Starting Point
Ms. Thai Thi Thanh Nam lives in Kim Giang, Thanh Xuan, Ha Noi. After retiring, she returned to work in the local area. She has been the Head of the Residential Group for over 10 years (she lives in Kim Giang, Thanh Xuan, Ha Noi). She has taken part in many different tasks, but because of her enthusiasm, dedication, responsibility, and scientific approach to work organisation, she has completed them all.
With a simple, sincere, and gentle lifestyle, consistently exemplary in her work, she has contributed to effective mediation, fostering solidarity among residents in the area, and successfully resolving many long-standing complaints, disputes, and petitions. Having been involved in mediation work at the grassroots level for many years, she has accumulated extensive experience in mediation, including land disputes, division of inherited property, marital and family conflicts, and disputes between households during house construction. Among them, there are complicated and long-standing cases that require her to spend a lot of time and effort mobilising and mediating many times before being successful.
She stated that grassroots mediation is a method of resolving disputes between parties in accordance with the law. Therefore, the success or failure of the mediation depends on the subjective will of the disputing parties to find a solution to resolve the dispute. Additionally, based on her experience, to achieve a high rate of successful mediation, the head of the mediation team must be exemplary and possess prestige among the people. Moreover, a mediator must clearly understand that the content of a successful mediation agreement between the disputing parties should not be contrary to the law, must adhere to social ethics, and not infringe on the interests or aim to evade obligations to the state or a third party.
Peace Journey
After many years of working, Ms. Nam has many memories. She still clearly remembers one successful mediation. That was the story of Mr. A's family renting a house to Mr. H to use as a facility for testing bricks. Mrs. B's family filed a lawsuit because the brick testing caused noise that affected her family and the surrounding neighbours.
After reviewing everything, researching, and generating suitable ideas, she continued to invite both parties to a meeting. She suggested that Mr. H's facility must build soundproof walls and refrain from working during lunch breaks to avoid affecting the residential area. However, Mr. H disagreed because building soundproof walls would be costly, while his company's finances were still facing many difficulties. He also stands by his position that he had all the necessary licensing documents and did not violate any regulations.
It took a year of mediation to reach the agreement that Mr. H’s would install the soundproof walls at a reduced cost. She also persuaded Mrs. B to be more understanding. With gentle analysis, both emotionally and logically, "slow and steady wins the race", Ms. B and Mr. H gradually understood the problem and no longer complained, and the two sides met happily.
Success stories
Her enthusiastic work and the efforts of the mediation team resolved conflicts within the residential group, reducing complaints that exceeded acceptable levels and persisted. Since then, the security, order, and social safety conditions in the area have been maintained for a long time, fostering trust and a sense of attachment among the community.