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| Supporting young lives in the borderlands |
The children of the villages
The former border-commune of Hong Van (now part of A Luoi 1 Commune) looks both new and familiar as acacia hills that once reached only waist height now rise tall and straight, stretching green under a light drizzle. We arrived at Hong Van Border Gate Border Guard Station just as Captain Nguyen Van Duc, Deputy Political Officer, and his comrades were preparing to head to Ta Lo A Ho Village, A Luoi 1 Commune, to visit and deliver rice and essential supplies to Mother Kan Veng, an elderly woman living alone, who is supported by the unit through the “Compassion Rice Jar” program.
Nestled deep in the mountains, the village is reached by winding paths that trace the hillsides. With most residents away working in the fields, only elderly men and women remain, sitting by the porches of stilt houses, leisurely peeling cassavas, which are fragrant with the scent of earth. The colors of traditional Zeng fabric worn by the Pa Co and Ta Oi people, together with their laughter and conversation, fill the village with the vibrant hues of spring.
Mother Kan Veng’s stilt house by the stream was lively with the footsteps of villagers and border guards climbing its stairs. Holding the soldiers’ hands tightly, she said simply: “The border guards are my children, the children of the village. With you here, I feel at ease, and so does the village”. Villagers spoke emotionally of the soldiers’ compassion and care, of rice grains carried through raging floods, keeping the hearth fires in the village burning warmly and steadily.
The stream running through Ta Lo A Ho is usually gentle and murmuring, lending the village a picture-perfect beauty. But during the heavy floods in late October and early November, the water rose and surged violently, isolating nearly 30 households on the opposite bank.
“After 3 days, food supplies in villagers’ kitchens were running low. I called the Border Guard force. Despite the driving rain and strong winds, they still found ways to ferry rice, milk, instant noodles, and bottled drinking water across the stream,” Ms. Le Thi Kan Trien, Head of the Fatherland Front Working Committee of Ta Lo A Ho Village, recalled with emotion.
Lieutenant Colonel Le Van Tuan, Political Officer, and Lieutenant Colonel Ho Van Ha, Commander of the Hong Van Border Gate Border Guard Station, said that after receiving the information that households across the stream had been cut off and run out of food, the unit’s officers and soldiers advanced their own rice and essential supplies, strung ropes across the stream, and delivered them to the villagers.
In response to the severe impact of the floods, Hong Van Border Gate Border Guard Station mobilized support and connected with benefactors from both within and outside the city. Over 700 gift packages, comprising rice, daily necessities, medicines, and warm blankets, worth over 350 million VND, were presented to residents of A Luoi 1 Commune as well as border protection forces and people in Co Tai Village, Laos.
Stories, smiles, and the bond between soldiers and villagers lingered warmly by the crackling hearth fire. The rain had stopped unnoticed; beyond the stilt house window, white clouds drifted lightly along the mountainside. Looking toward Ca Cu 2 Village, lush acacia hills basked in the sunlight, their leaves swaying gently in the breeze.
“At the beginning of 2024, Hong Van Border Gate Border Guard Station presented the village with 30,000 acacia seedlings. We focused on supporting 3 disadvantaged households so that they could develop their livelihoods. Border guards went up the hills to plant the trees alongside the villagers’. Each acacia tree now, growing tall and full of life, carries the soldiers’ sense of responsibility, dedication, and compassion. It reminds villagers to stay diligent and strive to rise,” shared Ms. Ho Thi Lien, Head of the Fatherland Front Working Committee of Ca Cu 2 Village.
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| Warm Bonds Between Border Guards and Border Communities |
Radiant Spring
As we headed up the mountains to the border villages, Colonel Dang Ngoc Hieu, Secretary of the Party Committee and Political Commissar of Hue City Border Guard Command, shared that in addition to efforts to help ‘nature’ sprout and flourish, filling the nation’s borderlands with renewed vitality each spring, the Border Guard force has been “sowing” beautiful springs in people’s hearts, awakening aspirations to rise through love and responsibility.
That commitment has been translated into action through tireless outreach by Hue City Border Guard Command and border guard stations across the country, as well as the mobilization of agencies, organizations, benefactors nationwide, as well as Border Guard stations from both border lines. Tens of billions VND have been raised to help residents build and repair hundreds of homes and support hundreds of livelihood models, enabling local people to confidently pursue sustainable economic development.
Each year, hundreds of “green shoots” in border villages are supported by the Border Guard force to stay in school, accompanying them on their journey of learning so they can shape their own futures and carry forward the cause of building a prosperous, peaceful border homeland.
“The love and pride in the homeland have nurtured an ever-stronger sense of responsibility, enabling each person to further embrace their role as key stakeholders, together with the Border Guard force, in managing and safeguarding border sovereignty and security. The people of A Luoi in general, as well as members of borderline and marker self-management teams in particular, steadfastly patrol every route, protecting the sacred borderlines and markers so that this frontier land remains a solid bulwark for the nation’s entire territory,” affirmed village elder Ho Van Hanh, a respected figure in A Luoi border area who was once honored in Hanoi with a certificate of merit from the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
On the day of our visit, Hong Van Border Gate Border Guard Station was collaborating with youth union members from several units, including many from border and marker self-management teams in the area, to inaugurate the “Border Lights” project along the road to Ca Cu 2 Village, A Luoi 1 Commune. Bathed in light across the peaceful village, one could feel the lively arrival of spring.