From a purely agricultural poor commune, people's lives are difficult, Do Thanh (Yen Thanh, Nghe An) has many cars, villas... This place is known as the "billionaire village" of the country. Turmeric.

Go abroad to change your life

About Do Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district, Nghe An, we couldn't help but be surprised by the wide road, the cars appeared more and more, the villas grew close.

The life of this local people is now less dependent on the profession of "selling your face to the land, selling your back to the sky" as before.

Do Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district (Nghe An) seen from above. (Photo: Nguyen Tu).

It is known that in the 1980s and earlier, Do Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district was a poor commune, people's lives mainly depended on rice, life still faced many difficulties.

Unlike other communes in the district, Do Thanh people have a predestined relationship with wood trading and carpentry. With the quickness, the people here know how to turn the rudimentary trees into fine art products.

With beautiful designs, quality products and affordable prices, it has contributed to making the Do Thanh woodwork brand famous near and far and is very popular in domestic and foreign markets. As a result, people's lives are gradually getting better.

The spacious properties are mainly built from the amount of remittances sent back every year (Photo: Nguyen Tu).

But in the 1990s, the timber trade slowed down when the market was saturated, the products produced were sluggish, and the people here were no longer interested in the profession. Some people began to redirect their search for the future by "going abroad" to European countries such as England, Russia, Poland, Germany...

Realizing that labor export can escape hunger and poverty, many households have borrowed and invested for their children to "go abroad".

The person who went first did a good job and then returned to bring his family and relatives over. Just like that, the people of Do Thanh followed each other to "go to the West" to set up a business, have families of 3-4 people and "go abroad".

Mr. Nguyen Trung's family (in Phu Xuan village, Do Thanh commune) used to be a poor household. When the trend of people going abroad to do business became more and more popular, Mr. Trung's family boldly borrowed and invested money for his 3 children to export labor to Western countries.

Spacious houses like this are no longer rare in the village of Do Thanh (Photo: Nguyen Tu).

A stable job in the host country has brought in hundreds of millions of dong a year for the family. With the business money obtained from labor export, in recent years, Mr. Trung's family has been able to buy cars, build 3-4 high-rise houses for their children, family life "changes flesh and blood". ".

Like Mr. Trung's family, Mr. Nguyen Duc Hoe, in Phu Vinh village, Do Thanh commune, has 3 sons, a daughter and a daughter-in-law who are working in Germany. After a hard time making a living in a foreign land, his family has now built a spacious property.

The "dollar village" of Nghe

According to Mr. Luyen Xuan Hue, Chairman of Do Thanh Commune People's Committee, the whole commune currently has nearly 9,000 people of working age, of which 1,500 people go to work abroad in European countries; More than 1,000 people go to work and trade in Laos.

On average, each household has at least one worker going abroad. The commune has more than 4,000 households with nearly 18,000 people, three-quarters of which have high-rise buildings and villas.

Do Thanh commune "changed skin and changed flesh" thanks to labor export (Photo: Nguyen Tu).

It is known that the amount of remittances sent to the whole commune before 2019 is 400 billion VND; Due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2020, the amount of remittances will decrease to only VND 234.4 billion; The first 6 months of 2021 is 289 billion VND.

Compared to previous years, this year the number of remittances sent home is still steady but has decreased.

"Due to many reasons such as the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, the labor contract has not expired, so out of 1,500 workers are working abroad. In 2021, no one has returned to their hometown", Mr. Hue added.

Do Thanh commune has now "changed flesh", villas and high-rise houses have sprung up close to each other. On the village roads, "box cars" appear more and more…

It is a fact that at present, in this commune, mainly the elderly and children stay at home, most of the young people, people of working age go to work far away, go abroad to work.

"Many families with both parents are abroad, the children are sent to grandparents to take care of. Young people in the commune, when they graduate from high school, if they don't pass the university entrance exam, they will go to vocational training and then follow in the footsteps of labor export." Mr. Hue shared.

Currently, in this commune, only the elderly and children remain, and most of them are working far away, going to work abroad (Photo: Nguyen Tu).

Talking to reporters, Vu Van Quyen - Deputy Head of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Division of Yen Thanh district, the whole district has over 176,000 people of working age. In which, more than 15,000 people go to work abroad, the amount of remittances sent back reaches 200 million USD/year.

"The lives of people in Yen Thanh district mainly depend on rice fields, so they face many difficulties. Therefore, labor export is one of the solutions to contribute to economic development, creating a new face for the locality. Over the years, the government has implemented many solutions to encourage people to be bold to develop the economy by going abroad," said Quyen.

(According to Dan Tri)