Youth on bus journey to promote gender equality

Hanoi (VNA) – Young people joined in a bus journey through various locations in Hanoi to promote gender equality on March 6.

The journey started at Hoan Kiem Lake. Among the attendees was Canadian Ambassador David Devine, UN Women Country Representative in Vietnam Shoko Ishikawa, senior technical advisor at UNDP Vietnam Jean Munro, Vietnam Youth Federation President Nguyen Phi Long, and Director of the Vietnam Volunteer Information Resource Centre Vu Minh Ly.

They talked to young people, including university students, about efforts to enhance gender equality and existing problems in Vietnam such as gender stereotypes and a decrease in female leadership.

UN Women Country Representative Shoko Ishikawa said they hoped that through the journey young people can learn about the importance of their generation in the gender equality movement and women empowerment.

Nguyen Phi Long, who is also a secretary for the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee, said the UN has appreciated Vietnam’s endeavor to realise the Millennium Development Goals, especially in gender equality.

One of the bus’s destinations was the Vietnamese Women’s Museum, where participants met the First Secretary of the Belgian Embassy Frederic Ceuppens and visited an exhibition of caricatures that promote gender equality.

The bus journey was part of the UN Women’s HeForShe and HowAbnormal campaigns to abolish gender stereotypes and violence, and promote equality.

Also on March 6, more than 5,000 people participated in a 3km walk raising funds for low-income women in Ho Chi Minh City.

The walkers were local female entrepreneurs and managers, business employees, members of the Vietnam Women’s Union of HCM City and college students. The event was held on the occasion of International Women’s Day (March 8).-VNA