It has been chosen to pilot a comprehensive community development project organised by the Norwegian Red Cross. In our edition of this week's Vietnam in Close-up, let's together take a look of how the project has stuck to its comprehensive target in this area of over 300 ethnic people.
Mý Village is among the lowest income settlements in Quan Hoa District, Thanh Hoa Province. This suspension bridge is the only way to get to this mountainous area.
To Ha Van Sinh, it’s hard to believe that he now can have clean water to use like this. His wife, Kha Thi Linh felt the same thing as all six family members had to use stream water for as long as they could remember. And this was made possible thanks to the comprehensive community development project jointly held by the Norwegian and Vietnamese Red Cross organisations.
Initially there were only five households with clean water reservoirs. But now, after a gravity–fed water system was implemented, total 74 households have water tanks. Eyesores, flu and skin complaints no longer bother the residents here.
Besides improving health, developing economy, the project also focused on children’s education in a bid to alleviate the 10 per cent illiteracy rate in the area. Mý Village with over 90 per cent of ethnic people could easily be the story of millions of mountainous residents in Vietnam, whose socio-economic conditions are still limited. But as the project to develop comprehensively Mý village has been doing well, there is hope for a brighter picture for many poor areas in the country.
