea, melons, growing medicinal herbs, etc. At the same time, it also organized training courses and experience exchanges to support people to change their agricultural production habits from using chemical fertilizers to organic fertilizers, green agriculture, etc.

The results achieved after more than 1 year of implementation are the prerequisites for the project to implement the next steps. According to the plan, from September 2024 to March 2025, the project Improving livelihoods for poor communities will continue to be implemented, thus contributing to local socio-economic development./.

---