The Khmer ethnic people in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang welcomed in their New Years festival, Chol Thnam Thmay, with extra joy as they have had a bumper winter-spring crop as well as the Party and State paying them more attention in their recent social welfare policies.
According to Lam Ren, Head of the provincial Department for Ethnic Minority Affairs, during this New Years festival, which falls on April 14-16, the province has put together 11 deputations to visit and present gifts to 92 Khmer pagodas.
Ren said that his department held a meeting for cadres and families that had tendered their services during the war and visited Khmer veterans, heroic mothers and local academics.
Several districts in the province have organised a range of activities, including free art performances for Khmer people in remote areas, he added.
Over the past few years, with the Party and State’s policies, more than 400,000 Khmer people in Soc Trang province have received special attention and incentives and nearly 1 trillion VND has been invested in upgrading the rural infrastructure, including schools, medical stations, roads, bridges and providing electricity supplies for the local ethnic people.
Tens of thousands of Khmer households have benefited from the government’s strategy, such as Programme 135, which is aimed at reducing poverty in extremely disadvantaged communes around the country, and Programme 134, which provides housing and land for ethnic people.
Over the past three years, Soc Trang province has built over 30,000 houses for poor Khmer households. In 2009, the province saw over 11,000 families escape from poverty, including 5,000 Khmer households. More than 6,600 poor Khmer households were granted houses and over 2,500 others received other housing and land.
Thanks to the government’s programmes and policies, the poverty rate in Soc Trang province dropped from 40 percent to 22 percent in 2009 and is expected to fall to under 18 percent in 2010.
The number of poor households in the province dropped to 11.8 percent in 2009 and the estimate for this year is a further drop to 9 percent.
To join in with the celebrations for the Chol Thnam Thmay Festival, the Deputy Head of the Southwestern Region Steering Committee, Son Song Son visited the Association for the Solidarity of Patriotic Bronzes in Vinh Long province as well as several pagodas on April 12.
Son confirmed that the Party and State will continue to speed up the implementation of programmes that support Khmer ethnic people such as providing capital for changing the structure of the local economy, building houses, training rural workers and upgrading and developing traditional craft villages.
Vinh Long province is home to over 4,800 Khmer households, with more than 24,000 people living in 11 communes in four districts, namely Binh Minh, Tam Binh, Vung Liem and Tra On.
The rate of poor Khmer households has fallen from 51 percent in 2000 to 38 percent of the total number of poor households in the province.
On the same day, the Mekong Delta provinces of Hau Giang and Kien Giang held New Year meetings for local Khmer bronzes and people./.
According to Lam Ren, Head of the provincial Department for Ethnic Minority Affairs, during this New Years festival, which falls on April 14-16, the province has put together 11 deputations to visit and present gifts to 92 Khmer pagodas.
Ren said that his department held a meeting for cadres and families that had tendered their services during the war and visited Khmer veterans, heroic mothers and local academics.
Several districts in the province have organised a range of activities, including free art performances for Khmer people in remote areas, he added.
Over the past few years, with the Party and State’s policies, more than 400,000 Khmer people in Soc Trang province have received special attention and incentives and nearly 1 trillion VND has been invested in upgrading the rural infrastructure, including schools, medical stations, roads, bridges and providing electricity supplies for the local ethnic people.
Tens of thousands of Khmer households have benefited from the government’s strategy, such as Programme 135, which is aimed at reducing poverty in extremely disadvantaged communes around the country, and Programme 134, which provides housing and land for ethnic people.
Over the past three years, Soc Trang province has built over 30,000 houses for poor Khmer households. In 2009, the province saw over 11,000 families escape from poverty, including 5,000 Khmer households. More than 6,600 poor Khmer households were granted houses and over 2,500 others received other housing and land.
Thanks to the government’s programmes and policies, the poverty rate in Soc Trang province dropped from 40 percent to 22 percent in 2009 and is expected to fall to under 18 percent in 2010.
The number of poor households in the province dropped to 11.8 percent in 2009 and the estimate for this year is a further drop to 9 percent.
To join in with the celebrations for the Chol Thnam Thmay Festival, the Deputy Head of the Southwestern Region Steering Committee, Son Song Son visited the Association for the Solidarity of Patriotic Bronzes in Vinh Long province as well as several pagodas on April 12.
Son confirmed that the Party and State will continue to speed up the implementation of programmes that support Khmer ethnic people such as providing capital for changing the structure of the local economy, building houses, training rural workers and upgrading and developing traditional craft villages.
Vinh Long province is home to over 4,800 Khmer households, with more than 24,000 people living in 11 communes in four districts, namely Binh Minh, Tam Binh, Vung Liem and Tra On.
The rate of poor Khmer households has fallen from 51 percent in 2000 to 38 percent of the total number of poor households in the province.
On the same day, the Mekong Delta provinces of Hau Giang and Kien Giang held New Year meetings for local Khmer bronzes and people./.
