Thai Nguyen (VNA) – From the poorest community in a rural commune in northernThai Nguyen province, To Village has been given a facelift thanks to theproject namely Saemaul Undong funded by the Republic of Korea since 2014.

The SaemaulUndong, also known as New Community Movement or New Village Movement, is apolitical initiative launched in the RoK in 1970 to modernize the country’srural economy.

The SaemaulGlobal Foundation (SGF) piloted the model in To Village, Phuong Tien commune,Dinh Hoa district, where 90 percent of the population are Tay ethnic minoritypeople, 4 years ago. Since then, the project has helped build ruralinfrastructure, improve living conditions for the villagers and raise theirincome.

The project hassupported the village to build a 700-sqm cultural house to host the locals’social activities, a community library, a small radio station and arecreational area.

It has alsoprovided building materials to concrete more than 2 km of rural roads so thevillagers here would not be worried about travelling on muddy roads duringrainy days.

Furthermore,millions of VND have been provided to the local people to develop newlivelihoods like rabbit farming and clean rice vermicelli production usingmodern equipment. The village now has three rabbit farms of 400 sqm, breeding700 – 800 rabbits each.

The model isvery effective, said Nguyen Van Du, Director of the Saemaul rice vermicellicooperative in the village. He expects the model will be scaled up across thecommune to form a larger supply chain and his products will gain popularity onthe market.

The SGF hasalso assisted local farmers to make use of the hilly lands to grow fruit trees,such as guava, lime, apple and pomelo. Sixteenlocal households have received training in how to raise goats.

The project hascontributed to creating jobs for many villagers and improving their livingstandards, said Bui Van Cuong, head of To Village. Its biggest success is to getthe people inspired by the Saemaul spirit, change their ways of thinking, andmake them stay united to do business and build a new rural community.

In Vietnam, the Saemaul Undong was first piloted in Rung Vanvillage of La Bang commune in Thai Nguyen’s Dai Tu district, by the RoK’sGyeongsangbuk-do province in 2007. It has been implemented in threevillages in Thai Nguyen and others across Bac Ninh, Ninh Thuan, Thua Thien-Hue,and Hau Giang.

Thai Nguyen has piloted the Saemaul model in nine communes with its ownfunding of 2 billion VND per commune per annum. The province aims to have 50villages that meet the Saemaul-based new rural community by 2020. –VNA