In the spring of 1946, President Ho Chi Minh sent some of his staff to visit the Van Kieu and other ethnic groups in the remote mountain areas of Quang Tri province. They were given photos of President Ho Chi Minh and new clothes. The patriarchs of the Van Kieu hamlets gathered at the foot of Coocpangxong mountain for an oath-taking ceremony. They lit a big fire, shared a bowl of wine, and swore to heaven and mountains that they would forever be loyal to the revolution and President Ho Chi Minh. They agreed to take President Ho Chi Minh’s family name as their own.

In peace time, like other ethnic groups, the Van Kieu have worked hard to improve their life and develop the nation. They have changed their traditional nomadic life to growing wet rice and building large-scale animal farms. Ho Thanh Binh, head of Ka Tang hamlet, in Lao Bao township, said. “Together we study President Ho Chi Minh’s moral example in May each year. Revolutionary cadres teach us how to grow rice and trees. President Ho told us that if we don’t’ try to overcome our difficulties, our lives will be poorer and unstable. Following his teaching, we now have concrete houses instead of thatch houses. Meetings to study Uncle Ho’s teaching always attract a large number of villagers.”

Bru-Van Kieu people demonstrate their rice sowing ceremony at the Vietnam Ethnic Tourism and Cultural Village in Hanoi

Van Kieu people in Lao Bao have a strong determination to escape poverty. They share their knowledge and experience in raising animals, growing trees, and doing business. Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, a member of Lao Bao’s Women’s Union, says: “We organize meetings to introduce suitable models for each locality. We have organized activities for women like developing their household economy, reducing poverty sustainably, establishing bank savings, raising children, and taking care of their family. Khe Da hamlet adopted a model for women supporting each other in poverty reduction. Nghia Trung and Tan Kim hamlets have organic vegetable growing models. Women in Ka Tang hamlet have a model for storing surplus rice.”

Several Van Kieu families have become better-off with stable incomes. The family of patriarch Ho Mo in A Doi commune earns approximately 2,500 USD a year from growing coffee trees and raising animals. A couple named Ho Pa Nuc and Ho Thi Hoa in Huong Loc earn a yearly net profit of 1,500 USD from husbandry. The family of Ho Thanh Binh, which earns about 10,000 USD a year, has taken the lead in growing trees and building a farm economy. “If we miscalculate, our work will not be effective. I tell them what they should do. They have shifted from growing rice to bananas to earn about 3,500 USD per ha. They grow cassavas on previously deserted land.”

The lives of the Van Kieu have improved since they learned how to improve the yields of wet rice, vegetables, and trees, and began raising fish and sending their children to school.