Vietnamese women strive to excel at State and house work
Therefore, on the early days of the August Revolution and the anti-French resistance war, to defense national independence and protect the revolutionary government, organisations within the Vietnam Women’s Union mobilised their members nationwide to join the patriotic emulation campaigns, including ‘Fighting hunger, fighting illiteracy, and fighting aggressors’ initiated by President Ho Chi Minh. In addition, following the call by Uncle Ho, women of all strata took part in many other campaigns, such as ‘Women boost production and thrifty practice’, a ‘Gold week’, and ‘Resistance war rice jar’.
Taking part in the campaigns, Vietnamese women and their organisations developed rapidly and made great contributions to all aspects of the resistance war. Woman farmers contributed 1,575 tonnes of rice. Moreover, millions of women in the north and the south joined guerrilla units, following campaigns, ‘Shoulder poles against enemy raids’ and ‘nulgar bamboo kills enemy and over nine million women took park in a front conscripted labourers’ campaign.
During the anti-US resistance war, with the launch of the ‘Three responsibilities’ campaign in the north and the ‘Women’s five goods’ campaign in the south, there were many role models, including Hero Nguyen Thi Dinh and women in Ben Tre province in the concerted uprising movement, and many other including Ut Tich; Mother Suot in Quang Binh, who transported officers and men across the river under bombs and shells of the enemy; Ngo Thi Tuyen in Thanh Hoa province, who carried two ammunition boxes, weighing 98 kilogrammes to the Ma river bank to help artillery unit have ammunition to shoot down US jet bombers. In recognition of her contribution, Mrs Tuyen was presented with the armed forces hero title.
After the ‘Three responsibilities’ campaign, nine units and 42 women were awarded the hero title, and around 2,000 women were honoured by President Ho Chi Minh. In addition, over 5,000 women were patriotic emulation role models, over 3,000 units were socialist labour units, and around four million women were presented with the ‘Three responsibilities’ title. Vietnamese women nationwide were happy when receiving 12 golden words from President Ho Chi Minh, which means "Vietnamese women are brave and responsible in fighting against US aggressors for national salvation".
After the country’s reunification, the Vietnam Women’s Union and the Vietnam Women’s South Liberation Union merged into a single union, which is the Vietnam Women’s Union, beginning to implement the ‘New women join national construction and defence’ campaign. The Union called for its members to actively boost production and practise, thrift bring up healthy children and teach good children, inspiring a new emulation spirit among women nationwide with new contents and activities.
Having followed the renovation process initiated by the Party, the Union has launched patriotic campaigns, including two major campaigns ‘Women help each other develop household economy’ and ‘Women teach good children, contributing to reduction of mal-nourished children and school drops-out.’ The two campaigns have attracted millions of women nationwide, who made a significant contribution to the country’s socio-economic development.
In the period, with a spirit ‘Mutual affection and mutual love", women have helped each other develop household economy by contributing 362.279 billion and 2,869 taels of gold, 393,000 tonnes of rice, and over eight million working days, not to mention a fund of VND 36 billion for mal-nourished children and over VND 2.7 billion for reducing children’s school drops-out.
In five years (1997-2002), women’s unions at all levels mobilised around VND 10,000 billion to loan 11 million members to develop production, thus fighting hunger and poverty. The ‘Women help each other develop household economy’ campaign alone provided over VND 648 billion, 22,095 tael of gold, over 5 million breeding pigs, over 16,000 tonnes of rice and more than 6 million of working days.
It is a great pride for Vietnamese women when Hoang Thi Mai, Mong ethnic woman in Son La province, was the first Asian woman to be awarded by the United Nations for her contributions and achievements in poverty and hunger reduction.
The Hoa Binh Tourism Company, under the Vietnam Women's Union, and its director Nguyen Thi Hoa Le were among hundreds of collectives and individuals awarded the Labour Hero title in the renovation process. This has affirmed the position and contribution of the Union and its members to the poverty reduction and hunger elimination.
Since 2002, the patriotic emulation campaigns launched by the Union have been diversified with hundreds of activities, such as 'Women excel economic development,' 'Women escape poverty,' 'Women excel at State and household work,' and many other.
In addition, the campaigns have combine their activities with the country's important events, so they can gain high effectiveness.
Furthermore, training courses on technology transfer have been organised. As a result, 9 million women have been provided knowledge about how to use capital effectively and hundreds of thousands of women have received vocational training services and jobs.
In particular, women's unions at all levels have mobilised resources from local and international organisations, with a total of VND 35,000 billioni to loan 13 million women to develop their household economy. As a result, 218,000 households have escaped poverty.
To encourage women's further contribution of their talent, the Women's Union has maintained the Kovalevskaya Prize and established the Vietnam Women's Award Fund to honour outstanding women scientists and students.
