The “Flowering road” and “Wall painting” works made by Women’s Union and Youth Union of Dan Phuong Commune (Dan Phuong District) have contributed to creating a green, clean, beautiful, and impressive space in the area.
The wall paintings have created a new face for the village roads in Dong Khe Village (Dan Phuong).
Flowering road
The colorful flower pots along the road to Dai Phung Village (Dan Phuong Commune, Dan Phuong District), starting from Dong Khe well to the Kindergarten and the building of the Commune People’s Committee to Uncle Ho fish ponds are blooming and eye-catching. This is the “Flowering road” delivered by joint efforts of the Women’s Union and Youth Union of Dan Phuong Commune. Initial results have been obtained as a change has been made in the sense of responsibility of the villagers in general and the Unions’ members in particular in the preservation of environmental sanitation, protection of landscapes, and establishment of a modern lifestyle in order to change the face of rural areas. Ms. Ta Thi Tinh, Chairwoman of Dan Phuong Women’s Union, said: “We have placed 35 flower pots on this road. Seeing that village roads are becoming more and more vibrant, a lot of villagers take the initiative to water the flowers daily or replace dead plants with new ones even without being asked to.”
One of the villagers who actively contribute to the project, Ms. Bui Thi Hanh Nam (Dai Phung Village), says: “Taking care of flowers is not difficult nor does it take much time. Each woman only needs about 30 minutes a day to take care of the flower pots in front of her house while relaxing the mind and moving the body like some kind of exercise. Not only does it help create a beautiful view around your house, it benefits the health as well”. Ms. Nguyen Thi Oanh, another villager, daily waters the flowers and even has her granddaughter participated in the activity on Sundays in hope of making the little girl more understanding of the green plants and how to protect and preserve the environment.
“We have to prune the plants and spray plant protection substances on them once a month because even though this flower blooms all year round and has good vitality, it is susceptible to pests and diseases. From now to September, the Women’s Union of the commune will complete another flowering road”, says Ms. Nguyen Thi Yen, Vice Chairwoman of Dan Phuong Communal Women’s Union.
Impressive wall paintings
Besides planting flowers, the Women’s Union and Youth Union of Dan Phuong also had the old walls in the villages painted to cover the advertising information on them and cleaned up rubbish thrown indiscriminately at the foot of the walls. With the support of local authorities, the Communal Youth Union had a huge painting made along the village road of Dong Khe. “The 300m-long newly-made paintings on the subject of the new rural area movement and environmental protection covers an area of 200m2. We chose to feature on the paintings specific characteristics of the villages, the rice fields, the countryside, and the images of industrialization and modernization in production that link closely with the life of local people”, says Mr. Nguyen Huu Sinh, Secretary of Dan Phuong Communal Youth Union, with cheerfulness.
To make such a large wall painting, the Communal Youth Union and village leaders had previously held village meetings to present the idea. Only after receiving the consent of the families did they begin to implement the work. The painting took over 3 weeks to complete with 20 Youth Union members, drawers, and painters participating in. An interesting fact is that the drawers of the painting are two local industrial design majors of Hanoi Open University who volunteered to do the work. One of the two drawers, Bui Van Anh, said: “I am very happy to be able to contribute my efforts to building my hometown”. Hoang Minh Son, the other drawer, said: “The motivation for us to finish the painting as soon as possible was local people who passed by, enjoyed our work, and gave us encouragement”.
Everyone was excited when the painting was completed. “When the Youth Union propagated about the idea of painting the walls to promote the conservation of environmental landscapes and road sanitation, I agreed immediately. This lane used to be filthy with really old walls. Thanks to the Youth Union, the walls are now so beautiful”, says Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu, a villager.
Walking on the clean and large village road with the Youth Union’s vivid wall paintings on the two sides and the Women’s Union’s “flowering road” nearby, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tu (Dong Khe Village) excitedly says “Everyone was so happy and proud of their villages when the work was completed. We hope the Communal Women’s Union and Youth Union will build more green, clean, and beautiful roads as we will actively support and participate in preserving the roads they build”.
Made with the spirit of “jointly building the homeland”, these unique creations have become the highlight of the environmental protection and new rural area movements in Dan Phuong District. Based on the initial success, district authorities are encouraging to replicate the model to other roads within the area.
Phuong Linh