The authorities of Tay Tra District, central Quang Ngai Province, are coordinating with a company in building a house for the two former jungle men who are being integrated into civilization after living for 40 years in a remote forest.

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Work on the house was kicked off on Tuesday morning at Tra Nga hamlet, Tra Phong commune, in cooperation between the district People’s Committee and Xuan Thanh Cement Company, as a support for the two men, 82-year-old Ho Van Thanh and his son 41-year-old Ho Van Lang.

The house, which will have three rooms, will cost at least VND130 million (US$6,130), which was funded by the company.  The construction is expected to be completed at the end of this month.

Besides the house, other pledged and realized financial supports have amounted to VND200 million ($9,600).

As previously reported, the two men was taken out of a remote forest in the Apon Mountain on August 7 and local authorities, their family and locals are helping them integrate into the community to start a new life. Authorities have granted ID cards to the two and added their names into the household registration book of Ho Van Tri, Thanh’s youngest son and Lang’s brother. The local government is also considering granting land to the two so that they have space for farming. The district Women’s Union has gifted the ‘jungle men’ with 1,350 Acacia hybrid seedlings to grow. This grows fast and is usually used as material for the wood pulp processing industry. According to the District People’s Committee, Thanh is a native of Tra Linh Hamlet, Tra Lanh Commune, Tra Bong District. During the Vietnam War, Thanh joined an army unit belonging to Military Zone 5.

According to some local elderly people, US troops bombed many areas in Quang Ngai during the war. One night in 1972, Thanh returned to his hometown only to find his mother and two elder children – one six years old, the other four – dead, along with 23 others in a shelter that had been hit by a bomb.

His wife and two younger children had earlier escaped to a forest, so they were not affected by the bombing. Ho Van Tri, Lang’s younger brother, cited elderly locals as saying that his father nearly went mad after losing three close relatives at once, and did not return to his army unit. “One day in 1974, during a fit of madness, my father beat my mother. Villagers brought my mother, along with me, to a clinic for treatment. At the time, my father led my brother (Lang) to the forest, stating their life as jungle men,” Tri said.