To value policy families and express gratitude

Affairs relating to war invalids, martyrs and those who rendered services to the nation always receives special attention of all levels and branches in Binh Duong Province. Besides the implementation of new policies for this group, preferential loans, house building, land tax reduction etc. have been done all the time. The cooperation and contribution from businesses and individuals to care for national contributors is increasingly spreading, thereby helping policy families and people’s lives to be stable and higher than the average living standards of local residents.

Building home for national contributors, policy families

With provincial funds, the cooperation of business community, thousands of houses for national contributors, policy families in Binh Duong were constructed. Having a home, the lives of many policy families have changed. It is even more noteworthy when many people without land still have houses and jobs.

Do not have land but still have a home

Although five years have passed, Le Thi Be (78 years old, daughter of martyr) in Dinh Hoa social housing complex (Dinh Hoa ward, Thu Dau Mot city) has not forgotten the day that local administration sent a notice saying she would receive a house. In the past, Be and her family temporarily resided in Phu Tho ward, lived on an acquaintance’s land. Their lives were difficult, her husband worked as a bricklayer, and Be sold lottery tickets to earn money to bring up their children. Unfortunately, her husband was sick and died, and she alone took care of her children. Sometimes she thought that until she died, she still could not obtain a home.

"It was at the end of July 2017. When I received the notice saying I would have a house, and my hands trembled, and I wondered myself whether it was real or not. I couldn't sleep all night, stayed awake, and imagined the new house. As I set foot in the house the first time, I was in tears of happiness. This 30m2 house is not large but quite decent and fully equipped."

In 2017, with the approval of the local government, Becamex IDC Corporation presented 100 social houses to policy families at Dinh Hoa social housing complex. This was a quite special deed that is difficult to do in many other localities in the country. Because the construction of gratitude houses has only applied to households that have land, their local government finances the construction cost of the house. The gratitude extended from Becamex IDC Corporation not only contributes to addressing a common concern of local government about building housing for policy families and national contributors that do not have land, but also brings happiness and stability to many families.

After obtaining a cozy house, Nguyen Van Thanh (martyrs' son) and his wife no longer worry about renting every month. Thanh said that in the past, his family lived in Hiep An ward (Thu Dau Mot City). Every day he went to work as a bricklayer, his wife sold lottery tickets. The couple's dream was to afford a small land plot for the local government to build a gratitude house for them. Life went on not as they desired, they had to spend all their little savings on sickness, hence the dream house was out of reach. But the joy of having a home came.

Nguyen Thi Lam (sixth from right) is delighted when the authorities built and give them a spacious house worth VND150 million.

Thanh said: "We have been cared well by local government, the living environment is also very good. On big holidays or annual War Invalids and Martyrs Day, our family always receive visits and gifts. Families that are poor, lose their labor capacity, cannot earn money, will be supported by the locality, for example, receiving rice, monthly allowance, although these are not much but enough to live on. Having a house like this is my family's greatest wish, there is nothing happier."

Exceeding standards of house building for revolutionary contributors

The construction and repair of houses for policy people is always the concern of the province. Up to now, the whole province has built and repaired over 6,669 houses for this group, with total amount of over VND 149 billion. In particular, from 2017 to 2022, the province built and repaired 693 houses, with a total cost of over VND 37.8 billion. In addition to local funds, the contributions of communes and wards, there were also great supports from businesses.

The cost of building each house in Binh Duong is also higher than in many provinces and cities across the country. Since 2015, the Provincial People's Committee has stipulated a new construction level of VND 80 million per house; VND40 million of repair cost for each house. However, due to the increasing price of essential items for the new construction and repair of houses, from 2021, Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs advised the Provincial People's Committee to raise the standard level of house construction to VND 100 million per house. For houses built on weak grounds, an additional support of VND 20 million / house; support for repair was raised to 50 million VND/ house.

And in fact, there are many gratitude houses built by localities with a cost of 150-200 million VND / house. For example, the house of Nguyen Thi Lam, born in 1952, a war invalids in Tan My commune, North Tan Uyen District, has received a house with construction area of 90m2, with a total cost of VND150 million funded by Department of Labor and Social Affairs in collaboration with the local government of North Tan Uyen District on occasion of the 75th anniversary of War Invalids and Martyrs Day (27 July 1947 - 27 July 2022). In particular, Binh Duong Construction Lottery Company donated VND 100 million, Tan My Commune People's Committee supported construction materials VND50 million.

Nguyen Ngoc Hang, Deputy Director of Department of Labor and Social Affairs, said that there are no policy families and national contributors that have no house. In recent years, most localities have planned to rebuild new houses for policy families when the previously built house is deteriorated.

In general, the work of taking care of people who rendered services to the is directed and carried out by the province synchronously at each commune, ward and town with practical action programs, contributing to fundamentally solving housing difficulties for the group, helping to stabilize and improve material and spiritual lives of policy families.

By Q.Tam – Translated by Ngoc Huynh