Building a cosy home for border zone people to have their livelihood stabilized

Mr. Doan Van Ho is directly building the houses for people in the border areas. (Photo: Nguyen Thanh)

Living a Good life, Pursueing a Beautiful Religious Faith

Mr. Doan Van Ho was born and raised in a family with a revolutionary tradition; his parents participated in the national salvation war against the US. In 1978, he was recruited in the army and performed international duties in the Cambodian battlefield. In 1981, he was assigned to the Engineering Sapper Company to salvage the ammunition in An Giang Province. In November 1984, he was discharged from the army and returned to work in the locality.

During his years in the military service, Mr. Bay Ho pondered with a lot of thinking given the time when he had witnessed the difficult circumstances of people living along the border areas, including the people in his hometown Vinh Xuong commune. This is the reason why he was determined to participate in the Hoa Hao Buddhist Administrative Board in Vinh Xuong Commune.

From 2009 up to now, having been elected by the religion believers to hold the position of Head of Hoa Hao Buddhist Administrative Board in Vinh Xuong commune for two consecutive terms, Mr. Doan Van Ho has tried his best in his monastic services, to live a good life, pursue a beautiful religious faith, and take care of poor disadvantaged households.

He said: "I always remember by heart Uncle Ho's teachings, “Let’s do whatever is good for the people. Let’s avoid doing whatever is harmful to the people.” Thus, I try to help everyone and participate in social works for the community. I have the mindset of how everyone can have a stable place to feed oneself and a place to live, and have an equally beautiful life. The happiness of my country folks is also the pleasure and happiness for me".

Bearing that perception in mind, he has been trying his best to work day and night together with the Hoa Hao Buddhist Administration Board of Vinh Xuong Commune to mobilize funds from friends, patrons, philanthropists and sponsors inside and outside the province to contribute in kind for improvement of the facilities, in cash for social work and charity.

We shall do whatever brings benefits to the people with all of our efforts

Vinh Xuong Commune, Tan Chau Town is one of the most stringent localities of An Giang province. Many households still have to live in shortage of living conditions with temporary housing. Over the past 20 years, Mr. Bay Ho cannot remember how many houses he has built for the poor households in this border area. Taking into account the number of new houses during the past 3 years, about 200 houses have been built.

Building houses for people in difficult circumstances is only one of the charitable works that he has done for the people in the border areas of Vinh Xuong commune. All of his endeavours are aimed at helping the people to have a stable living place, a spacious home so that their life is less burdened.

Not only helping people build houses, Mr. Bay Ho also launched the movement "A Handfull of Empathy Rice” On the 15th lunar month of every month, the people in the border area of ​​Vinh Xuong are accustomed to the image of Mr. Bay Ho holding a loudspeaker, walking around the village, calling for contributions with the spirit of "one handful in hunger is worth one packfull in fullness". All the offered contributions are carefully recorded in documentation by members of the Administrative Board, then calculated and supported throughout the day for the poor people.

At present, there are 20 households in the commune who are lonely old people, orphans, disabled people, and poor households. Every month, these households are offered 10 kg of rice and the rice is delivered to door by Mr. Bay. Particularly on the full moon day of lunar January, July, October and the Lunar New Year, Mr. Bay Ho and his members distributed tons of rice to the poor people.

Mr. Bay Ho's benevolence has spread in the community, attracted many people’s support, they are willing to contribute their efforts and money to charity and social work. In response to the emulation "The whole country joins effort in New Rural Development Program", in 2016, he continued to encourage the people and sponsors to contribute to building a concrete bridge on the dike embankment of Vinh Xuong commune at the total cost of VND 828 million.

Mr. Doan Van Ho distributes the offered rice to the poor. (Photo: Nguyen Thanh)

He and his team built the office house for the Hoa Hao Buddhist Administrative Board, and cooperated with the local government to build 199 new houses with the total amount of about VND 7 billion; in addition 2 concrete bridges; 3 bridges were built with a total value of VND 1.5 billion; a fund for 5 rural roads in the commune with a total value of VND 280 million was also raised.

Regarding the solidarity, mutual assistance in the community, over the past years, he has also regularly coordinated with the local authorities, the Vietnam Fatherland Front communal branch to effectively mobilize the annual spring tree planting fund, which reaches the targeted amount; he encouraged the sponsors, businesses inside and outside the province to buy 2 transit vehicles for free delivery of patients with the total amount of over VND 1.3 billion; a monthly fund raising was also initiated among benefactors and businesses to ensure 800-1000 liters of gassoline for the planned free delivery of patiens; timely support is called for families in need. Specifically, the poor households received 1,520 corrugated roofing panels and medical examination and treatment with a total value of VND 501 million.

Following the general policy of the Party and Government, the province, the town and the commune in prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic, he regularly advises his followers not to gather in large crowds of people in public places. He recommends that people should wear masks on the street and wash hands frequently with soap.

In particular, he and the Hoa Hao Buddhist Administrative Board in the commune heartened the devotees to produce over 5,000 cloth masks to distribute free of charge to the poor people; he organized the cooking of 1,000 vegetarian servings for functional co-workers in the quarantine area for overseas Vietnamese people; 150 kg of rice was provided to and 2 new tents were built for the functional co-workers on the frontline of disease and Covid-19 prevention, with the total amount of over VND 30 million.

The total amount of cash and offerings in kind that Mr. Doan Van Ho raised from 2009-2019 is estimated over VND 15.5 billion.

With these meaningful works, he was awarded 2 Certificates of Merit from the Prime Minister (2015 and 2019) and 9 Certificates of Merit from the provincial authority. He was honored to be selected by the province as a typical exemplary person of studying and following Ho Chi Minh's ideology, morality and style, and be praised for many years in the province and town.

Particularly, he was selected by the Provincial Border Guard Command to attend the Preliminary Conference and meet with advanced exemplary person in the implementation of "Border Guard Day of All People " period 2009 - 2019 in Ha Noi. And he was chosen by the Provincial Veterans Association to attend the Nationlal Patriotic Emulation Congress of the Veterans Association in Ha Noi in 2019.

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