Raising awareness and changing gender stereotypes.

Việt Nam•17/08/2023

To create conditions for ethnic minority women to enhance their status and promote their roles in the family and society, from the end of 2022 to the present, the Provincial Women's Union has actively disseminated the contents of Project 8 "Implementing gender equality and addressing urgent issues for women and children" (hereinafter referred to as Project 8) aiming to raise awareness, change prejudices, care for the material and spiritual lives, protect and care for women and children, and achieve the goal of gender equality.

Diverse forms of propaganda

Ms. Le Thi Hai Yen, Chairwoman of the Provincial Women's Union, stated: Project 8 is one of 10 component projects under the national target program – socio -economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous areas, giai đoạn 2021 – 2030, phase 1: 2021 - 2025. Recognizing the significance and importance of the project for women and children, and acting as the lead implementing agency, as assigned by the Provincial People's Committee, and closely following the directives and guidelines of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union, and the Resolution of the Provincial People's Council, the Standing Committee of the Provincial Women's Union has actively and proactively developed a management mechanism to ensure uniformity in implementation. Accordingly, the Provincial Women's Union has focused on disseminating information through Zalo groups, fanpages, and the Union's website to update and share information with officials and members. Simultaneously, strengthen training for Women's Union officials at the district and commune levels, as well as village officials in the areas implementing the contents of Project 8, such as communication planning skills and gender equality.

Female officials and members from the communes benefiting from the program participated in the training.

To date, the Association has organized eight training conferences to guide the implementation of Project 8, providing guidance on building "Leaders of Change" clubs, trusted community resources, and community communication teams for district, commune, and village officials implementing the project. Simultaneously, it has surveyed, collected information, and assessed the needs of members, women, ethnic minority communities, and students in five secondary schools regarding knowledge and advocacy work on gender equality, prevention and control of domestic violence; models for economic empowerment and promoting gender equality; ensuring the voice and participation of women and children; gender mainstreaming; and content related to establishing "Leaders of Change" clubs. The Association is also launching a competition for creating communication products titled "Listen to Your Child" and continues to organize training sessions to transfer relevant content to district and commune-level officials.

Towards gender equality in ethnic minority areas.

As one of the communes benefiting from the project, Ms. Nguyen Thi Giang – President of the Women's Union of My Thanh commune (Ham Thuan Nam district) happily stated: The entire commune has 191 members out of 200 women. The majority are of the Rai ethnic group, whose economic lives still depend on slash-and-burn farming, gathering bamboo shoots, and picking mushrooms in the forest, thus facing many difficulties. Consequently, their awareness levels are limited, and they are less proactive in participating in general activities and movements. Therefore, the project's implementation is an opportunity to strongly promote and create a transformation to improve the quality of life and fundamentally address inequality in many areas for women and girls. In addition, the Women's Union officials themselves have also been able to share many good practices in disseminating information, maintaining and developing models, and helping members more effectively…

Change and diversify communication methods to make it easier for members and women to access information and achieve higher effectiveness.

According to the plan, in 2023, the Provincial Women's Union will establish and maintain 20 community communication groups; 5 "Leaders of Change" clubs; 3 trusted community addresses; organize policy dialogues and training courses to improve skills and communication on gender equality... in particularly difficult villages in ethnic minority and mountainous areas in the four districts of Tanh Linh, Ham Thuan Bac, Ham Thuan Nam, and Bac Binh. Along with that, it will develop and improve communication materials; monitor and evaluate to enhance the capacity of ethnic minority women officials and the capacity of village elders and influential people in gender equality, and build a safe living environment for women and children…

Project 8 is the first and most specific gender-related project included in the national target program. In Binh Thuan province, the project is implemented in 20 villages/12 communes across 4 districts: Tanh Linh, Bac Binh, Ham Thuan Bac, and Ham Thuan Nam.

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