Dak Lak (VNA) – Catholic people in the Central Highlands of Dak Lak have warmlyresponded to the movement “all people unite to build new-style rural areas, civilized urban areas and to be goodin both life and religion” by working hard in production and business, thus contributingto the development of their home villages.    

*The model of TanHoa parish

Tan Hoa parish inEa Tieu commune (Cu Kuin district) has set a bright example in the new-stylerural area building movement in Dak Lak, with local Catholics donating theirown land to build roads and money to pave all roads in the parish. Theircontribution has given a facelift to the entire local landscape.

The parish provesitself to be a leader in following the teaching of Pope Francis that VietnameseCatholics should be good citizens and patriots, and should accompany the nationin building a prosperous and happy country.

Chairman of theparish’s council Nguyen Quang Huy said the parish has more than 1,000 householdswith over 5,650 Catholic followers. During the past years, local residents havealways united and participated in the movement “all people unite to build new-style rural areas, civilized urban areas and to be goodin both life and religion.”

According to Huy,local parishioners donated land and more than 7 billion VND (about 302,000 USD)in 2019 to concretise local roads with a total length of over 10km.

“All roads andalleys in the parish have been paved with our own resources, creating a newface for rural areas in the parish and bringing joy to all families,” he said.

The dignitary explainedthat the material and spiritual life of parishioners have been improvedremarkably over the years, which encouraged local residents to contribute moreto joint cause. Besides supporting the building of roads, parishioners alsoactively engaged in charitable activities helping those in disadvantagedcircumstances not only in the parish but also in other localities, and took theinitiative in protecting the local environment.  

Happy with thechanges in the rural landscape, Hoang Vinh Son, a resident in hamlet 1 sharedthat the current clean and beautiful roads in the parish had been made withcontributions of land and labour of local residents.

“We are awarethat good roads will promote economic development and lift the image of thehomeland, so when the parish priest and council made the appeal, we respondedenthusiastically. Some households even contributed tens of millions of dong tothe work, and the completion of the roads before the 2019 Christmas season makeus very happy,” he said.   

*Buildingnew-style rural areas

Standing ViceChairman of the Committee for Catholic Solidarity of Dak Lak province Duong VanTue said the province is home to a large Catholic community with more than223,440 followers. In 2019, local Catholics have made great contributions tothe drive on building new-style rural areas and civilized urban areas. Besides,they have played an active role in charitable activities, he said.  

According to statisticsof the province’s Committee for Catholic Solidarity, Catholics in Dak Lak havedonated more than 6 billion VND to social activities, including building 29houses for the needy valued at more than 900 million VND and contributing nearly3 billion VND to fund study encouragement activities, free classes andscholarships for poor children.

Tue said in thetime ahead, the committee plans to continue promoting patriotic emulationcampaigns among local Catholics, thus joining the nation in the cause of DoiMoi, and at the same time encourage more charitable activities to help peoplein need./.