The road leading to Muong Nhe hamlet 2 (Photo: Ngoc Anh/VOV5)

Muong Nhe hamlet 2 consists of 20 households of 130 people, most of them ethnic Mong, and most of them migrants.

Households from other communes in Muong Nhe district and from outside the district have been given homes and farmland by the local government and private investors.

Vui Van Nguyen, Chairman of the Muong Nhe district People’s Committee, said, “For nearly a decade the program has been helping to stabilize people’s lives. Each department and sector has been given responsibility for one part of the program. Muong Nhe district has called on investors, mainly joint stock commercial banks, to finance the construction of subsidized houses worth 2,100 USD each.”

As soon as they reached their new home, the people of Muong Nhe hamlet 2 received support from the national program of new-style rural area, the program for fast and sustainable poverty reduction in 61 poor districts, and other poverty reduction programs.

The local government provided seedlings, breeders and technical training for farmers. Social security has been ensured. All the children attend school. The hamlet has clean water and has been connected to the national grid.

The villagers are ready to settle down and build a new life, said Lo Thi Quyet, a Thai ethnic woman who lives in the hamlet.

“I’m a native. Thanks to the state’s financial support, I’ve got a new house. All my family members now have secure work. Completed in April this year, our new house is clean and spacious,” said Quyet.

Policemen congratulate Lo Thi Quyet for her new house (Photo: Ngoc Anh/VOV5)

Muong Nhe 2 villagers used to live a nomadic life in illegal areas and lacked farmland. They dependended on deforestation and slash-and-burn cultivation, so their soil quickly became depleted and unproductive.

Now they have turned a new page. Spacious, new houses have been built. Rice fields, vegetable gardens, and orchards have sprung up. The voices of children studying, loudspeakers, and televisions can be heard.

New houses in Muong Nhe hamlet 2  (Photo: Ngoc Anh/VOV5)

The penniless Mong family of Sùng A Chai, from Mai Son district in Son La province, has become a role model in Muong Nhe hamlet 2.

Sung A Chai said, “As soon as I learned about the project to plant rubber trees, I decided to move from Son La. Growing rubber trees is more profitable than farming. When we first moved to Muong Nhe, we had to live in a tent in the rubber forest.”

Chai added, “Thanks to project 79, a new hamlet, Muong Nhe hamlet 2, was established with semi-detached houses in 2013. There are 9 people in my family. Three work for a rubber company, my daughter-in-law is a teacher, and two attend universities in Hanoi and Son La province. We earn about 430 USD a month.”