Secretary helps people escape poverty
I am what I am today, thanks to Mr. Phuong's great contribution," Mr. Nguyen Van O could not hide his emotion when talking about his family's nearly 2ha wide multi-crop production model.
The person he mentioned is Mr. Phan Thanh Phuong (born in 1979) - Secretary of the Party Cell cum Head of Binh Hoa hamlet.
In 2000, seeing Mr. O diligently working but his family's situation was still difficult due to monoculture of rice, Mr. Phuong mobilized and created conditions for him to access capital from the "Rotation capital contribution" model. With the initial contribution of only 100,000 VND, Mr. O was considered for a loan of 10 million VND to raise snakehead fish. The first crop was a bumper crop, with good prices, he boldly expanded to commercial frog farming.
If you don't know anything, learn, when you are too stuck, ask Mr. Phuong to contact functional departments for further guidance," Mr. O recalled. Thanks to that, he gradually produced seeds himself, improved livestock efficiency, and then switched to a multi-crop model.
Taking advantage of the ditch system to raise frogs in net mosquito nets, releasing fish outside to take advantage of leftover food, he also grows coconuts to treat by-products and grows mangoes above, both increasing the economic efficiency of the upper layer and creating shade for livestock breeding. From this model, his family earns hundreds of millions of dong in profit each year.
With capital, he continued to buy more land to expand production and invest long-term in his children's education. "Thanks to doing business, I send my children to university, now they have graduated and become civil servants," Mr. O shared.
Mr. O is just one of hundreds of households in Binh Hoa hamlet that have risen out of poverty thanks to the revolving capital contribution model initiated by Mr. Phan Thanh Phuong.
In 2009, seeing many families lacking production capital, easily falling into hot loans, I thought about how to make people have small but timely capital sources," Mr. Phuong recounted. From then on, a capital contribution group model was formed, each household contributed 100,000 VND, the Management Board considered lending to difficult households for about 10 million VND/year with preferential interest rates. When the deadline came, the borrowing household paid both principal and interest to recycle to other households.
To date, the total capital of the fund has exceeded 1 billion VND. This model not only helps people have capital to do business, limiting hot loans, but also contributes to consolidating people's trust in cadres and party members at the grassroots level.
From faith to meaningful things
Creating trust in the people, Mr. Phan Thanh Phuong continued to expand social security activities. Over the years, Binh Hoa hamlet has mobilized more than 3 billion VND to give over 9,000 gifts to poor, near-poor households and policy families.
In addition, the locality also built 62 new houses of gratitude, built 2 houses to eliminate temporary and dilapidated houses, helping many families have stable housing and feel secure in working and producing.
Activities such as "Gratitude Rice Jars", mobilizing people to participate in health insurance and social insurance are also being implemented regularly. Thanks to this, people's lives in the hamlet have gradually improved, and the poverty rate has decreased significantly over the years.
Rural embellishment, building a development foundation
Not only taking care of livelihoods and social security, Mr. Phan Thanh Phuong is also a dynamic person in modernizing rural areas.
Promoting his prestige, he mobilized people to voluntarily donate more than 9,000m2 of land to upgrade National Highway 30 and expand village roads such as Kháng Chiến Canal, 2.9 Canal... Through this, the transportation system has been clearly improved, creating favorable conditions for travel and economic development.
Notably, to build 3 roads "lighting up rural roads" about 6km long with a total cost of 210 million VND, Mr. Phuong mobilized people, local authorities, philanthropists and associations to contribute more than 200 working days. Thanks to this, the project both saves costs and promotes community spirit. Also with this approach, nearly 70 houses of gratitude in the area have been renovated and reinforced with low investment (30-40 million VND/house) but ensure long-term durability, helping people have stable homes.
From specific actions, Mr. Phan Thanh Phuong has created a solid foundation to lead Binh Hoa hamlet Party Cell to be ranked as excellently completing tasks for many consecutive years. Binh Hoa hamlet has continuously achieved the title "Cultural Hamlet" for 16 years. In particular, there are no party members violating discipline.
“For the people of Binh Hoa, Mr. Phan Thanh Phuong is not only the Secretary of the Party Cell or the Head of the hamlet, but also the person who is "in charge of village affairs", standing up to solve each difficult task, connecting each resource to support people to overcome difficult times,” Mr. Vo The Anh - Head of the Party Building Committee, Binh Thanh Commune Party Committee, shared.
With those contributions, Mr. Phan Thanh Phuong is 1 of 2 individuals of Dong Thap province who were proposed by the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee to the Central Organization Committee to be commended as the excellent Party Cell Secretary in the entire Party in 2026.
