Two movements, one "for the people" goal in the Lai Chau border area - Part 1: Efforts to help people eliminate dilapidated houses

In the particularly difficult border communes of Lai Chau province, building houses helps people encounter many difficulties due to rugged terrain, harsh weather, scarce and expensive materials... However, nearly 600 solid and sturdy houses, meeting the "3 hard" criteria (hard walls, hard roofs, hard floors) have been urgently built and handed over by the Lai Chau Provincial Border Guard, bringing a new look and vitality to the remote border area.

Shining the qualities of Uncle Ho's soldiers in difficult times

This year, the weather in Lai Chau and the entire Northwest region has been erratic, with sporadic rains since the beginning of the year and throughout the region since the beginning of April. The sky is overcast, with sudden showers, sometimes lasting for hours, accompanied by landslides. Inter-village roads in many places are almost paralyzed, especially steep, slippery dirt roads that require great effort to climb. Yet for many months, officers and soldiers of the Lai Chau Provincial Border Guard have carried cement, steel, and construction materials countless times, struggling to overcome the slopes to build new houses for the people.

Officers and soldiers of Lai Chau Provincial Border Guard help people demolish temporary and dilapidated houses to build new ones.

Harsh weather and rugged terrain pose a high risk of safety. Some house construction sites are located in the middle of ravines or along streams, requiring hours of walking to reach the site. The Border Guards divide the construction materials into small sacks, carry them on their backs to climb slippery slopes, or tie ropes to pull them over rocky slopes to the construction site. During prolonged heavy rains, landslides, and rising stream water completely cut off the inter-village road, the Border Guards have to mobilize mobile vehicles, combined with walking for kilometers to reach the house construction area...

Joining the Lai Chau Provincial Border Guard Commander to inspect the construction quality and present essential household items to the people when they move to their new homes in Si Lo Lau Commune, we can somewhat feel the hardships and difficulties that the officers and soldiers of Lai Chau Provincial Border Guard have gone through. To reach the commune's Group 2 village, we had to overcome steep slopes with inclines of more than 40 degrees. Many of the people's houses are isolated and precariously perched on mountain peaks...

Most houses are on hills and mountains, so transporting building materials is quite difficult.

Major Nguyen Duy Khanh, Deputy Political Commissar of Vang Ma Chai Border Post, said: When it rains, the road is muddy and slippery, motorbikes have to chain their wheels to climb the slope. When building houses for the people, each motorbike trip can only carry 1 bag of cement or a few steel bars, formwork panels or 20-30 bricks, taking an hour to get there. With each house requiring dozens of tons of materials, the Station's task force to demolish temporary and dilapidated houses must spend a whole week just to transport the materials.

Since the beginning of the year, the price of construction materials has skyrocketed, causing construction costs in mountainous border communes to increase, almost double that of lowland provinces due to the additional transportation costs. The support level of 60 million VND/house for new construction is barely enough to buy materials.

Officers and soldiers of Ma Lu Thang Border Guard Station (Lai Chau) help people pour concrete for house foundations.

“In that situation, the officers and soldiers of Lai Chau Border Guard became real workers. They started mixing mortar, pouring concrete, building walls, welding iron, shooting corrugated iron roofing sheets... working without any salary, working with responsibility and heart for the people. The soldiers set up temporary tents, and when the rain stopped, they started working. Many working groups stayed in the villages for a whole month to complete houses for the people before the flood season. In places where there was no electricity, the soldiers had to bring generators and rechargeable light bulbs to both build houses and ensure daily life,” shared Colonel Nguyen Van Hung, Deputy Political Commissar of the Military Command and Political Commissar of Lai Chau Border Guard Command.

Build houses for people as if building for yourself

  Overcoming many difficulties and hardships due to the rugged terrain and harsh weather, the Border Guard made great efforts to race against time, ensuring quality while trying to complete ahead of schedule so that people could live in solid houses before the storm season. Not only the leaders and commanders of the provincial Border Guard and the stations, but all officers and soldiers clearly identified the viewpoint: Building houses for people must be like building for ourselves, with the highest sense of responsibility and the best quality.

Lieutenant Colonel Le Van Quang, Chief of Dao San Border Guard Station (right) stands and helps people build houses.

Lieutenant Colonel Truong Minh Duc, Deputy Commander of the Military Command and Commander of the Lai Chau Provincial Border Guard Command, shared: “We have identified the program of eliminating temporary and dilapidated houses as an opportunity for the Border Guard to be closer to the people, thereby promoting the role of the Border Guard as a bridge between the Party's will and the people's hearts. The Lai Chau Provincial Border Guard Command has issued many directives and assigned specialized officers to stay close to the grassroots. Border guards have established working groups to help people build houses, and arranged for personnel to take turns directly working with the people to transport materials and perform construction... During the process of the Border Guard "sticking together 3 times, working together 4 times" to help people build houses, they will talk to and propagate to the people the policies and guidelines of the Party and the State so that the people will have more confidence in the Party, the solidarity between the army and the people will be more closely connected, and the people will be willing to help the Border Guard protect the border."

Border guards build houses to help people.

The Lai Chau Provincial Border Guard not only contributed labor and effort to build houses, but each officer and professional soldier also contributed at least 1 day's basic salary, and each soldier contributed 20,000 VND to have more resources to support the people; help people build additional works such as kitchens, toilets, yards, install electrical systems... and give people household items. For example, Mu Ca Border Guard Station was assigned to help 30 families in Mu Ca commune to remove temporary and dilapidated houses. Officers and soldiers directly transported materials, mixed mortar, worked as masons and built some auxiliary works, and voluntarily contributed 24 million VND to buy essential items for disadvantaged households. Previously, in the program "Spring Border Guard Warms the Hearts of the Villagers" in 2025, the Border Guard Command supported 400 million VND for the Lai Chau Provincial Border Guard to build new houses for 10 households in especially difficult circumstances.

Not only helping build houses, Lai Chau Provincial Border Guard also gave families meaningful and practical gifts.

The determination to eliminate temporary and dilapidated houses is the correct policy of the Party and State, and at the same time, it is an order from the hearts of officers and soldiers of the Army. In the coming time, along with continuing to support households in difficult circumstances, the leaders of Lai Chau Provincial Border Guard said that they will promote the integration of helping people build houses with the task of disseminating the law, maintaining security and order, participating in socio -economic development, creating a solid foundation for people to gradually rise out of poverty, contributing to consolidating the solid national border defense posture. In particular, Lai Chau Provincial Border Guard has promoted the implementation of the "Digital Literacy Movement", helping people in border areas "eliminate digital illiteracy", participate in digital transformation with creative, practical and effective ways. This content will be reflected in the following articles.

Article and photos: GROUP OF REPORTERS, CONTRIBUTORS OF NATIONAL DEFENSE - SECURITY