2023-11-30 23:30:00
Lim Thi Tuong, party organization secretary of Ke Ninh village in central Nghe An province, has helped many HIV/AIDS sufferers fight illness and poverty.
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Ms. Tuong gives advice to an HIV carrier in Ke Ninh village. Photo: CTV/CVN
At the beginning of the 21st century, Ke Ninh village, Quy Châu district, in Nghê An (Central) province, was severely affected by the spread of HIV/AIDS and drug addiction, with about half of the households affected by these scourges.
Since then, fortunately, this village has undergone an extraordinary change. Its landscape is now dotted with forests, sugar cane fields and vegetable gardens. Beyond agriculture, many young villagers choose to work abroad or find employment in companies in the region. Even if the average income remains modest, i.e. 24 million VND (984 USD) per person per year, the improvement in quality of life is substantial.
Today’s success can be attributed to those who help the community, like Lim Thi Tuong, secretary of the Party organization of Ke Ninh. With wholehearted dedication, Ms. Tuong reached out to people affected by HIV/AIDS, helping them regain the confidence to fight the disease and poverty.
Aged 66, slightly thin in stature, but remarkably agile and lively, Ms. Tuong is a reflection of the local population. Flipping through a thick old notebook on the table, she remembers a story from almost 20 years ago, when there was widespread ignorance about HIV/AIDS, accompanied by prejudice and discrimination. At that time, she was a teacher in a primary school in Châu Hanh commune, Quy Châu district. In 2009, she retired.
“I was and elected secretary of the Party organization of Ke Ninh village. Also in 2009, there was a training course on HIV/AIDS prevention, in which I participated voluntarily,” she says.
Ms. Tuong has witnessed many stories of the unhappy lives of HIV/AIDS victims, abandoned by their families and marginalized by their communities.
A critical situation
According to Tuong, in 2008, 2009 and 2010, one person died every two or three days from a drug overdose or HIV/AIDS-related illness. At that time, the whole village was sad and worried.
By participating in the training, Ms. Tuong gained basic knowledge and later deepened her understanding of drug addiction and HIV. As a former teacher, she had the ability to speak in a gentle and caring manner with the people she encountered.
“At that time the lives of most HIV-positive people in my village were very difficult, which made it difficult to approach them and establish relationships. The more difficult it was, the more I had to try,” she says.
Ms Tuong shares that many people were reluctant to go to medical facilities because they feared others would know about their illness. Therefore, when she spoke to possibly infected people, she was very discreet.
She remembers that there was a man, named Ha Van Q., who vehemently denied being infected when he was kicked out of his home and pressured to get medical tests. Thanks to Ms. Tuong, he finally agreed to undergo an examination and receive appropriate treatment.
Ms. Tuong helps HIV-positive people regain confidence in life. This helps reduce the risk of transmission of this virus in the community, create a healthy environment and combat discrimination against people with HIV. In particular, most of them received help to access financing for economic development to improve their standard of living.
Ke Ninh regains his calm
Village de Ke Ninh, district Quy Chau, province Nghe An (Centre). Photo: Collaborator/CVN
Lim Van V., 48, said he got into drugs while working as a lumberjack in 2003. When he learned he had been infected with HIV, he felt devastated. Ms. Tuong encouraged and motivated him to quit drugs and seek treatment. He now has stable health and works to support his family.
For his part, Vi Van T., 41, who unfortunately contracted the AIDS virus more than ten years ago, explains to us that after giving up drugs, he received financial assistance to raise ten cows and cultivate more than ten hectares of sugar cane. He also received a loan of 90 million VND (3,692 USD) to build a new house.
According to Ms. Tuong, many families, some of whose members previously suffered from illnesses or addictions, have now escaped poverty. The village now encourages the younger generation to focus on their studies and seek work opportunities abroad.
The locality has gone from a complicated situation, gang-ridden by drugs and disease, to a more peaceful and prosperous situation. The villagers unite and help each other. The cultural and artistic movement in Ke Ninh is growing strongly, as is the level of education.
Ke Ninh has entered a new chapter, but its people still face many challenges. There are still poor households and infected people.
“Lim Thi Tuong is an enthusiastic and responsible person for his work and his homeland. The development of the village and the commune owes a great contribution to this woman,” says the president of the People’s Committee of Châu Hanh commune, Vi Thê Long.
Huong Linh/CVN
1701396848
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